Belgium cuts PA funding based on PMW report
Belgium cuts PA funding based on PMW report
Belgium ends ties with the PA Ministry of Education
because it glorifies terrorists
Belgium suspends all support for building PA schools
until PA stops naming schools after terrorists
By Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
In response to PMW's report that the Palestinian Authority had named two schools after terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, Belgium reacted promptly by severing all financial support to the PA Ministry of Education. PMW exposed that Belgium had forced the PA to rename a school funded by the Belgian government due to it being named after a terrorist, but on the very same day the PA had named two other schools in the same neighborhood after the same terrorist.In response to the PA's mockery of Belgium, the Belgium Ministry of Development Cooperation has cancelled all funding of PA schools until no schools are named after terrorists, not only those funded by Belgium.
The Belgian Ministry of Development Cooperation announced that:
"Belgium regrets the naming of the two other schools, which were not built with Belgian funds. The glorification of terrorism or perpetrators of terrorist acts is not acceptable under any circumstances. Our country has repeatedly conveyed the Belgian position to the Palestinian Ministry of Education.
As long as terrorism is glorified through school names, Belgium cannot continue to cooperate with the Palestinian Ministry of Education and budgets for school building will be suspended."
[Joods Actueel, Sept. 4, 2018]
In September 2017, Palestinian Media Watch published a special report exposing that the PA Ministry of Education systematically name schools after terrorists and has named at least 32 schools after terrorists and 3 after Nazi collaborators. 41 school names glorify "Martyrs" and "Martyrdom".PMW also reported that one of the schools named after Dalal Mughrabi, a terrorist who led the murder of 37 civilians, was built using money from the Belgium government. Initially the school was named "The Beit Awaa School," and subsequently was renamed the "Dalal Mughrabi Elementary School" without the Belgium donors being notified.
The government of Belgium immediately condemned the use of its funding for the purpose of glorifying terrorists, and demanded that the name of the school it had funded be changed.
Almost a year later, in July 2018, PMW found and exposed that despite Belgium's complaints, the school was still named after terrorist Dalal Mughrabi. PMW's report led to further pressure from Belgium, and the PA finally changed the name of the school to "The Belgian School" last month.
However, in a show of contempt for Belgium, the PA simultaneously renamed a nearby school after the same terrorist, giving it the name "The Martyr Dalal Mughrabi Elementary School." In addition, it publicly laid the foundation for another school named "The Second Dalal Mughrabi Republic School."
