UN Schools Face Palestinian Heat for Trying to Teach Holocaust
- Posted on October 18, 2011 at 11:07pm by
Sharona Schwartz
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A new report by MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute, describes a “fiery debate” between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and the Palestinian teachers it employs over the agency’s attempt to teach about the Holocaust to the 220,000 children in its Gaza schools.
The report quotes one Palestinian group calling Holocaust studies “a lie fabricated by Zionists” and a Hamas legislator labeling teaching it a “war crime.”
Trying to calm Palestinians protests, then head of UNRWA in Gaza said two years ago the Holocaust would be taught alongside studies about the Palestinian “Nakba” – the 1948 “catastrophe” of the founding of the State of Israel. (Raising the question: was a UN official suggesting a moral equivalency between the Nazi murder of six million Jews and the experience of Palestinians when seven Arab armies refused to recognize the new Jewish State and instead launched war on Israel?)
MEMRI describes UNRWA’s efforts in its refugee camps in Jordan which haven’t fared much better:
In early 2011, UNRWA announced plans to add Holocaust studies to the curriculum of its schools in Jordan, as well, but in light of opposition from teachers there and their threats to step up the protest against it, the organization backed down.
Palestinians aside, the UN agency is facing a bigger image problem on Capitol Hill.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee last week approved a bill which among its de-fund-the-UN-provisions threatens to cut off U.S. aid entirely from UNRWA for activities which the legislation says contradict American values and foreign policy priorities.
According to its website, UNRWA protects and advocates for some five million registered Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza, “pending a solution to their plight.” Services include education, health, and social services in Palestinian refugee camps.
The House bill would prohibit further U.S. funding – to the tune of $230 million per year – of UNRWA until it:
“vets its staff and aid recipients via U.S. watch lists for ties to Foreign Terrorist Organizations; stops engaging in anti-Israel propaganda and politicized activities; improves its accountability and transparency; and stops banking with financial institutions under U.S. designation for terror financing or money laundering.”
UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness wrote in The Huffington Post in August that:
“UNRWA imposes the strictest standards of neutrality on its staff, beneficiaries, suppliers and installations that go well beyond those of many comparable organizations and even governments” and that “every six months, staff names are checked against the UN 1267 Sanctions Committee list of terrorists and terrorist entities.”
With Hamas controlling Gaza and its trade unions, it’s questionable even with the best intentions how effective UNRWA can be in vetting its thousands of employees, many of whom are themselves refugees.
Former UNRWA general counsel James Lindsay provided an insider account of the organization last year accusing it of perpetuating the scourge of Palestinians’ refugee status when some are able to support themselves. “No justification exists for millions of dollars in humanitarian aid going to those who can afford to pay for UNRWA services,” he wrote.
Lindsay also criticized UNRWA officials for expressing anti-Israel political positions on the conflict, writing the agency should:
“halt its one-sided political statements and limit itself to comments on humanitarian issues; take additional steps to ensure the agency is not employing or providing benefits to terrorists and criminals; and allow the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), or some other neutral entity, to provide balanced and discrimination-free textbooks for UNRWA initiatives.”
“The United States, despite funding nearly 75 percent of UNRWA’s initial budget and remaining its largest single country donor, has largely failed to make UNRWA reflect U.S. foreign policy objectives.”
The Obama administration strongly opposes the House bill. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent a letter to the committee which according to Time warned:
that the legislation would severely limit U.S. participation in the world body, undercut U.S. interests and damage the security of Americans at home and abroad. “This bill would effectively cede American leadership, creating a void for our adversaries to fill,” Clinton wrote.
It appears UNRWA is trying to address some of the criticism, though with Hamas running Gaza, it’s unclear how successful those efforts can be. Earlier this month, thousands of Gaza teachers went on strike for the day to protest UNRWA suspending staffer Suhail Al-Hindi, the head of the Local Staff Union, a pro-Hamas body. Hamas sources told Reuters said the U.N. agency had accused Hindi of meeting with Hamas political officials. Reuters reported:
Buses took some 7,000 teachers employed at UNRWA-run schools to U.N. headquarters in Gaza city where they held a sit-in, calling for an end to “UNRWA political punishment of employees”.
All this raises tough questions: however flawed, is UNRWA providing even a small mitigating force against radicalism exemplified in its efforts to teach the Holocaust and fire employees? Would U.S. interests be better served by leaving the education solely in the hands of Hamas? On the other hand, as long as Hamas runs Gaza, do Americans want to keep footing the bill for a troubled enterprise?



















