(Photo Credit: Center for Near East Policy)
Western countries continue to fund UNRWA out of the belief that by doing so, they are helping to provide for the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian refugee community. The United States, as of 2010, donated $247,872,993 to UNRWA, making them the largest financial contributor to the international Palestinian refugee assistance organization. However, recent reports from the Center for Near East Policy demonstrate that UNRWA has other agendas aside from humanitarian assistance.
David Bedein, director of the Center for Near East Policy, told JerusalemOnline News recently, “While UNRWA long ago adopted the logo of ‘Peace Starts Here,’ UNRWA working mantra could easily be described as ‘War Starts Here.’ UNRWA’s schools educate half a million students with the notion that they must prepare to take back their homes in what is now Israel – by force of arms.”
JerusalemOnline News reported that the Center for Near East Policy July 2013 documentary, CAMP JIHAD, shot on location in summer camps in UNRWA facilities near Nablus and in Gaza, filmed UNRWA instructors describing Jews as “wolves” and UNRWA camp counselors leading children in chants for their right to “return” to Israeli cities such as Tel Aviv and Haifa.
An example from one textbook titled “Reading and Texts” taught to Palestinian eighth graders in an UNRWA school implemented the following dehumanization’s of the Jewish people into the highly impressionable young Palestinian minds, “Your enemies killed your children, split open your women’s bellies, took your revered elderly people by the beard and led them to their death pits.” An Arabic language textbook taught to 12th graders in an UNRWA school refers to the Jewish people as “snakes.”
Aside from such dehumanization of the Jewish people documented above, which educates young Palestinians to hate rather than seek to make peace with their neighbors, UNRWA schools also routinely teach children that sacrificing their lives for the homeland is an ideal to support. They are taught to support fighting a violent jihad against Israel until the country ceases to exist and the Palestinian refugees have a right of return to their homes in Israel proper. These young Palestinian children are not taught to fight for human rights in the countries where they are presently living or to seek a right of return to a future Palestinian state living beside Israel in peace.
Israel Behind the News documented that one textbook that is used by UNRWA titled “Our beautiful language,” which is used by Palestinian seventh graders, stated inside of it: “Returning to the homes, to the valleys, to the mountains; under the flags of glory, jihad and struggle; in blood and sacrifice; fraternity and faithfulness.” In another section, the same textbook utters, “I see my death without my stolen right and without my country as a desired one; Hearing weapons clash is pleasant to my ear and the flow of blood gladdens my soul; As well as a body thrown upon the ground skirmished over by the desert predators.”
In conclusion, the Center for Near East Policy stated in an official declaration, “In what is one of the greatest human rights tragedies of the 21st century, UNRWA perpetuates the stateless status of the refugees and their descendants, reinforcing a life of limbo, poverty and anguish. In order to get on track to genuine peace and for its stated goals to be taken seriously, UNRWA’s notorious policies advocating a ‘right of return’ by force of arms must be thoroughly and permanently overhauled.”