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For years the Palestinian Authority has been criticized by the European Union for continuing to use textbooks full of antisemitic and violent passages, and for years the PA has pledged that it would deal with the problem and remove the offending material. It still hasn’t done so, and now the EU, exasperated with the promises that are never fulfilled, has finally done the only thing that might persuade the PA to revise those textbooks – it has withheld over 200 million euros in aid it had earmarked for the PA. A report on this withholding of EU aid is here: “Palestinian Authority Official Confirms Freeze on Millions in European Aid Over Textbook Concerns,” by Dion J. Pierre, Algemeiner, March 23, 2022:
Palestinian Authority (PA) officials have confirmed that the European Union has delayed hundreds of millions of euros in aid because of concerns over hateful materials in PA textbooks.
PA Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki told the radio station Palestinian Voice on Monday that there has been “no breakthrough” on the restoration of over 200 million euros, which have been frozen since 2021.
What kind of “breakthrough” could there be? The issue is simple: either the PA removes those antisemitic passages from its schoolbooks, or it does not. There can be no “compromise” where some, but not all, of these passages are removed. Nor can the PA again pledge that it is “still working on revising the texts” and “will only need a little more time” and expect any sympathy from the EU, which for years has been demanding those revisions of existing texts or, in the alternative, entirely new texts composed by outsiders, presumably a body of experts chosen by the European Union, not the PA.
A January report by Israeli education watchdog IMPACT-se found that the PA had failed to deliver on promises made to European partners to purge its curriculum of antisemitic and violent themes. In one example of study cards for eleventh graders, IMPACT-se found, Jews are accused of being “in control of global events through financial power” and leveraging “Zionist influence” to trigger wars between major powers.
The study of the “antisemitic and violent themes” in the PA’s textbooks was carried out not by the EU itself, but by a respected NGO, the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, known a IMPACT-se, that translates and studies the content of textbooks from around the world. It describes itself thus:
The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) is an international research and policy organization that monitors and analyzes education around the world. We employ international standards of peace, tolerance and non-violence, as derived from UNESCO declarations and resolutions, to determine compliance and to advocate for change when necessary.
As a global leader in the field of textbook analysis, our international teams translate and analyze full textbooks on all school subjects within national curricula taught in Grades 1–12. By examining entire curricula, IMPACT-se presents a clear picture of how different societies educate their children in relation to religion, cultures, human rights, inclusion and the Other. We are dedicated to fostering peacemaking between peoples and nations by encouraging the acceptance of Others and the rejection of violent conflict.
IMPACT-se delivered a scathing report this February on the continued appearance of antisemitic and violent content in Palestinian textbooks.
The report’s findings troubled Brussels, according to a recent Haaretz report, prompting Oliver Varhelyi, EU Commissioner representative of Hungary and Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, to propose withholding 10 million euros from a Palestinian aid package unless the Palestinian Authority agreed to reform its curriculum to meet the standards of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
This is hardly enough of a threat to get the PA to change its ways. First, withholding only ten million euros, from a promised 250 million euros in aid, is a drop in the bucket. Second, Oliver Varhelyi proposes withholding that sum “unless the Palestinian Authority agreed to reform its curriculum” to meet UNESCO standards. But year after year, the PA promises to reform, and never does. The EU should be insisting that there will be no release of any funds on the basis of a promise, but only after the offending textbooks are either revised or replaced.
Varhelyi’s proposal now awaits a final decision by the European Commission, delaying full disbursement of the 250 million euros the PA was due to receive until a ruling is rendered.
The European Commission should not be inveigled by yet another promise made by the PA, along with impassioned pleas about how much the Palestinian people, and especially their children, need aid that should “not be held up because of a political dispute. We have given our solemn promise to satisfy the EU’s objections. But it takes time to identify, study, and revise the offending texts.”
“There is a problem of conditionality which we are working to address,” the PA’s Al-Maliki said Monday, in remarks translated by IMPACT-se. “We will make it clear to [Commissioner Varhelyi] that we reject the idea of conditionality in return for restoring aid to Palestine and that he must reconsider his position and cancel this conditionality. This is the message he will hear when he visits Palestine.”
You can reject the “idea of conditionality” until the cows come home, Foreign Minister Al-Maliki, but the EU is no longer going to give the PA promises any credence. The “conditionality” that the EU insists upon is simple: “Unless and until the PA has adopted and is already using in its schools either new or thoroughly revised textbooks that have no antisemitism or violence in them, no EU funds – not a single Euro — will be delivered to the PA.” The PA has led us by the nose long enough. Make your choice.
In the dark of the night and behind the scene they receive much, much more! Everything is FAKE including the rage!