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Comments (63)
ThePatriot88
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 11:10amIf they are having issues with finding a place for this $230 million a year going to their aid… I‘m sure the American people wouldn’t mind seeing some of that injected back into… let’s say… America. My bank account is always open to deposits. But then again, that wouldn’t be enough for Occupy Wall Nuts.. I mean Street.
Report Post »demiglaze
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 10:09amCould we please rip ourselves from the U.N.?
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 10:02amYou lie with DOGS…
Report Post »It is only a matter of time until they each find themselves at odds with another of their left-wing extremist, socialist idealism. obama and his socialist and communist buddies have duct-taped together a bunch of left-wing extremist self-interest groups to create a voter base. The problem is, the left relies on emotion, NOT LOGIC, for their arguments. When faced with LOGIC, they always lose the debate. This is why they are so adept at avoiding real conversation and discourse. Instead, when faced with facts, they attack and begin name-calling, and try to obfuscate the issue, and try to triangle-out to an entirely different topic. TRUTH is their enemy. So, when their niche objectives contradict each other, they are completely unable to deal with it. Creating their base without logic, and only emotion, CAUSES conflicts to occur. Otherwise, the logic would have caused them to take a stand that would cause some voters to reject the socialist Democrats. They have not platform, just a WHOLE LOT OF LITTLE PLANKS, which overlap, and are warped and twisted. You can rally a lot of people to the pile, but, when you #FAIL to build the barn… they get tired and go away.
Jwmajic
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 3:15pmI believe this is the word your looking for
Report Post »dem·a·gogue also dem·a·gog (dm-gôg, -gg)
n.
1. A leader who obtains power by means of impassioned appeals to the emotions and prejudices of the populace.
2. A leader of the common people in ancient times.
tr.v. dem·a·gogued also dem·a·goged, dem·a·gogu·ing also dem·a·go·ging, dem·a·gogues also dem·a·gogs
Usage Problem To speak about (an issue, for example) in the manner of a demagogue.
JLGunner
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 8:29amwow, playin the antagonist on a web page. Very courageouse.
Report Post »EqualJustice
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 8:27amI guess a lot of people think if you just ERASE events from history books, they never happened? There are things we may NOT LIKE, but the TRUTH about what happened ……IS “HISTORY”.
Report Post »AntiZion
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 8:47amWho Wrote History? Jews have been playing the role of victims since the dawn of times… we all know that…
Report Post »anyway those Arabs will certainly eat all of them one day… they are so tiny … and those Arabs are really crazy a** Ghetto!!
13th Imam
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 9:21amThe Holocaust was not just Jews that were murdered. Over 5 million non Jews were murdered, but are seldom mentioned. They included Gypsies, Soviets, Homosexuals, disabled, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and any OTHERS opposed to Barry’s,, I mean Hitlers, agenda.
Report Post »robert
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 10:16amYes, I agree that it’s time to stop the whining and playing the victim game.
If they don’t, let’s start pointing out the Palestinian Holocaust that is going on right now.
Or how about the genocide also going on right now against white Americans who are being pushed out of their country presently, along with their culture, traditions, history and value system, all to the unsuppressed glee of so many left wing fools.
Pat Buchanan has it right on.
http://www.drudgereport.com/flashpb.htm
Report Post »drago
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 8:13amDont engage in debate with antizion folks, thats just our old friend encinom, off his meds as usual.
Report Post »AntiZion
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 8:16amencinom…. !! no i am not him/her
Report Post »13th Imam
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 9:13amIt
Report Post »drago
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 8:10am@antizion aka encinom
Report Post »Do you know who you are f-n with? Go ahead, start your war, cival or otherwise, ill be waiting.Be afraid little man, be very afraid……
cassandra
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 7:42amantizion: you should go back to your couch and wait to hear from your buddie Soros, you have no idea what you are talking about, my father was in WW11 and told me what he saw and it was horror So I Know the truth You Lie
Report Post »liberalismisacancer
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 6:19amcannot reason/negotiate with sand rats.
Report Post »nuke em all….let God sort em out
Detroit paperboy
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 6:28amI wouldnt want the u n teaching my kid either……even if they are shiite heads….
Report Post »Gypsy123
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 5:42amAnother reason for the USA to say no to Muslims
Report Post »jaxson
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 5:27amif it quacks like a duck, its a duck…stop all funding! palistinians can all be absorbed into muslim countrys. What Egypt,Jordan, Syria, Iran etc. dont have the room? muslims can take care of muslims, ask some saudi for a chunk of land and some hand outs…..I dont want to pay for muslim guns and bombs and hatefilled ideologys any more…live by the sword, die by it, i dont give a shiite any more. they can pack their own baggage…..
