Letters to the Editor January 18th 2021: UNRWA and PA fail hatred test

• Published date: 17 January 2021
• Date: 17 January 2021

Regarding "UNRWA's education filled with hate, calls to jihad and violence – report" (January 14), as an agency that has examined all 1,100 schoolbooks used by UNRWA schools in Judea, Samaria, Gaza and Jerusalem since the Palestinian Authority introduced their own curriculum with UNRWA in August, 2000, we would like to confirm the findings concerning the indoctrination to violence that characterize UNRWA texts, all of which emanate from the PA.

Five factors which must be emphasized.

1) We have conducted interviews with four consecutive PA education ministers who report that UNRWA works under a directive that only PA-approved curriculum will be used in UNRWA schools.

2) We have held five consultations with the staff of the UN Secretary General António Guterres concerning UNRWA indiscretions. Gutteres's staff has made it clear that responsibility for allegations of misconduct in UNRWA rests with the 47 donor nations, who collectively donate more than $1 billion to UNRWA each year, with 58% of the UNRWA budget allocated to "education."

3) The United Arab Emirates, which signed an anti-incitement treaty with Israel in September 2020, serves as the new head of the UNRWA Advisory Council of Donor Nations. In that context, there is no reason why not to hold the UAE accountable for the vile antisemitic UNRWA education, as reported in the article.

4) Germany remains the leading contributor of unconditional donations to UNRWA,in the amount of $200 million per year, and needs to be held accountable for such "education." To paraphrase Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center, "Germany should at least not cause any further damage to the Jews."

5) In the interest of transparency, our agency has established a site that features all PA schoolbooks for anyone to peruse.

DAVID BEDEIN

Director, Center for Near East Policy Research

International Court of Slander

Alan Baker forcefully and eloquently shows that the attack on Israel in the media and elsewhere for its non-vaccination of the Palestinian population is simply another expression of vicious anti-Israeli, antisemitic hostility ("Israel, the Palestinians and COVID-19 vaccinations," January 17). Although Israel is not responsible for Palestinian health under the Fourth Geneva Convention or Oslo accords, it does act in many ways to support the population in Gaza and the West Bank.

Unfortunately, Baker's article is yet another futile effort. Even if haters happen to read his defense of Israel, it will have zero influence. It may even intensify their hatred, having laid bare their duplicity. Had Israel decided to vaccinate the entire Arab Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza before a single Jewish Israeli, some of the media would have screamed "Israel to use Arabs as experimental guinea pigs – International Criminal Court to convene and declare crimes against humanity."

We need an International Court of Slander and an army of lawyers in addition to the IDF.

YIGAL HOROWITZ

Beersheba

A very fine mess

Daniel Gross ("'Very fine people on both sides,'" January 16) continues the lie used to tar US President Donald Trump as a racist since Charlottesville. Trump made the headline observation when describing opposing sides on the question of removing statues. What he said next goes intentionally unreported: "I'm not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white...