“We’re also determined that UNRWA pursue very necessary reforms in terms of some of the abuses of the system that have taken place in the past, particularly the challenge that we've seen in disseminating in its educational products antisemitic or anti-Israel information, so we're very focused on that,” Blinken said before the Appropriations Committees of the House and Senate regarding the State Department's budget requests for the 2022 fiscal year.
He continued, adding that the State Department would be “looking very, very carefully” at the mechanisms that the refugee organization for Palestinians says it has in place in order to address problematic educational materials, which were discovered by a January 2021 review by Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), a non-profit that monitors the content of school textbooks.
IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff called on the US State Department to make the subject a priority.
“UNRWA had been telling donor countries for years that it combats incitement in the Palestinian textbooks. In fact, we found that, in places, UNRWA’s own content is even worse than that of the Palestinian Authority. It is right and proper that the US State Department is now going to focus on eradicating hate education in UNRWA schools. The era of UNRWA trying to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes while teaching hate every day needs to be well and truly over," he said.
The US State Department reportedly became aware of the UNRWA curriculum in February. The European Parliament also expressed outrage upon being briefed earlier this year of the hate being taught to children. Canada, which pledged $24 million to UNRWA in 2020, and Australia have also announced investigations into the refugee organization. The Biden administration announced on Wednesday it would provide $235 million in US aid to the Palestinians, restarting funding for the UNRWA and restoring other assistance cut off by former President Donald Trump.
Jewish global human rights organization, Simon Wiesenthal Center, praised Biden administration on Thursday, for their association with the financial support of United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s new curriculum that will not encourage incitement.
Secretary of state Antony Blinken, will report to the US congressional committees on whether UNRWA followed the new guidelines and requirements before the release of the funds. This will help to ensure that the new educational materials distributed by UNRWA align with human rights values and do not promote incitement, according to a statement by Rabbi Abraham Cooper, SWC Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action
He further commented that, “Currently Palestinian children are taught to hate their Jewish neighbors and to violently seek Israel’s demise. Within the recent conflict, Hamas continues to use Gazans as human shields and UNRWA facilities to literally cover their terrorist missiles. To avoid even more death and destruction in the future, there must be a fundamental change in the education of Palestinian children.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is a Jewish global human rights organization researching the Holocaust and hate in a historic and contemporary context. The Center confronts anti-Semitism, hate and terrorism, promotes human rights and dignity, stands with Israel, defends the safety of Jews worldwide, and teaches the lessons of the Holocaust for future generations. With a constituency of over 400,000 households in the United States, it is accredited as an NGO at international organizations including the United Nations, UNESCO, OSCE, Organization of American States (OAS), the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO) and the Council of Europe. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the Simon Wiesenthal Center maintains offices in New York, Toronto, Miami, Chicago, Paris, Buenos Aires, and Jerusalem.