• EU Parliament passes amendment confirming thorough review and consequent freeze of funding to Palestinians in its 2024-adopted EU budget report.

• Amendment underlines that budget must “combat hate and fundamentalism”; reaffirms EU Commission’s announcement last week to put entire development portfolio under review.

• Amendment based on IMPACT-se research and briefings to legislators and the Commission in the lead-up to the budget.

• “A generation in Gaza has grown up learning to hate, and to choose violence and martyrdom over life. The result is the unspeakable atrocities committed on October 7,” said IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff, whose group monitors hate in textbooks.

• Tomorrow, US Congress to mark up bipartisan UNRWA bill to end incitement in UNRWA education.

• Several EU countries, including Austria, Germany and Sweden have frozen aid to Palestinians in the past week.

The European Parliament in Strasbourg on overwhelmingly passed an amendment on Wednesday to its 2024 budget report endorsing a thorough review and subsequent freeze on funding to the Palestinians, with textbook violence incitement a significant factor.

The budget report relates to all future aid for Palestinians.

The amendment, adopted by 581 in favour, 43 abstentions and just 13 votes against, is effectively a resolution adopted by the 705-member chamber that adds a special clause to its next year’s budget report.

This clause underlines that the EU budget must “combat hate and fundamentalism,” while reaffirming the EU Commission’s October 11 announcement supported by EU Commission President von der Leyen that the EU’s full development portfolio to the Palestinians will be put under review, worth a total of EUR 691 million.

As a result the EU, which is the largest single donor to the Palestinians, will in the meantime freeze aid.

The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se),  an international research and policy organization that monitors and analyzes education around the world, noted that the perpetrators of the Hamas attack on Israel are graduates of the Gaza education system whose textbooks and other educational materials teach hate, extremism, glorify martyrdom, and encourage extreme violence.

These are drafted and taught in both Gaza-based UNRWA schools and Hamas-run schools in Gaza, by teachers and civil servants whose salaries are paid for by the EU.

“A generation in Gaza has grown up learning to hate, and to choose violence and martyrdom over life. The result is the unspeakable atrocities committed on October 7,” said IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff, whose group monitors hate in textbooks.

“It is more important than ever that not a single cent of international aid, including European Union funds, is used to fuel this deadly process. This measure is an important step in the right direction.”

The European Parliament resolution condemns the “brutal terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas against Israel and its people,” and “calls on the Commission to conduct its announced review thoroughly, including the use of all Union funds in the region.”

Last week, the European Union put all of its development funding to the Palestinian territories under review following Hamas’s attack  against Israel.

Earlier this year, the European Union official who oversees aid to the Palestinian Authority voiced support for conditioning the release of funds on the removal of incitement and antisemitism from P.A. textbooks.