To all Members of the Canadian Parliament,
The letter following was sent to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon Marc Garneau, to demand that Canada stop funding the UN Relief and Works Agency which is distinctly antisemitic. We urge your support in ending the funding of Jew Hatred. This is an urgent matter, consistent with Canada’s support for the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism
Jan 27, 2021
Minister Marc Garneau Minister of Foreign Affairs Government of Canada Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Dear Minister Garneau;
On January 23, 2021 it was reported that the agency that Canada funds, to provide relief and re-settlement to so-called Palestinian Arab refugees, continues to use antisemitic, Jew-hatred content in schools under its jurisdiction, just as do all schools directly under the Palestinian Authority.
There is no rationale that the government of Canada can use to justify the horrid, hateful, dangerous incitement that is inherent in this school content that is delivered to children from JK through high school. Please do tell the Jewish community of Canada, and all moral Canadians, how you excuse incitement to kill Jews?
A few days ago, the Israeli organization, the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, published an explosive report. It confirms that the United Nations relief agency, UNRWA, has produced worksheets for schoolchildren which stir up hatred of Jews and Israel. The facility operates around 370 schools in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem and teaches around 320,000 children and young people there.
It is apparently acceptable to your government to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, AND fund antisemitism. How convenient. Since antisemitism is not just a passing remark, but the call to terrorism, a call to kill Jews, and is evidenced regularly by the Palestinian Authority which rewards Jew-murderers once jailed for their crimes, it is both incomprehensible and reprehensible that you would consider sending a Canadian dime to those who should instead be held accountable!
Basically, the textbooks of the Palestinian Authority, have long been criticized for their anti-Semitic and violence-glorifying content.
The information below must be taken seriously and it is incumbent on the government to demand to see and thoroughly review all the textbooks and teaching materials used in all the schools funded by or in any way supported by our government and any Canadian NGO.
“The aid organization has now distributed its own supplementary work materials to the students, who should use them for homeschooling in subjects such as Arabic, English and social sciences during the corona pandemic. These include, for example, so-called flash cards. IMPACT-se has evaluated the documents and has come to the conclusion that they too are “permeated with hatred and encouragement to jihad, violence and martyrdom”. The material produced by UNRWA is “in places more extremist than the material from the Palestinian Authority that it supplements”. Israel does not exist on maps; in other places the Jewish state is only mentioned as a “Zionist occupier”.
In addition, there are often positive references to jihad; for example in sentences such as “We will defend the motherland with our blood”, “The Palestinians are lions in the fight against the enemy” or “Jihad is one of the doors to paradise”.
I am taking the liberty of including below the Executive summary of a report that examined the content of Teachers’ Guides used by the PA and UNRWA in their schools, despite their receiving Canadian financial support which we assume would make demands that these terror-supporting organizations end forever their Jew Hatred campaign.
Israel, Jews and Peace in Palestinian Authority Teachers' Guides
produced by Dr. Arnon Groiss (August 2019)
This is the last in a series of four studies within an extensive research project that started in 2015 and aimed at checking the attitude of the Palestinian Authority (PA) curriculum to the Jewish-Israeli "other" within the ongoing conflict and to the possibility of solving that conflict peacefully.
The three previous studies covered 364 schoolbooks of all grades in various subjects that were published between 2013 and 2018. The present study touches this subject from a different perspective – that of the Palestinian Arab teachers. It is based on 89 teachers' guides published in 2016-2018. While students' textbooks reveal the components of a certain world-view and the values a society would wish to instill in the minds of its younger generations, teachers' guides usually give us a hint as to how that is practically done. Indeed, the current study has made it possible to trace the lines of what we would call "the indoctrination process", as it has been designed by the Palestinian Authority and followed in all schools, including those of UNRWA, which uses in the West Bank and Gaza the educational material provided by the PA.
The initial outline of that indoctrination was already established in the framework of the former studies, as the schoolbooks' attitude to the rival "other" and to peace, proved to be based on three fundamentals: namely, delegitimization, demonization, and war indoctrination instead of peace education. Thus, the present study was organized according to this outline and it follows the same method of presentation used in the three former ones; that is, giving the source material as is, with minimum analysis, so that it would speak for itself.
The analysis is done in the Conclusion chapter, which will be presented here in brief. Most of the indoctrination material has been found in teachers' guides for Arabic language studies. Teachers' guides of national and Islamic education, as well as geography, sciences and mathematics and, to a lesser extent, arts and crafts, contained fewer pieces of such material. Physical education teachers' guides proved to be purely professional with no trace of political indoctrination. Most of the indoctrination was found in grades 7-10.
Summing up the main findings according to the said three fundamentals would give the following picture:
Delegitimization of Israel's existence and of the Jews' very presence in the country on the basis of the perceived Palestinian Arabs' exclusive right to the country and the rejection of any rights Jews might have there. Palestine replaces Israel as the sovereign state in the region in text and on the map; Israel's pre-1967 territory is presented as a Palestinian occupied one; the name "Israel" itself is often replaced by the "the Occupation" phrase. Israel's Jewish citizens are referred to as colonialist settlers and their cities – including Tel Aviv – do not appear on the map, or are given Arabic names. Jewish history in the country is denied, as are their holy places there, and their traditional aspirations regarding their ancient homeland are dubbed "greedy ambitions [atma']".
Demonization of both Israel and the Jews. Both are depicted as aggressive, barbarous, full of hate and bent on extermination, thus forming an existential threat to the Palestinians. Derogatory terms, such as "Zionist gangs" and hateful language are used in their description and cases of de-humanization have also been found. Israel is described as the source of all evil and as solely responsible for the conflict while the Palestinians are presented as its ultimate victims. The Jews are also demonized outside the context of the conflict – as a corrupt nation from its very beginning and as enemies of Islam since its early days.