Report Post »loriann12
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 6:20amI read in some article (not the Blaze, I don’t think) that those countries don’t want the Palestinians in their country. That’s why they want their own country. There are no actual Palestinians, because there is no Palestine as a country. The part of the area that used to be near that (2,000 years ago) was taken over by Muslims. The indiginous people were evicted. I found a web site that explains this better than me… http://www.masada2000.org/historical.html
Report Post »HKS
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 6:48amMaybe there just a bunch of degenerates that no one else wanted so they were cast out on their own. Makes sense as to why their not part of one of those Muslim countries, land is not in short supply in that region. I suppose their like the boll weevil, “just loo-kin for a home” in your backyard.
Report Post »AntiZion
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 4:37amI wish the majority of y’all “PATRIOTIC AMERICANS” to move your self and travel around the world.. and start to understand that the USA is not what u think it is .. and to get out of the Bubble u live in … The Real World is much more precious than Obama./Beck /Israel Palestin !
Report Post »Voice_ofFreedom
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 4:50amAre you suggesting that if “we” simply traveled more we would understand that the massacre of 6 million people regardless of their race/religion/ethnic background, is not a big deal? The truth of the matter is that the holocaust was one of the most important lessons in history not only for the carnage that occurred, but how much of it could have been prevented had other nations come more quickly to aid in ending the slaughter. It should be taught as a lesson to all those possible future leaders of any nation, in order to teach them to keep a watchful eye on the world rather than living as you so eloquently put it, in a bubble. And furthermore I ask you this…if the holocaust can be simply swept under the rug and not taught, how many other half truths, falsehoods, and outright lies are being taught to children around the world right now? How many wars in the future will spring up out of disputes that come from conflicting “facts” about the same events which happened years ago? I’ll refrain from repeating the old history cliche but you get the point…if you have half a brain, if not feel free to go watch some more spongebob and beat yourself in the head with a hammer for all the good it will do you.
Report Post »AntiZion
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 5:27am“if the holocaust can be simply swept under the rug and not taught, how many other half truths,falsehoods, and outright lies are being taught to children around the world right now? How many wars in the future will spring up out of disputes that come from conflicting “facts” about the same events which happened years ago?”
ur war on terror has killed over 1.5 million Children! read the facts ,, ! so u legitimze the killing of iraqi children and when the jews die u r in complete defensive mode…. wake up ! time to know that Americans do not have the tool to change the governments … as they live in this illusion of democracy and freedom! Americans are just puppets …. living in this sphere of illusion! thinking that every single person in the world wakes up thinking about the USA… lmao!!
Report Post »bboatmanable
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 8:30amYes, the “real world” is precious, as God made it “very good”. So, explain to me why, if Islam is so tremendous and Christianity and Judaism and America so evil (because that is clearly what your insinuating), why the muslims are responsible for killing thousands of their own every single year simply because of the difference between Shi’ite and Sunni? I love how you conveniently leave out that those children in Iraq were/are being killed by homicide bombers in public squares and NOT by American/Coalition forces.
Report Post »cherigc
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 8:42ambeen around the world, spoken with many….. God and love is the answer to any question………..Palestininas teach Hate….YOU are filled with it. God bless…..
Report Post »13th Imam
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 9:30amHow do those Wascally airlines stay in business. All those jet planes flying over my house in Konnecticut. Full of Other People coming to America, while always flying back empty. Seems that since the Titanic sunk , No Americans have left the continental US.
Report Post »saneromeo
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 2:36pmIf the “bubble” is so bad, why do so many from other countries want to live in it?
Report Post »welovetheUSA
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 2:37amWe need to stop all funding to the UN an Palesteins………period.
Report Post »lodgerat
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 4:28amI agree ! We should have stopped UN funding years ago. We also need to get the State Department straightened out. They are a complete mess
Report Post »Carol Ingian
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 5:35amI agree. Giving money to our enemies will not make them “like” our country. They must think this country is pathetic in wanting to fund Muslim countries ( who want us and Israel destroyed) when our own citizens are in need of help.
Report Post »sissykatz
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 6:00amI agree about the foreign aid and thinking they are going to like us
Report Post »or listen to anything we have to say. I say quit giving aid to the UN
Iran, Iraq, Palenstein,Pakistan, all I would give it to Israel if it needed
it.I would save the money on the many and give to the few. I also
would try to get Amb. Bolton and Rick Santoriom in the State Dept.
I do not believe we should be the Policemen of the World… We
help during catastrophes but no aid given to the Corrupt Governments.
