Findings downplay extent of hate in PA curriculum used by UNRWA, says IMPACT-se 

Last Monday, the United Nations’ internal review group on UNRWA’s neutrality published its findings. The panel acknowledged that material taught in the schools of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees violates neutrality standards, and that the agency faces structural deficiencies in key areas such as oversight.

Yet, according to IMPACT-se, the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, an international research and policy organization that monitors and analyzes education around the world, the panel’s recommendations fail to hold the agency and its staff to account, offering little or no tangible solutions to rectify these grave deficiencies, rendering the report a whitewash.

The panel was established by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, following a flood of information in recent months revealing UNRWA’s complicity in terror. The panel was headed by the UN’s own Undersecretary General and former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna. It also included representatives of the Scandinavian Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Christian Michelsen Institute and Danish Institute for Human Rights.

The review group acknowledged deep concerns that multiple UNRWA employees were Hamas members. However, the panel’s report effectively dismissed the evidence presented and does not hold a single UNRWA teacher or staff member responsible, according to IMPACT-se. ‘’Nor does it suggest any effective remedy to the issue. In effect, the review facilitates the ongoing employment of Hamas members by a UN agency,’’ the institute said.

The panel also acknowledged that Palestinian Authority (PA) textbooks, which UNRWA admits to using in its schools, contain content that “constitute a grave violation of neutrality”. It also confirms that UNRWA does not remove hateful passages from the textbooks.

However, IMPACT-se emphasizes that the report downplays the issue, calling the content in question “marginal.” It cites an unverifiable estimate, relying only on UNRWA’s own data that 3.85% of textbook pages contain elements not aligned with United Nations values or UNESCO standards.

UNRWA’s own 2022 audit of its Palestinian textbook rapid review states a higher figure, that 4.35% of the PA curriculum used by UNRWA contains hateful material – the equivalent of one in 23 pages, or every other study unit.

Even by the panel’s own estimate of 3.85%, hateful material spans hundreds, perhaps thousand of pages, the equivalent of multiple textbooks. Yet, the review panel fails to mention that UNRWA’s review criteria ignores most UNESCO standards for curricula analysis, such as searching for incitement. This was confirmed by a US Government Accountability Office report in 2019.

‘’The panel offers only the vaguest of recommendations to end the exposure of Palestinian children to such content,’’ IMPACT-se said.

The institute added that the panel ignored and did not address a wealth of incriminating visual evidence it presented to the panel at the request of the Chair.

‘’These images and videos from within UNRWA schools across all Gaza districts, demonstrate the teaching of UNRWA-branded teaching materials produced by its education departments, which propagate antisemitism, encourage violence, and glorify terror and martyrdom,’’ IMPACT-se stated.

Examples presented to the review panel include celebrating a Palestinian firebombing attack on a Jewish bus as a “barbecue party,”  glorifying as a role model terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, responsible for killing 38 Israeli civilians, and maps seen in UNRWA classrooms that erase the existence of Israel, and mark cities in pre-1967 Israel as Palestinian.

Multiple studies reviewing thousands of pages of institutional teaching materials found that UNRWA teachers, principals, schools, and education departments were regularly involved in drafting, approving, printing, and distributing thousands of pages of these hateful teaching materials, which supplement PA textbooks.

The panel made eight cursory recommendations on education, which lack any practical detail, rendering them ineffective. For example, the recommendation to “Establish randomized teaching inspections in classrooms” gives no indication of who might conduct such inspections or who they might report to.

Furthermore, the review identified that internal UNRWA oversight mechanisms do not work as they should, stating “several critical areas, such as oversight, have not been sufficiently addressed.”

This concern is compounded by constant reference in the report to internal oversight tools and reports, which have never been made public. However, according to IMPACT-se,  the panel’s report once again provides only vague recommendations, and fails to mandate the agency to take concrete steps to monitor breaches and improve oversight.

IMPACT-se was the only non-governmental organisation invited to testify to the internal review group and presented an extensive 245-page dossier, which includes weighty evidence of problematic material created within a sample of UNRWA schools across all of Gaza’s school districts. This was shared alongside information on UNRWA’s institutional teaching practices, and reports from November and March 2023 which uncovered over 100 UNRWA graduates who are Hamas members and 47 cases of incitement by UNRWA staff, respectively.

The presented evidence contradicts the panel’s findings that UNRWA takes “significant steps” to prevent hate teaching in its schools, and promises made over the years by the agency to donor nations. IMPACT-se demonstrated to the panel that UNRWA is disingenuous in its insistence that it uses maps that label Israel; that it prevents teaching glorification of terror; that its “neutrality officers” prevent hate teaching; that its own textbook reviews identify and address all pages of problematic content; and that it refers systematically to UN positions on issues. Yet, the UN internal review group has chosen to effectively ignore these serious deficiencies.

According to the institute, ‘’the UN panel’s inadequate recommendations are particularly disappointing given UNRWA’s lack of recent investment in programs to review curricula and to strengthen tolerance and critical thinking in its schools.’’

“The review’s failure to hold UNRWA accountable despite indisputable evidence of institutional hate-teaching and a lack of oversight smacks of a whitewash by the UN, designed to absolve one of its own agencies,’’ noted IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff.

He added, ‘’The report’s so-called recommendations are nothing more than a vague nod to adjusting UNRWA’s opaque bureaucracy and will knowingly make no practical difference.  Given that the UN proposes to do little or nothing about UNRWA’s severe shortcomings, an independent, external investigation remains essential to ensure that UNRWA no longer plays a role in Palestinian education.”