Canada Probing UNRWA’s School Materials on Suspicion that They ‘Violate UN Values of Human Rights, Neutrality and Non-Discrimination’

Jerusalem, 2 February, 2021 (TPS) -- The Canadian government has launched an investigation into UNRWA educational materials used in their schools which include incitement to violence and calls to jihad.

Canadian International Development Minister Karina Gould announced the launch of an investigation into United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) which will focus on “educational materials used last year to support Palestinian refugee children during pandemic-related school closures in the West Bank and Gaza, [which] contained references that violated UN values of human rights, tolerance, neutrality and non-discrimination.”

The statement issued by Gould said the investigation will focus on how the materials came to be used in the UNWRA schools and serve “to reinforce UNRWA’s corrective actions, monitoring and oversight in the future.”

Gould said she was “deeply concerned” by UNRWA’s problematic learning materials and that Canada is taking “this situation extremely seriously.”

However, the statement did not say what was problematic with the materials.

The Canadian decision to open the new investigation was based on a study by IMPACT-se, which identified, analyzed, and highlighted the problematic content of the UNRWA-produced educational materials.

The report published last month showed that PA school textbooks have “consistently shown a systematic insertion of violence, martyrdom and jihad across all grades and subjects.”

This material is taught in UNRWA-run schools throughout the PA as well as Jerusalem.

IMPACT-se says that its research shows that UNRWA, as a UN organization, “knowingly produces and teaches material in its Gaza Strip and West Bank schools that are rife with problematic content that contradicts stated UN values.”

“UNRWA’s lack of transparency to address such problematic issues make it impossible to evaluate the effectiveness of any efforts it claims to have made,” IMPACT-se wrote.

Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), which monitors Palestinian incitement and anti-Semitism, welcomed the Canadian investigation into “UNRWA’s most recent breach of its duties,” and recommended that “the scope of the investigation be much broader and focus not only on the UNRWA educational materials used during the pandemic, but also include the school books of the Palestinian Authority used in the very same UNRWA schools throughout the year.”

A 2019 report prepared by PMW demonstrated how UNRWA was “fully aware” that the PA schoolbooks used at the time, and still used in the UNRWA schools today, fundamentally breach UNRWA’s duty of neutrality.

For example, in the report, PMW presented a dialogue between UNRWA and the Palestinian Authority (PA) in which UNRWA pointed out specific examples with which the PA schoolbooks breached the UNRWA’s duty of neutrality. The PA’s response was to cut off relations with UNRWA until UNRWA capitulated to the PA dictates.

PMW’s report further demonstrated how UNRWA’s decision to continue using the PA schoolbooks, even though they knew the schoolbooks violated their duty of neutrality, breached the terms of Canada’s decision of 2017 to renew funding to UNRWA.

PMW noted end result is that while the 2017 Canada-UNRWA funding agreement required UNRWA to meet the standard of maintaining its own neutrality, in practice, since the agreement did not create independent Canadian oversight, but rather left the oversight in the hands of UNRWA, it really was the equivalent of putting the cat to guard the cream.

To remedy the situation, and in addition to the new Canadian investigation, PMW recommended that the Canadian government take several steps, including a demand that UNRWA explains why they concealed and failed to report the content of the PA schoolbooks and the ensuing breach of the framework agreement, and that it undertake an independent study of all the PA schoolbooks and UNRWA materials used in UNRWA schools.

Furthermore, the Canadian government should inform the Palestinian Authority that the use of PA textbooks in UNRWA schools forces UNRWA to breach its duty of neutrality and thereby jeopardizes the aid it receives from Canada.

UNRWA has repeatedly been involved in scandals related to anti-Semitism and support of terorrism.

In May 2019, ten Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon charged that UNRWA’s schools “have been transformed into terror and incitement infrastructures, with textbooks distributed on the ground denying Israel’s existence, and underground tunnels dug by Hamas.”

“UNRWA failed to rehabilitate the Gaza Strip and succeeded only in inciting violence against the State of Israel. UNRWA’s mandate must come to an end,” added Danon.