AusAID and UNRWA

July 5, 2013 by Henry Benjamin
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A Jerusalem-based  research organisation has written to AusAID’s office in Ramallah quoting passages in textbooks used in UNRWA funded Palestinian schools inciting strong anti-Israel sentiment. UNRWA is partially funded by AusAID who receive financial support through Australian taxes….and AusAID says the Australian Government supports “the important work UNRWA does for Palestinians”.

ausaidRead the letter and then AusAID’s respons to J-WireUNRWA

The letter sent to AusAID Ramallah

Jerusalem, JULY 2, 2013

 

To:Mr. Joel Thorpe, Head of Cooperation

Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID)  Ramallah
Trust Building, 48 Othman Ben Affan Street, El-Bireh, Palestinian Territories

Dear Sir,

 

Re: Incitement against Israel and encouragement to take violent means against Israel in the  textbooks of the schools in the refugee camps in Eastern Jerusalem, schools which are supported by “UNRWA”

 

On behalf of my client, “The Center For Near East Policy Research Ltd.”, I hereby wish to inform you as follows:

 

  1. Within its framework, the Center has undertaken, in addition to its other activities, thorough research into the contents of the textbooks of the “Sho’afat” and Calandia” refugee camp schools in Eastern Jerusalem, which were established and are to date still supported, by the  “United Nations Relief and Works Agency” – “UNRWA” (hereby known as: “The Schools“).
  2. As proven clearly in the research undertaken by my client, the textbooks, which are taught in the schools and which were prepared, in fact, by the Palestinian authorities, incite against Israel, undermine its existence, encourage “The Right of Return” of the Palestinians by violent means, among others by “jihad” and blood, a process which is meant to bring about the destruction of the State of Israel (hereby known as: “Hostile Content“).
  3. Moreover, the textbooks used in UNRWA-funded schools never acknowledge any Jewish rights in “Palestine”, nor any Jewish past in the Land of Israel. Israel is almost never shown on any map and no city is ever identified as a Jewish city. Israel is delegitimized, and demonized in these texts and no peaceful solution to the Arab-Israel conflict is ever discussed.

 

  1. Attached please find an article written by Dr. Arnon Groiss on behalf of the Center, which speaks for itself.
  2. The following are a few quotations from the textbooks:
  3. “The number of the Palestinians in the world is close to nine millions… Four and a half millions live in the Diaspora outside of Palestine… Most of them are refugees who wait to return to the motherland after having been expelled from it…”

 

(National Education, Grade 4, Part 1 (2011) p. 43(

 

“The [refugee] camp is not considered an original home for the Palestinian refugee. Rather, it is a temporary place where he has been forced to live. All the Palestinians wait  for the return of every Palestinian to his city or village from which he was made to emigrate.”

 

(Islamic Education, Grade 6, Part 1 (2011) p. 69)

 

“The “Right of Return” is part and parcel of the discussion of the conflict. It appears in poems and stories, such as the one in which a father is showing to his son the ownership deeds of the land they owned in the coastal plain and “the keys of our house which we were forced to leave by the Israeli 1948 occupation”, and the son promises to keep it.

 

Besides, there are language exercises using this theme such as the following one:

“Activity 2: Let us fill in the empty space with the appropriate noun…

The …[refugee]… dreams of returning to his homeland.”

)Our Beautiful Language, Grade 5, Part 1 (2011) p. 91(

 

  1. Especially interesting in this context is the use of poems in order to strengthen among the students the sense that the return is inevitable. The poems add an emotional dimension to the issue and reveal one of its characteristics that is not usually evident in other forms of discussion of the “Right of Return:

 

“We Shall Return

Tomorrow we shall come back and the ages shall listen

To the footfalls during the return

We shall return with the resounding storms

With the sacred lightening and the star

With the winged hopes and the songs

With the soaring vulture and the eagle

Yes! The thousands victims shall return

Victims of oppression shall open every door”

)Our Beautiful Language, Grade 7, Part 1 (2002) p. 3)

“We Shall Return

Return, return, we shall return

Borders shall not exist, nor citade

“We Shall Return

Return, return, we shall return

Borders shall not exist, nor citadels and fortresses

Cry out, O those who have left:

We shall return!

