As Palestinian leaders call for more violence and Palestinians burn American flags alongside effigies of U.S. President Donald Trump on the streets, the prospects for peace appear more distant than ever.
But Palestinian terrorism did not begin with Trump's Dec. 6 declaration recognizing Jerusalem as the official capital of Israel. It has been ongoing since the 1920s and it is fueled by violent indoctrination spread by the Palestinian leadership. It is only via incitement and indoctrination that innocent Palestinian children grow up to become terrorists.
More must be done to prevent the Palestinian children of today from becoming the terrorists of tomorrow.
The only way to stop young, impressionable Palestinian children from supporting terrorism in the future is to ensure that UNRWA schools no longer indoctrinate children into supporting terrorism.
Recently, the Center for Near East Policy Research published a comprehensive study on Palestinian school textbooks. The study argues that indoctrination continues to be a systematic problem in the Palestinian Authority school system.
For example, a 2017 Arabic-language fifth grade textbook and a 2017 social studies textbook for 9th graders both describe female Palestinian terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, who murdered 38 Israeli civilians in the 1978 Coastal Road massacre, as a "martyr" who "commanded the 'Deir Yassin' operation on the Palestinian coast in 1978 in which over 30 soldiers were killed."
A terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community of Psagot is described in a 2017 Arabic-language textbook for 9th graders as a "barbecue party [haflat shiwa] with Molotov cocktails on one of the buses of the Psagot colony [musta'marah, or Jewish settlement]."
Even the math textbooks encourage Palestinian students to support shahids (Islamic martyrs).
In addition, a 2016 textbook for 3rd graders proclaimed: "And I shall remove the usurper from my country and shall exterminate the foreigners' scattered remnants." This was the first time that school books in the Palestinian Authority openly discussed the horrific fate planned for the more than 6 million Jews who live in Israel after Palestine is "liberated."
It is critical to note that the new Palestinian Authority schoolbooks are all taught inside UNRWA schools as it is UNRWA policy to utilize the textbooks of the host country. The biggest donor to UNRWA is the U.S., which contributed $300 million to the international agency this year. This means that U.S. taxpayer money is used to teach Palestinian youngsters to become the terrorists of tomorrow.
While UNRWA offers supplemental materials when problematic segments are flagged in the Palestinian schoolbooks, this claim is questionable given that there are allegations that Hamas operates freely inside UNRWA schools in Gaza and even in the West Bank. According to Lt. Colonel Jonathan D. Halevi, a senior researcher at both the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and the Center for Near East Policy Research, the UNRWA Workers Union and the UNRWA Teachers Association is currently controlled by Hamas.
He claimed that in every Palestinian Authority school, including ones operated by UNRWA in Gaza, Hamas appoints a representative who heads the Islamic Bloc. He noted that their influence is highlighted in their on-campus activities and in the summer camps, where Hamas provided military training to UNRWA children this past summer.
As Yesh Atid MK Aliza Lavie proclaimed in an exclusive interview, "Instead of helping Palestinian children and young people build a better future for themselves and their people, UNRWA is investing billions in perpetuating a hatred for Israel and therefore requires a fundamental reform. Sponsoring countries (mainly the U.S and Europe) are responsible for this reform and specifically for supervising the contents of the studies taught in UNRWA schools."
According to an official statement by a U.S State Department official who wishes to remain anonymous: "We take such reports seriously. We are in regular contact with UNRWA to ensure any allegation of inflammatory, biased or inciting content in education materials is thoroughly investigated and addressed.
"We have supported ongoing training for UNRWA staff, including teachers, to help them better understand and implement U.N. values, particularly neutrality in their roles as UNRWA staff members. In our oversight of UNRWA, we have always stressed that curricular materials used in UNRWA classrooms must respect neutrality, avoid anti-Semitism and oppose violence.
"We have done so both in our bilateral dialogue with the agency and in multilateral meetings including those of UNRWA's Advisory Commission, of which we are a member."
While this is a welcome development, no evidence has so far been presented to suggest that the U.S. has in any way insisted that UNRWA teachers who are members of terrorist organizations be removed. Nor has the U.S. insisted that UNRWA stop using schoolbooks that incite to violence.
In fact, on three occasions over the past ten years, U.S. Aid, which provides U.S. funding for Palestinian education, told the Center for Near East Policy Research in memos that, as a matter of policy, it does not review UNRWA/PA schoolbooks.
Israeli investigative journalist David Bedein, who heads the Center for Near East Policy Research, also spoke separately with U.S. Aid, which confirmed the information in the memos.
While a U.S. official who wishes to remain anonymous claimed in an exclusive interview that Population, Refugees and Migration oversees this issue, an official at PRM who also wanted to remain anonymous said that they rely upon the U.S. Agency for International Development, which does not look at the schoolbooks.
It is time for the U.S. to make a change. The future of the peace process depends on it. There has been enough talking. We need action.
