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Pupils at schools in Gaza learn maths by adding up how many martyrs have died in Palestinian uprisings.
They’re taught Newton’s Second Law in physics lessons by calculating the forces influencing the trajectory of a projectile fired from a slingshot at an IDF soldier.
And a reading comprehension exercise celebrates a Palestinian firebombing attack on a Jewish bus near the West Bank city of Ramallah as a “barbecue party”.
This is all part of the standard curriculum across Gaza. Not just at schools run by Hamas, but also by those operated by Unwra (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East), which the UK handed £16.8million in funding last year.
The UK is among the top 20 donors globally to Unwra for education as well as healthcare, social services and emergency response. The US, Germany and the EU gave Unwra even larger grants last year, at £273million, £160million and £91million respectively.
There is a direct link between the education provided by Unwra – which educates the majority of school-age pupils in Gaza – and the October 7 massacre that claimed 1,200 lives, according to IMPACT-se, an NGO that monitors the content of school textbooks globally.
“These schools are clearly a breeding ground for extremism and ultimately for Hamas to recruit people for terror,” it said. Unwra schools use the same textbooks as the Palestinian Authority (PA), which, it said, teach jihad, martyrdom and armed struggle as a divine right, and hatred of Jews, who are presented as devious, treacherous and hostile.
Dan Kosky, director of global strategy and communications at IMPACT-se (Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education), said the PA overhauled Gaza school curriculum in 2016, and it is now filled with antisemitism, incitement to violence and the glorification of martyrdom.
“Jews are portrayed as greedy, controlling, treacherous,” he said. “There’s a reading comprehension exercise on the Munich massacre [in which 11 Israelis were killed at the 1972 Olympics], which is portrayed as a praiseworthy operation.
“There’s a whole passage about Dalal Mughrabi, a terrorist who carried out the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre in northern Israel, in which 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children, were murdered on a bus. She’s praised as being a role model for Palestinian women [Arabic Language, Vol. 2, Grade 5, 2023, pp. 51–61].
“It’s not hidden, and it permeates all sorts of things, such as maths and science. Children are asked to add the number of martyrs from the First Intifada to the Second Intifada.
“They teach physics by calculating the velocity to throw a rock at an Israeli soldier. Throughout grades and subjects, it’s everywhere. And the PA is quite proud of it.
“People like Mohammad Shtayyeh, the prime minister [of the PA], has actually said that if money is withheld because of what’s in their textbooks, he’d rather take money from electricity and water than change textbooks. It’s almost like a matter of pride in many ways.”
IMPACT-se reviews textbooks in the Middle East and North Africa applying Unesco-derived standards of peace and tolerance, and works with policymakers and governments to drive positive change. Other shocking examples from textbooks used in Gaza include a lesson that says that dying as a martyr is better than living [Arabic Language, Vol. 1, Grade 5, 2020, p. 15] and a teacher guide saying that Zionists influence and control money, the media, and politics, and use it for their own benefit [Geography and Modern and Contemporary History of Palestine, Teacher Guide, Grade 10, 2018, p. 163]. In another book, students are taught in an explanation of a Qur’anic surah and hadith that those who die as martyrs (shuhada) fighting infidels (Christians, Jews, polytheists) will go to paradise where Allah will raise their status [Islamic Education, Vol. 1, Grade 9, 2023, p. 13].
Another chapter of Islamic Education [Vol. 2, Grade 5, 2023, pp. 74–79] encourages Palestinian girls to kill, be killed and send their children to die in a discussion on the role of women in combat at the time of the inception of Islam.
Examples provided from that period include the first woman who was martyred in the name of Islam and a woman who stabbed a Jew to death who “was justly an example of a brave Muslim woman in defense of the Muslims”.
“The world is trying to understand how October 7 happened,” said Kosky. “What we’re saying is that the education we see here is a big part of the answer and it’s not being hidden. It’s being done in full view of the world.
“People are talking about October 7 as Israel’s 9/11. In many ways it is, but one of the big differences is that while 9/11 was perpetrated by a handful of terrorists, October 7 was carried out by thousands.”
IMPACT-se’s CEO, Marcus Sheff, outlined efforts to place the issue on the desks of global leaders. He said: “We are trying to educate the international community, which funds the PA and which funds Unwra. You can’t just on keeping writing blank cheques to organisations that are fomenting this kind of hatred and this kind of incitement.”
Many Unwra staff openly celebrated October 7 on social media, he added.
“We have evidence of Unwra schools holding celebratory rallies. We’ve gone on the Hamas website that profiles its martyrs and we have tracked over 100 where Hamas says on its own website that they went to this Unwra school or that Unwra school. There are at least 100 Hamas terrorists, including the murderers of the Dee family. We know that for a fact, it’s on the Hamas website.
“We have seen major changes in the region. There is practically no antisemitism now in Saudi textbooks. That’s huge. Ten years ago there was. UAE textbooks are created around tolerance and co-existence. We’re now seeing the introduction – due to a lot of our work – of the first module on the Holocaust. Egypt, Morocco and other countries have making phenomenal strides in curriculum reform.”
Kosky said: “These examples are not hidden from view, far from it. Hard copy and digital editions of these textbooks are freely available on the PA Ministry of Education’s online curriculum portals and well as bookshops. We have managed to obtain additional material developed by Unwra staff because it is available in open source material, for example on official school social media channels.”
"Unwra spokesperson Juliette Touma said: “Unwra is committed to upholding UN humanitarian principles and its zero tolerance of hate speech and incitement to discrimination, hostility, or violence.
“Claims that textbooks used in Unwra schools endorse bigotry and violence are unsubstantiated. The agency reviews the content of the textbooks to ensure that what it teaches is always in line with UN values and principles.”
She added they were “investigating” extracts highlighted by IMPACT-se.