Call for a violent liberation struggle instead of advocacy for a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Peace and coexistence with Israel is not presented as an option. The violent struggle is not restricted to the West Bank and Gaza, but rather encompasses the whole of Israel. It is given a religious color by stressing the need to liberate Al-Aqsa Mosque, the very existence of which is (falsely) said to be in danger. Islamic traditional ideals of Jihad and martyrdom are exalted and given a special role in the liberation struggle. In fact, there is one language exercise that specifically encourages martyrdom. Terrorist activity is part and parcel of this struggle and a well-known female terrorist is elevated to a position of a national heroine equivalent to Yasser Arafat and Aishah, the revered wife of Prophet Muhammad.
The alleged Right of Return of the 1948 refugees' descendants is made as well part and parcel of the violent struggle of liberation, as they are supposed to return to their former residential places in liberated Palestine, not to the State of Israel. Extermination of the surviving Jews in the aftermath of the liberation war is insinuated.
The teachers' guides that follow these fundamentals use various mechanisms to inculcate them into the minds of young Palestinian Arabs. Points are made and repeated over and over again in various forms – statements, questions and assignments. A subject is fractured into numerous minute details to cover it amply. The teachers' guides also encourage non-textual activities, such as dramatic and journalistic work. Derogatory terms and hateful language are used in the description of the Jewish Israeli "other" to a point very close to incitement-to-kill. A special effort is made to bring the conflict closer to the students, by the presentation of stories in which children are involved, such as confrontations with Israeli soldiers, or the arrest of children's family members. Teachers are instructed to encourage their students to express their feelings vis-à-vis demonizing cases appearing in stories that are taught in class.
The overall picture is gloomy. Everything is tied to a fixed idea that the "other" is the source of their misfortune and, thus, that "other" should be eliminated. The part of the curriculum that refers to the conflict is built on war, not on peace and coexistence, and delegitimization and demonization are its main pillars. This way, the Palestinian educators are imposing on their students a bleak future of hatred and misery, with no hope other than becoming a martyr in an endless struggle that is bound to bring pain and distress for years to come.
From the teachers' guides we understand how the students are manipulated to walk along a pre-meditated course of getting the one-sided information, internalizing it, creating the appropriate feelings around it and thus becoming a blind tool in the hands of the system. No self-criticism, no attempt to trace some other sources of information that would raise questions, lead to deeper understanding and – in fact – build a healthy thinking person that would contribute to the wellbeing of his or her own society. A whole generation is thus being lost.
The Palestinian Authority that has been in existence for over 25 years by now is responsible for this situation. But its responsibility is shared to a great extent by non-Palestinian actors. Chief among these is UNRWA that uses in its schools in the West Bank and Gaza the PA educational material without the slightest effort to live up to the UN standards of peace education and to the expressed UN goal of solving the Middle East conflict peacefully. Thus, instead of caring for the safety and wellbeing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian students under its sponsorship, it participates in the PA endeavor of turning them into gun fodder of the ongoing conflict. Instead of working towards the ending of the conflict, UNRWA's educational system and the donor states that sustain it contribute to its perpetuation. The protracted misery and distress of the Palestinian youth will remain their fault for long.
Minister, it is incumbent on you and your government to Stop the Hatred, Condemn Jew Hatred, protect the children of both the Jewish people who are subjected to potential danger and terror, and the Arab children who are treated as cannon fodder, whose childhood is abused and whose future is being stolen by their own leaders.
The Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation and the grassroots movement End Jew Hatred will do everything we can to publicize the fact that Canada is a partner with antisemitic UNRWA, holding no one accountable, and increasing funding to an organization that has the sole goal of INCREASING the number of refugees annually. UNRWA has no other purpose but growing the number of refugees. Take note that the US State Department has finally released its 2012 report which confirmed that there are fewer than 30,000 actual living refugees, and the claim by UNRWA that there are over 5 million is only due to that agencies refusal to do its job—settle the original refugees from the land of Israel, who were driven out by 5 Arab armies in their futile attempt to murder all Jews in 1948-49. That war ended. The number of refugees can only have declined and it is logical to stop funding a money grabbing job creation program of a malevolent tyrannical entity that has no laudable purpose.
Full report is available here: https://israelbehindthenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Israel-Jews-and-Peace-in-Palestinian-Aut.pdf
Minister, it is incumbent on you and your government to Stop the Hatred, Condemn Jew Hatred, protect the children of both the Jewish people who are subjected to potential danger and terror, and the Arab children who are treated as cannon fodder, whose childhood is abused and whose future is being stolen by their own leaders.
The Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation and the grassroots movement End Jew Hatred will do everything we can to publicize the fact that Canada is a partner with antisemitic UNRWA, holding no one accountable, and increasing funding to an organization that has the sole goal of INCREASING the number of refugees annually. UNRWA has not purpose. It grows refugees. Take note that the US State Department has finally released its 2012 report which confirmed that there are fewer than 300,000 actual living refugees, and the claim by UNRWA that there are over 5million is only due to that agencies refusal to do its job—settle the original refugees from the land of Israel, who were driven out by 5 Arab armies in their futile attempt to murder all Jews in 1948-49. That war ended. The number of refugees has only really declined and it is logical to stop funding a money grabbing job creation program of a malevolent tyrannical entity that has no laudable purpose.
In a tweet from outgoing Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, he noted:
Taxpayers deserve basic truths: most Palestinians under UNRWA’s jurisdiction aren’t refugees, and UNRWA is a hurdle to peace. America supports peace and Palestinian human rights; UNRWA supports neither. It's time to end UNRWA's mandate.
We await your response which we hope will indicate that Canada will live up to its values and its commitment to the IHRA.
Respectfully,
