PA government rejects US review of Palestinian schoolbooks, purpose of curriculum is to “strengthen the content of national and historical identity,” not promote terror

      “During its weekly meeting that was held yesterday [Jan. 16, 2018] in Ramallah, led by [PA] Prime Minister Dr. Rami Hamdallah, …the [PA] government expressed its rejection of American Comptroller General [Gene] Louis Dodaro’s statements and the intention of his country to ask the occupation - through [US] Senator James Risch, Chairman of the [US Senate Foreign Relations] Subcommittee on Fighting Terror in the Middle East and Asia (i.e., Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia and Counterterrorism) - to check and examine the State of Palestine’s schoolbooks, on the pretext that they include materials that are ‘antisemitic and incite to terror and violence.’ The government said that the Palestinian curriculum was methodically and objectively designed by national hands and expert Palestinian committees and minds, according to the international laws and conventions regarding education. This is in order to adapt the Palestinian education system to the global level on the one hand, and to strengthen the content of national and historical identity on the other hand, and not to incite terror as the occupation claims.”

At the request of Senator James Risch, Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia and Counterterrorism, US Comptroller General Gene Dodaro launched an American investigation in January 2017 of UNRWA schoolbooks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip looking for terror incitement and Antisemitism. The results of the probe are expected in February or March 2018.