U.S. Pays for Palestinian School Books that Glorify Terrorism, Promote Extremism

In a ghastly waste of taxpayer dollars, the U.S. government helps pay for Palestinian school books that glorify terrorism and promote extremism. The Palestinian Authority (PA) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) uses the radical material to educate about 300,000 students in grades 1 through 11 at hundreds of schools in Gaza and the West Bank. The curriculum and inciting materials are largely funded by the U.S., which is by far the UNRWA’s biggest financial supporter.

As the UNRWA’s largest donor in 2017, Uncle Sam doled out a whopping $364 million, more than double the amount of the second-largest contributor, the European Union. The money helps provide millions of Palestinians throughout the Middle East with healthcare, food, schools and other vital services. Earlier this year the Trump administration slashed the funding by more than $300 million until the UNRWA, part of the famously corrupt United Nations, makes critical changes. The head of the UNRWA said in a mainstream news report that the shortfall in U.S. funding means there may not be enough money to re-open schools in August and September for the new academic year. Considering the PA curriculum that’s a good thing and likely part of the change that the Trump administration is seeking.

PA textbooks are radical, glorify martyrdom, demonize Israel, encourage war and teach children that Palestinian statehood can be achieved through violence. An in-depth analysis conducted by a research group that exposes intolerance in school textbooks found that the books “groom young Palestinians to sacrifice themselves to martyrdom,” promote the idea of a mass “return” to Israel, and “feature a radical Islamist, and occasionally, a Salafi worldview.” The probe found that inflammatory language is found in textbooks across the curriculum and that, besides eliminating Israel, the Palestinian curriculum routinely glorifies terrorism. Enraging passages and graphics from dozens of textbooks are included throughout the report. For instance, in a fifth-grade Arabic textbook jihad and martyrdom are celebrated as “the most important meanings of life.” A renowned Palestinian terrorist (Dala Mughrabi) responsible for the 1978 murder of 38 people—including 13 children—near Tel Aviv is described as a hero that students should be proud of.

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