Will the EU stand steadfast against PA hate and terror promotion or will it capitulate to PA’s perceived entitlement?

While Palestinian Media Watch has been exposing the destructive messages of the Palestinian Authority’s education system and the problematic contents of the PA schoolbooks for over two decades (see here, here and here for just a few examples), for many years the donor countries turned a blind eye, ignoring the warnings. At a joint press conference with PMW to release one of PMW’s reports on PA schoolbooks, then Senator Hilary Clinton commented, that the PA textbooks “do not give Palestinian children an education; they give them an indoctrination…” and “profoundly poisons the minds” of the Palestinian children.

As additional studies repeated and reaffirmed PMW’s conclusions, the European Union, which has been a huge donor to the PA, was the first to take a stand conditioning its aid to the PA on curriculum reform. As a result of the EU decision, according to PA published financial reports, aid from the EU to the PA plummeted from 758,400,000 shekels ($235,447,517/ €217,717,141) in 2020 to just 97,000,000 shekels ($30,113,936/ €27,846,206) in 2021.

In June 2021, an EU commissioned report of the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research found the PA books to have antisemitic content; present Palestinian violence and terror against Israelis as part of a “heroic struggle”; and deny the legitimacy of Israel's existence through maps that erase Israel and label the entire area “Palestine.”

Despite being desperate for foreign aid, and while it knows that the international community has always been willing to donate generously for the education of the Palestinians, the PA is quite adamant about its refusal to implement any reform.

Rather than changing the destructive content of its schoolbooks, the PA expects the EU to capitulate and continue funding the PA schoolbooks.

Ignoring the old adage that “beggars can’t be choosers,” and rejecting the EU demand to implement curricula reform, PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh told EU Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi that:

“We oppose having conditions placed on the European aid and want to preserve true partnership based on respect and cooperation, and not on conditions.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 25, 2022]

PA Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad Al-Malki made similar statements, curiously arguing that it is “unacceptable” for states who donate funds to other states or entities such as the PA, to condition those donations on the recipient performing a certain action:

“Al-Malki emphasized that Palestine completely opposes conditional funding to the public treasury. He emphasized that this is unacceptable for the states receiving aid from the EU, as placing conditions on the funding embarrasses them internationally.”

[Donia Al-Watan, independent Palestinian news agency, March 21, 2022]

Al-Malki made the statement just days before the visit of Várhelyi, after clarifying that the halt in EU aid to the PA was a result of the demand for curriculum reform and that despite discussions between the parties, no breakthrough had been made. Instead of accepting the PA’s responsibility for the situation, Al-Malki accused the EU of “preventing the arrival of the monetary aid”:

“The European Union (EU) is still preventing the arrival of the monetary aid to the State of Palestine’s treasury, and that there is no breakthrough of any sort on the topic. This is because [the EU] adheres to its position to change the [PA] curriculum before renewing the aid, which was halted two years ago.

[Donia Al-Watan, independent Palestinian news agency, March 21, 2022]

The PA Minister of Education Marwan Awratani adopted a common PA practice of rewriting reality, by choosing to ignore the real criticism of the content of the PA schoolbooks and replacing it with baseless claims, such as Israel – “the occupation state” – objecting to the mention of the word “Palestine” or “Jerusalem”:

“[PA] Minister of Education Marwan Awratani emphasized that the occupation state is waging a war against the content in the Palestinian [PA] curriculum, such as mention of the word Palestine or Jerusalem, and that it considers everything expressing our people’s historical narrative as incitement…”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 4, 2021]

Deflecting the EU criticism of the PA curricula, and ignoring the EU commissioned study, Awratani preferred to blame Israel for the PA’s predicament:

“The occupation state appointed an institute to check the Palestinian curriculum. It submits a report to the states supporting Palestine so they will freeze and stop their aid until everything it objects to is erased.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 4, 2021]

Explaining that the PA would not accept conditional support for its curricula and emphasizing that the PA sees as its “right” to teach the true “Palestinian narrative” – i.e. teaching Antisemitism, presenting Palestinian violence and terror against Israelis as part of a “heroic struggle”; and denying the legitimacy of Israel's existence through maps that erase Israel and label the entire area “Palestine” - Awratani added:

“We will not allow our curricula to be dependent on anyone [but us]. It is our right to teach our children the true Palestinian narrative.”