[We] shall return to the homes, to the valleys, to the mountains

Under the flag of glory, Jihad and struggle

With blood, sacrifice [fida’], fraternity and loyalty

 

We shall return

 

We shall return, O hills; [we] shall return, O heights

[We] shall return to childhood; [we] shall return to youth

To Jihad in the hills; [to] harvest in the land

(Our Beautiful Language, Grade 5, Part 1 (2011) p. 50)

 

(Emphasized by the undersigned)

 

  1. The terms Jihad, struggle and blood imply that the implementation of the “Right of Return” does not stand alone but rather comes within the wider context of the liberation struggle against Israel, which necessitates a few references to this latter issue
  2. In the light of the above quotes and as summed up by Dr. Groiss in his article:

“The manifestations of the “Right of Return” in the PA textbooks taught in UNRWA’s schools are not nostalgic literary pieces. Rather, as presented to the Palestinian students and shown here, the “Right of Return” plays a prominent role in the Palestinian political vision of a continued struggle against a delegitimized and demonized Israel until its eventual destruction. The educational services provided by UNRWA to Palestinian students thus help to propagate this non-peaceful line, in absolute contradiction to the Agency’s declared mission”.

 

  1. Therefore and given the fact that your country economically supports UNRWA, we hereby wish to  make the following request of you:

 

10.1.          To demand that the schools immediately erase from the textbooks any content which denies the existence of the State of Israel or undermines it, and/or  encourages, directly or indirectly, “The right of return”, and/or the use of any violence of any kind.

10.2.         To condition the continuation of the economic aid which your government gives to UNRWA on the erasing from the textbooks any  hostile content as described above and to demand that the schools, without derogating from the above, do not and will not transmit to the pupils any hostile material orally or by any other including electronic means

10.3.         If, despite the above, a school, some of the schools or all of them do not act in accordance with the above, your government will immediately stop the economic aid which is given them.

 

10.4.         To demand towards the end of every school year ( around May-June), as a precondition of the continuation of the economic aid which your government gives to the school, a written confirmation from the Ministry of Education of Israel that the textbooks of the following school year follow the criteria as specified above.

10.5.         This letter does not constitute a waiver of any claim and/or exhaust any claim of my client.

 

Sincerely Yours,

 

Chenia Schorr-Stolberg, Adv.

 

AusAID referred J-Wire to a 2011 statement made by an UNRWA spokesperson and told us: ” I am advised you will need to contact UNRWA directly to discuss the material it uses in its education programs.”

The 2011 statement: “Our curriculum and textbooks have been subjected to independent review. UNRWA in the West Bank and Gaza uses the books of the Palestinian Ministry of Education, which makes sense given that we are preparing students for public exams. A US State Department review of the text books used by UNRWA found them to be free of incitement, that the curriculum was “peaceful” and one in which “religious and political tolerance was emphasized”.

 

http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=1088

The spokesperson for AusAID added: “The Australian government supports the important work UNRWA does for Palestinian refugees in urgent humanitarian need in the Middle East region, and will continue its partnership with UNRWA.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

5 Responses to “AusAID and UNRWA”
  1. Otto Waldmann says:

    Paul, my friend and Gil, with whom I agree entirely, but never met, can we look at the following assumption:

    We wiill agree that the palestinians have been conditioned for decades to live under the status of parasites. The very issue we are debating here, of large amounts of money given regularly to all their institutions bears evidence to that. Yet, they are ACTIVE PARASITES. Not a contradiction of terms at all.
    While their entire society survives on incredibly generous handouts from a mirriad of sources, they are not just spending the money, but they are incredibly active in developing a highly complex infrastructure which, quite organically, perpetuates the NEED for the flow of the said funds.
    As every descrptions of their policies and respective activities are perfectly offered by both Paul and Gil, these policies are predicated on the building of perpetual threats, a perfect edifice of blackmail.
    The implict strategies are based on the known notion that, should the funds stop being injected into this pernicious structure, the inevitable reactions of well set up devices terror would be unleashed.
    In the case of Australia, the local arms/branches of the same palestinian proper and inspired potential terror within our peaceful shores , shall be unleashed in torrents of unrest of all kinds. Yes, we are buying our peace of mind and peace of our streets with these funds. Carr’s rhetoric is conducive to this blackmail functioning at the becking – subliminal – call of the well KNOWN mentioned branches.
    At the international scale, precisely the same principle applies. Israel knows it better than any of us. Constant “arrangements” are in place to placate the kind of disturbances the same palestinians are quite capable to cause should these “pacifying” measures ( measuring billions) stop flowing. And, as well perceived by Paul and Gil, the same funds GUARANTEE the very perpetuity of the THREATS we would rather see dissapear. So, as my good friend Paul would say, the deceitful culture of mohamedanism is working splendidly and we, among so many other suckers, are funding it .
    I am really trying to figure out a rational/practical way to stop this rot, but rational does not help me and irrational would play right into the hands of the mob I hope to see changed into the morality I know. Meanwhile I can only sit and watch imorality unfolding and write occasionally on such decent sites as Henry’s.