Diane TX
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 2:34amIt’s unbelievable that the Palestinians deny that the Holocaust was an actual fact when hundreds of thousands of people saw it happen with their own eyes. My former father-in-law fought in World War II, and was one of the Liberators of Jews from the concentration camps.
He remembers the people being nothing but skin and bones, and yet they were the “lucky ones” because they weren’t immediately exterminated by the Nazis.
The Jews were treated with cruelty simply because they were a successful People. That is not unlike what is happening today with the “Occupiers”, that Obama so joyously supports.
Does Obama plan on confiscating the worldly goods and wealth of every successful person in the USA, and placing them in concentration camps?
It’s lucky that Steve Jobs has already passed because he was immensely successful, AND he was born from an Arab father, and given up for adoption.
Report Post »PATTY HENRY
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 2:41amFRIGGIN’ Palestinians…ungrateful hysterical people. CUT ALL USA AID to them. NOW. They‘ve been offered mutlitple times all they want and they’ve turned it down…because THEY DO NOT WANT PEACE , they want all the JEWS to be gone. DUMB jerks. WHY don’t they go to JORDAN, LEBANON and SYRIA and get the land back that those goons tool in 1948 when our wonderful (not) UN began the Israel establishment…like bulls in a China shop. THE land those 3 surrounding countries took is about 5 times the size of Israel is now. DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY BRAINS in the UN or are they just dopes – blind leading the blind ? I STAND WITH ISRAEL !
Report Post »Diane TX
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 2:47amJobs was born in San Francisco to graduate students Abdulfattah “John” Jandali, a Syrian Muslim from the city of Homs,[14] and Joanne Carole Schieble (later Simpson), an American of Swiss and German ancestry, who met at the University of Wisconsin.[15][16] Jobs was placed for adoption after Schieble’s father opposed their marriage.[17] Jandali later became a professor of political science[18] while Schieble became a speech language pathologist
More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs
Report Post »Steve
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 3:59amDiane
What makes it more amazing as well as insulting is
theses very same Muslim Arabs were instrumental and collaborated with Hitler in the murdering of the Jews during WWII.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Joseph Goebbels
Report Post »sissykatz
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 5:37amAntizion
Report Post »Your facts are wrong according to the remains that were found, the eyewittness accounts
not just from the Jews but from Germans and from the evidence that was found. Have
you Visited the Holocaust Museum?? It may help you put things into prespective. Listen
to the accounts of the Germans that were there.It seems to me it may not have been ALL
the truth, only because some could not bring themsevels tell everything that was done. But
exaggeration from the Jews was certainly not what was happining.
Steve
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 1:49amHere is one of the most important facts of this article (with the exception that Muslims helped Hitler kill millions of Jews during WWII)
The Obama administration strongly opposes the House bill. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent a letter to the committee which according to Time warned:
that the legislation would severely limit U.S. participation in the world body, undercut U.S. interests and damage the security of Americans at home and abroad. “This bill would effectively cede American leadership, creating a void for our adversaries to fill,” Clinton wrote.
So again we should appease and give them money or they will turn against us?
Are you kidding me. Just another glaring example of the ignorance of this administration and the rest of the progressives wanting to dance with the devil and expecting respect.
20 freakin 12 cant get here fast enough.
Side not. I think it’s hilarious that rose-ellen calls us good Germans.
Report Post »Californiasodbuster
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 1:24amThe MSM, and the un should focus on telling the world of the new holocaust, palestinians marrying 7 year old girls, and making them their slaves.
Report Post »I know a couple of people from Israel, they confirm it.
But my feeble minded posts do not make it here on the Blaze.
Oh, and i thought i heard hillary was in Tripoli, promising millions of our tax $,s to their cause today.
Thanks a pantload.
staxmarshall
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 1:12amCorrection:
Fact….Holocaust
Report Post »Fairy Tale…evolution
scout n ambush
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 12:36amUN trying to cover it’s collective arse as they have heard what was said by the teaparty about them and big govt they know how we feel about them and their bias how they let muslims terrorists use their guns uniforms and vehicles to transport ammo and rockets even using ambulances for transport.Aclj has my support as it helps congress try to get the US out of the UN even if you can’t give money to the ACLJ at least sign the petition.
Report Post »ICANHANDLETHETRUTH
Posted on October 18, 2011 at 11:49pmWhat a bunch of freaking animals, satan is working some over time in their hearts, there is no other way to explain why one group of people can hate another group of people ………….. and then they say they want to wipe them off the face of the planet ???????