 [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 4, 2021]

The PA Ministry of Education made similar statements in response to the report of the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, published in June 2021. Rejecting the criticism, the ministry said that the PA curricula was a “sovereign issue” with “a close connection to the Palestinian identity and the national narrative.” Identifying the incompatibility of the content of the PA curricula with the EU demands for reform, the ministry added that the solution was not to carry out the required changes, but rather for the PA to move to “self-funding” of its educational system:  

“The [PA] Ministry of Education emphasized that the Palestinian curricula were and will remain a clear sovereign issue, as they have a close connection to the Palestinian identity and the national narrative. The ministry emphasized in a statement that the decision on any element of the curricula will remain an independent national decision, resting on the national principles… in a manner that is consistent with the international conventions and agreements.

It noted that the process of developing the curricula was based on Palestinian professional and monetary resources, as part of an effort to fortify the independence and sovereignty of the curricula in particular, and education in general. It also noted that the [PA] government has approved a program whose goal is to increase the national self-funding for education due to the increase in incitement by the Israeli lobbies, which is one of the expressions of the systematic war against the Palestinian curricula and their main content.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 24, 2021]

The statement of the PA Ministry of Education about the need to move to “self-funding” was not new. Rather it had already been raised when the EU freeze of aid first came into effect:   

“[PA] Minister of Education Marwan Awratani emphasized that the [PA] government and Ministry of Education oppose any conditional funding by any source that targets our Palestinian curricula, which constitute a sovereign matter of the highest order (refers to international demands to remove incitement from PA schoolbooks as a condition of funding -Ed.).

He said that his ministry is working to find ways of national self-funding in order to build the schools.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 15, 2021]

PLO Executive Committee member and Secretary-General of the Palestinian People’s Party Bassam Al-Salehi also made similar comments:  

 “Education is the first thing from our perspective. Education must be free from all foreign aid that imposes conditions on the education. Education needs to be only from the Palestinian [PA] budget, on the basis of the PA’s autonomous will. It is forbidden for any state in the world to come and interfere in our curricula in education. They can’t tell us to change this and not change this; that this is incitement and this is not incitement; that is forbidden for Norway, Denmark, France, or anyone. And when there are conversations with them sometimes, and [we] say to them: ‘Okay, please take a look at the Israelis, at their incitement,’ they tell you: ‘We are not paying Israel in education.’”

[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, Feb. 21, 2021]

On March 31, 2022, following the PA meetings with Várhelyi, the EU Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee adopted a resolution that would continue the freeze of EU aid to the PA:

“Deplores that problematic and hateful material in Palestinian school textbooks has still not been removed and is concerned about the continued failure to act effectively against hate speech and violence in school textbooks and especially in the newly created study cards; reiterates its position that all textbooks and materials supported by EU Funds which are used in schools must be in line with UNESCO standards of peace, tolerance, co-existence and non-violence; moreover, insists that salaries of teachers and education sector civil servants that are financed from Union funds such as PEGASE be used for drafting and teaching curricula which reflect the UNESCO standards of peace, tolerance, coexistence, and non-violence, as was decided upon by Union education ministers in Paris on 17 March 2015; and European Parliament decisions on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial years 2016, 2018 and 2019; requests therefore the Commission to closely scrutinizes that the Palestinian Authority (PA) and relevant experts to modify the curriculum expeditiously.”

[Website of Eureporter, April 1, 2022]

On April 20, the Budgetary Control Committee will conduct another hearing on the subject. In the hearing, Awratani will be expected to explain the findings of the latest report published by the IMPACT-se research organization in which it found the following damning findings regarding the PA Ministry of Education’s Study Cards, 2021–22, for grades 1–11:

• The study cards represent a devolution from the already existing extremism of the Palestinian textbooks; there are additional justifications for violence not found in the textbooks and antisemitic descriptions of Jews as devious, treacherous and hostile (example 1).
• Jewish control of global events through financial power, manipulative behavior and encouragement of others to fight in wars is depicted through several examples, among them, Britain’s need of “Zionist influence” to convince the United States to enter into WW2 and to ensure Britain’s control in the Levant and Iraq in return for issuing the Balfour Declaration (example 3).
• Students are directly incited to violence and instructed to commit jihad against Israelis and die as martyrs liberating the Al-Aqsa Mosque (example 11).
• Israel is demonized—it is literally described as Satanic (example 25) and is accused of forging or destroying Palestinian antiquities to falsify historical facts (example 35).
• One of the “rules of jihad” include those who die as martyrs while killing infidels (i.e., Christians, Jews, polytheists); they will receive God’s grace and be greatly rewarded (example 18).
• Jihad for the liberation of Palestine is a “private obligation for every Muslim” (example 12).
• Students are encouraged to sacrifice themselves for their homeland and “redeem it with blood” (example 22).
• The founder of the violent jihadi movement in Palestine, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam is lionized; the military wing of the Hamas terror organization is named for him (example 15).
• Armed resistance is described as a “natural” right and a “legitimate” way to “resist occupation” (example 14).
• The “Right of Return” into Israel proper will occur though violence, using “all the means of warfare” against Israel and rescuing the land from the “filth of the occupation,” and not through negotiation. The “Return” is envisioned as being “painted with the blood of martyrs” (example 33).
• Antisemitic thinking: denying Jewish people their right to self-determination and the “falsehood” of Jewish nationality are taught to students in several lessons (examples 6– 10). 
• Science instruction is hijacked to radicalize students. For example, potential energy is taught through the use of slingshots and an illustration of a young boy with a slingshot (example 20). 
• The Geneva Convention is taught by showing a graphic image of corpses, while accusing Israel of mass murder (example 26).
• Israel is entirely erased from maps; Israeli cities are mislabeled as Palestinian (examples 50–59).
• Women may gain equality through sacrifice and martyrdom (example 21).

The following are longer excerpts of the items mentioned above:

Headline: “Shtayyeh: We reject the European conditions of aid and want to preserve true partnership”

“[PA] Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh discussed the bilateral cooperation and European Union (EU) projects in the Gaza Strip yesterday, Thursday [March 24, 2022], with EU Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi…

Shtayyeh said: ‘The delay in European aid to the [PA] budget in previous months has negatively impacted the ability to honor the obligations to the sectors that receive social aid, and also the [PA] public employees’ salaries and the activities of the [official] institutions.’

Shtayyeh said: ‘We oppose having conditions placed on the European aid and want to preserve true partnership based on respect and cooperation, and not on conditions.’”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 25, 2022]

Headline: “Al-Malki: The European Union is continuing to prevent the arrival of the monetary aid due to the curriculum”

“[PA] Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad Al-Malki said that the European Union (EU) is still preventing the arrival of the monetary aid to the State of Palestine’s treasury, and that there is no breakthrough of any sort on the topic. This is because [the EU] adheres to its position to change the [PA] curriculum before renewing the aid, which was halted two years ago.

In statements to [the official PA] radio [station] The Voice of Palestine this morning, Monday [March 21, 2022], he added that EU Commissioner for Neighborhood [and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi] will visit Palestine next week, and that they will discuss cancelling the conditioning [of aid] with him.

Al-Malki emphasized that there are serious disagreements between the EU states regarding renewing the monetary aid to Palestine, as nine states voted against renewing the aid and nine supported providing unconditional monetary aid, while nine states abstained from voting – which means a continuation of the crisis. He emphasized that the [PA] leadership is monitoring the topic at the highest levels, and that a letter will be sent to the EU commission from [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas on the topic…

Al-Malki emphasized that Palestine completely opposes conditional funding to the public treasury. He emphasized that this is unacceptable for the states receiving aid from the EU, as placing conditions on the funding embarrasses them internationally.”

[Donia Al-Watan, independent Palestinian news agency, March 21, 2022]

“During a roundtable meeting that was held by Al-Quds University and the [PA] Presidential Office’s Jerusalem Affairs Unit in cooperation with the [Palestine] Broadcasting Corporation (PBC), on the topic of the strategic aspects of [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas’ speech at the UN General Assembly under the title ‘The Israeli incitement and racism against the Palestinians,’ …

 [PA] Minister of Education Marwan Awratani emphasized that the occupation state is waging a war against the content in the Palestinian [PA] curriculum, such as mention of the word Palestine or Jerusalem, and that it considers everything expressing our people’s historical narrative as incitement…

Awratani added: ‘The occupation state appointed an institute to check the Palestinian curriculum. It submits a report to the states supporting Palestine so they will freeze and stop their aid until everything it objects to is erased. But in the latest vote in the European states, [which was held] in the context of this report, Israel did not succeed in achieving what it wanted, and in any case, we will not allow our curricula to be dependent on anyone [but us]. It is our right to teach our children the true Palestinian narrative.’”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 4, 2021]