During a recent visit to Ramallah, Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel confronted UN officials over the glorification of terrorism contained in school curricula administered by the agency for Paleostinian refugees.
In a video, Bettel is seen holding a textbook and challenging an official: "UNRWA is not neutral on education if they teach this. It’s in the book... If I want to defend you, help me to defend you."
Bettel’s remarks underscored longstanding concerns about the Paleostinian education system, which has been criticized for years for promoting indoctrination, antisemitism, and violence. These criticisms have resurfaced in the wake of the October 7 massacre, along with renewed concerns over the neutrality of the UN Relief and Works Agency, which provides education for nearly 550,000 Paleostinians registered as refugees, including some 300,000 children in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
Analysts and foreign officials assert that the curriculum plays a role in radicalizing Paleostinian youth, with some pointing to the October 7 massacre as a particularly severe example of the effects of such an education.
"When we saw what happened on October 7 and those appalling acts of rape and murder and beheading and abducting of babies and the elderly, we were not surprised," said Marcus Sheff, CEO of the London and Tel-Aviv-based Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, better known as IMPACT-se. "These horrific acts of murder and desecration of bodies require some serious indoctrination."
According to Sheff, the solution, like the problem, must also come via the classroom. Experiences from the Arab world suggest that changes in educational content can make a meaningful impact, he argued, pointing to the reliance on top-down textbook-based teaching found throughout the Mideast.
"Textbooks are uniquely authoritative in this region — critical thinking is not encouraged," Sheff said. "A whole subject is connected to a textbook. The children learn what is in their books, what is on their desks, and that is what teachers teach."
IMPACT-se has monitored school curricula globally since the late 1990s, with a particular focus on anti-Israel content in the Arab world.
The organization’s annual reports have consistently highlighted problematic content within Paleostinian school materials. This includes the systematic erasure of Israel, denial of Jewish ties to the land, and glorification of
Paleostinian schools in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, including ones run by UNRWA, use textbooks and curricula drafted by the Paleostinian Authority.
But despite condemnations by the European Parliament every year for the past five years, and by lawmaking assemblies and governments across the world, the PA has resisted amending its textbooks to address these issues.
In East Jerusalem, where most non-Israeli schools follow the Paleostinian curriculum, the Jerusalem Municipality has for years attempted to censor inflammatory content by covering certain sections of textbooks with blank stickers. However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by...
Sheff noted, the stickers only piqued students’ curiosity. Students reportedly kept two sets of textbooks: a "censored" one for inspections and an "uncensored" one used in class.
The municipality subsequently opted to print its own version of the books with the offending content omitted, requiring they be used in Paleostinian schools in the city in lieu of those provided by the PA.
According to Haaretz, at the start of the current school year police occasionally searched the bags of Paleostinian students, and in some instances confiscated books that were deemed to contain inflammatory material.
The police did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Times of Israel.
The European Parliament has conditioned future funding to the Paleostinian Authority on the removal of antisemitic material in its curriculum. But Sheff expressed concerns the PA could get aid flowing again with only a few cosmetic changes.
"We’re talking about probably close to a thousand changes in this curriculum which really need to be made," he said.
IS CHANGING TEXTBOOKS ENOUGH TO CHANGE A SOCIETY?
Some experts are skeptical that revising textbooks alone can counter deeply ingrained radicalization. Michael Milshtein, head of the Paleostinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, argues that genuine change will require a more comprehensive societal shift.
"In order to promote dramatic change, you need soul searching. You need that the other side, the Paleostinians, will also have the basic desire to change things. I don’t see any of that," Milshtein told The Times of Israel.
Despite over 80 percent of Gaza schools being destroyed or converted into refugee shelters according to UN data, informal schooling is reportedly continuing, largely taking place in tents. There, teachers previously employed by Hamas
..always the voice of sweet reason...
or UNRWA may continue teaching the same messages as before with little oversight, including "the legacy of Hamas and the importance of jihad and martyrdom," Milshtein explained.
"It’s not like Germany after 1945, where the whole society promoted soul-searching," Milshtein said.
"In Gaza at the moment, there is no statehood or organized regime. And society will reject any attempt at deradicalization. Bringing new teachers and changing the textbooks is very important, but it’s not enough," he said.
However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by...
some Arab countries with reform-minded regimes have begun adjusting their curricula to reduce radicalism. The UAE stands out for including Holocaust education in its curriculum since last year, while other Western-aligned Arab countries such as Morocco, Saudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat Frational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...and Egypt have made strides to remove antisemitic content and de-emphasize hateful and
On the other hand, other countries in the region that foster Islamist groups, such as Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
, still lag behind, as highlighted by a recent report by the US State Department based on an IMPACT-se study.
"Countries change their curricula because they understand it’s for the good of their society, because they understand that radicalizing generation after generation is not necessarily good for them," Sheff said.
"All countries can be helped, one can be in dialogue with them. But ultimately, they make their own choices. It’s about their educational systems and their societies in the future."