    • Gil Solomon says:

      Hi Otto,

      Thanks for the compliment.

      I disagree with you on the assumption that “Palestinians have been conditioned for decades to live under the status of parasites”.

      On the contrary, through concession after concession, they have been indulged with an elevated status in spite of their lies and propaganda. I would go so far as to say the funding they receive is regarded by them as their minimum due for supposed wrongs they have suffered. The contempt they show to Israel by the indoctrination of their children in hate is evidence that far from being conditioned to a “parasitic status” they regard themselves as warriors in a just and superior cause.

      The argument that unless one keeps indulging them in their incessant demands, terror will be unleashed, is a false proposition. Israel has the means to counter this “terror” once and for all but simply does not have the will to do what is needed.

      As I have said in the past, these people should thank God that they have Jews as the enemy and not a “normal” country. If Israel was a “normal” country like Russia, China, USA or UK facing ongoing terror in all its forms, they could rest assured that parts of the West Bank and Gaza would have been reduced to rubble long ago.

      • Otto Waldmann says:

        Hi Gil

        I appreciate that, in fact, you are supporting my argument that the palestinians have been relying solidly on international hand-outs, from whatever sources, in perpetuating what I called an “active-parasite” existence. Now, being just a bit pedantic, “active-parasite” is a pleonasm. In biology a parasite is a living organism functioning on the “resources” of another. As such, the “parasite” is, in fact, functioning, it is, actually, a distinct entity, with a name, in Latin too, of its own etc. In general vernacular a “parasite” is an “organism” which does nothing. You see now the distinction. Therefore the term “active” qualifies the profile of the said noun, “parasite”.
        Our issue here is not only what the palestinians are and have been up to, but how AusAid and so many other orgs. in the world are financing the pernicious institutions run by the palestinians.
        On this score we complement each other, so, I have no issues with you and, believe it or not ,nor do you with me.

  2. Gil Solomon says:

    I agree with Paul that both organisations treat Jews as fools and with contempt. You are also spot-on in your assessment that who should have been making the complaint long ago should have been the Israeli government and not some research organisation which goes on to pathetically say: “we hereby WISH to make the following REQUEST of you”.

    Is anyone from the Israeli government even remotely paying attention to what is going on?
    Israel for decades has foolishly treated the issue of Hasbara with neglect and when they do in fact react, it is useless and ineffective.

    One way to bring this issue to the attention of Australian government and the world is for Israel to shut down the AusAID offices in Ramallah and unceremoniously deport all staff working at this facility.

    Ideally, the following action should also be taken:
    1. Stop, with immediate effect the UN funding getting through, until there is a clear and distinct cessation of the propaganda and outright lies taught in these schools.
    2. Close down all hostile NGO facilities and deport all staff working there.

    The whole issue is part of a wider problem. These children, including those in the West Bank and Gaza have been fully indoctrinated in hate and the current leadership of the PA know this. They have thus ensured that future generations of Arabs will probably never accept peace with the Jewish state.

    So the lies and propaganda that is the Palestinian narrative will, in all likelihood, continue for all time unless the Israeli government does something about it. Unfortunately I doubt if this will happen as there appears to be no leadership in sight who have the faintest idea of how to address the issue.

  3. Paul Winter says:

    The “Palestinian” textbooks are peaceful because the PA states that they are peaceful and that assurance is backed up by UNWRA, supported by the US State Dept. and AusAid accepts those assuraces unreservedly; the proof of the peacefulness of the textbook is proven by statements affirming their peacefulness. Indeed, it is sheer chutzpah of Jews to claim that the textbooks delegitimise and demonise Israel, basing their claim on nothing other than quotes from the textbooks.

    The response from AusAID and UNWRA treats Jews as it they were stupid. It also treats them with contempt. The problem is that it is only a research organisation that makes a complaint that should have been made by the Israeli government.

    The textbooks reveal mohammedan hotility, the incitement to the violent destruction of a member state of the UN and therefore is in contravention of undertakings made by the PA. It is sheer lunacy for oh-so-diplomatic Jewish leaders in Israel and the Diaspora to remain silent in the face of Arab hate and war-like actions and to tolerate the support for such hostility by nations that insist that Israel allows them to act as peacemakers.

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