Report Post »Exrepublisheep
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 1:11amIsn’t calling a group of people “freaking animals” hate speech? Would that be caused by you know who?
Report Post »Steve
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 1:33amNot if that group do act like a bunch of freakin animals. Then it’s not hate speech but the truth and to some the truth has no agenda.
Report Post »AntiZion
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 4:35amso u dont hate them!! u love Palestinians right! all you ppl in this website are just the roots of the Klux.K.Klan!
Report Post »sissykatz
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 5:52amAntizion
Report Post »I don’t remember reading but a few of your posts, but you seem like a
hateful, biggotted person. Why would you say that about the Jews that
you know is wrong and that you think we are the roots of the KKK.
Well maybe I am. When I was a child I when to see the crosses burning in
the yards, I saw all the White hoods, I never saw a hanging thank goodness
but I knew under those hoods had to be people in our communities that I knew.
And went to school with their children. I didn’t understand much except to be
taught by my parents that it was wrong. I must add back at the top, I don’t know
if there were any hangings, I only knew of the burning crosses.
Eliasim
Posted on October 18, 2011 at 11:25pmHey don’t blame me. You are the ones who screwed up the meaning of the Twelve Apostles.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 12:22am@Eliasim — I do not know if you are of Muslim background or not; and I have no major beef with most Muslims either. The case with the Palestinians who get angered over the teaching of the Holocaust are the ones I have a gripe with; this idea of not teaching an event that did happen, and shaped the world as well, showing the true horror and evil that can happen when left unchecked is tantamount to the virtual rewriting and denial of history itself.
The people who want to teach that the Holocaust is a fabrication want to use it as further justification for the ongoing apathy of the nation of Israel and her people…all that they are attempting in a nutshell is to “…tell a lie long enough and loud enough, and some people will begin to believe it is the truth…”
Report Post »sissykatz
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 6:05amSnow
Very well said. If the truth were taught maybe we would not be in
Report Post »this mess now. They just repeat the lie generation after generation
and the HATE continues.
netmail
Posted on October 18, 2011 at 11:22pmI suppose they want to make holocaust history disappear so they can usher in a new one. An Obama adminstration might go along with that but not the adminstration that’s soon to follow. (or at least we hope and pray they won’t)
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on October 18, 2011 at 11:22pmI don’t take too kindly to getting censored.
Report Post »Psychosis
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 12:33amyou could always go back to the huff n puff with your like minded sheep
Report Post »Steve
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 1:41amBoo freakin Hoo.
Report Post »drago
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 8:18am@eliasim aka encinom
Report Post »How about a good old fashion Texas beat down then, might not hurt your feelings as much as being censored? And by the way, using short text, ie…u for you, r for are, shows your age there kid.Hell for you is coming, and it is me!
banjarmon
Posted on October 18, 2011 at 11:18pmPalestinian is and infected pimple on the islamic world’s A-S-S and should be lanced!!
Report Post »capitalismrocks
Posted on October 18, 2011 at 11:16pmTheir plight?!??! Their plight is they’ve spent decades using all their time, money and resources to kill Jews instead of building up their lands, creating industry, commerce and just living….
Any “plight” they may have… they created on their own…. Israel of the worst land in all of the Middle East, yet the Jews focused on building a country, commerce, industry… all that while the countries around them continued to try and murder them…
Teach the truth – everyone should know what happened to the Jews, Palestinian children should know and understand what happened to the Jews and that tiny little piece of land they call home is theirs and they should just be left alone and the Arab Palestinians have always been free to build, and prospect in their lands, if they’d put their minds to it, so perhaps its time they taught the children the truth, let them know the plight of the Jews and they’ll grow up to not want to fight with the Jews, but spend their time building the area’s they live in.
Report Post »The Third Archon
Posted on October 18, 2011 at 11:11pm“UN SCHOOLS FACE PALESTINIAN HEAT FOR TRYING TO TEACH HOLOCAUST”
Report Post »You mean true things…? Reminds me of when people protest teaching evolution except more racist.
Lumbar Spine
Posted on October 18, 2011 at 11:26pmIn other words, Gaza is as backwards as Texas…
Report Post »The Third Archon
Posted on October 18, 2011 at 11:39pmAs backwards, slightly more racist.
Report Post »Lumbar Spine
Posted on October 18, 2011 at 11:47pmBut Texas now has Glenn Beck… ;>)
Report Post »4truth2all
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 12:12amFact….holocaust
Report Post »Theory…evolution
= big difference
hi
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 1:20amEvolution is a fairy tale based on the belief that time is magic and turn helium into people given enough time.
Report Post »