The German government has come under fire for funding Palestinian schoolbooks that praise martyrdom and glorify Palestinian terrorists such as Dalal Mughrabi, who was involved in the murder 38 Israelis, including 13 children, in 1978.
Benjamin Weinthal reported in The Jerusalem Post that a member of the federal parliament urged Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration on Monday to explain why taxpayer funds are being used to sponsor Palestinian incitement against Israel and Jews.
Frank Müller-Rosentritt, an MP for the Free Democratic Party, wrote on his Twitter feed: “Unbelievable, children should receive an education for a better future, not be educated for hate and violence? Federal government must provide an explanation. German tax money should not flow into terror propaganda.”
Germany has allocated €32 million ($36.5 million) to the PA over a four-year period. “We support an independent investigation of Palestinian school books,” said a spokesperson for the German government, adding “The results are already expected in early 2019.”
The British Department for International Development also was criticized this week for politicizing a review of incitement against Jews in Palestinian textbooks, after it was revealed that the investigation will also include an assessment of Israeli textbooks.
The problem of incitement in PA textbooks prompted the European Union’s Parliament to pass legislation in April of this year that would prohibit EU aid from funding anti-Israel texts.
In 2016, Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) reported that the word “peace” did not appear in any text used in PA schools, and observed that without a message of peace, the PA had adopted “a curriculum of war and struggle aimed at preparing young Palestinians to fight continuously for the elimination of Israel.”
Last year, IMPACT-se reported that PA textbooks had become even “more radical,” despite assurances from the PA Ministry of Education that they hadn’t. Marcus Sheff, CEO of IMPACT-se, observed, “There is clear evidence of a strategy of radicalization of young Palestinians, devised and implemented by the ministry, which includes a commitment to an Arab Palestine encompassing the entirety of Israel.”
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