Ministry for Diaspora Affairs | October 2024

Educational Content and Teaching Staff The teaching staff in UNRWA schools includes educators, teachers, and principals, who are themselves considered Palestinian refugees. Over the years, more and more testimonies have surfaced about extreme content found in UNRWA textbooks (which are the Palestinian Authority’s textbooks) and taught at all grade levels. For example, in language and grammar lessons, sentences appeared about “Jihad warriors” encouraging “death for the liberation of Palestine from occupation”; in literature classes, poems were studied that glorified “martyrdom”; and in other exercises, Jews were portrayed as traitors and enemies of Islam. 97

Below are recent examples of content, illustrations, and messages that suggest the current geo-political reality is temporary and will change once students return to all parts of “Palestine,” including Israeli cities like Jaffa and Acre. 1 Al-Bureij Girls’ Primary School – بنات البريــــج الابتدائية On 13/12/2022, a video was published in which a girl described the city of Acre as a Palestinian city. 98

The students were also asked to label the original names of the Palestinian towns on a blank map of “Palestine,” there was a map of “Greater Palestine” on the right side of the board. 99

Photos from the lesson on “Palestine,” December 2022 2 Al-Zaytoun Boys Elementary School “A”, Al-Zaytoun ذكور الزيتون الإبتدائية «أ – ” On 10/9/2023, The answers to the geography homework were posted in one of the school’s Telegram groups, including a map of “Greater Palestine.” One of the questions asked in the homework was, “What is the length of the Palestinian-Egyptian border?” According to the teacher, the correct answer was 224 km, completely ignoring Israel’s borders and including its territory

QR to the video published on the school’s Facebook account, December 2023. A Facebook post on December 23, 2022, shared a photo of a lesson taught at a school. The lesson was titled “Palestine, the Ancient Homeland of Humanity.” During the lesson , the students were taught about the borders of “Greater Palestine,” as presented in their textbooks. They were given worksheets with a map; some students even wore crowns with the names of Palestinian cities on them.

97 https://www.un.org/unispal/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/AHRC47NGO145_150621.pdf https://www.impact-se.org/wp-content/uploads/UNRWA-Produced-Study-Materials-in-the-Palestinian-Territories%E2%80%94Jan-2021.pdf https://www.impact-se.org/wp-content/uploads/Review-of-2022-UNRWA-Produced-School-Materials.pdf 98 https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1360010001491597 99 https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_ fbid=pfbid035kCNYmbHNaTvfECNFgd7NLd6ZsxySFqQcSR8EqgcQxogQCL9pyZKwd7KSbrBDrxTl&id=100064269903433 https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=535775085241484&set=pcb.535775648574761

49