by Jonathan S. Tobin
UNRWA's proposed changes are a step in the right direction. The PA's opposition is more proof that it is an obstacle to any hope for a better life for both Israeli and Palestinian children.
It is an
article of faith for the international community and the Jewish Left
that the Palestinian Authority is a moderate force that wants to make
peace with Israel. That belief has been undermined by many of the PA's
actions and statements since its creation after the signing of the Oslo
Accords in 1993, yet somehow it survives and forms the basis for many
of the assumptions critics make about Israel's government.
The latest proof that
the PA is a principle obstacle to peace rather than its best hope has
not received any attention in the Western press. But a discussion of
the conflict that has arisen between it and the United Nations Relief
and Works Agency speaks volumes about everything that is wrong with the
PA.
UNRWA is the world body
that is devoted solely to aiding Palestinian refugees. Unlike the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which is tasked with
helping all other refugees around the world, UNRWA doesn't try to
resettle refugees or resolve their problems. On the contrary, since its
creation after the Arab failure to destroy Israel in its War of
Independence, UNRWA has helped to perpetuate the clash between Israel
and the Muslim and Arab worlds and championed the "right of return"
that would spell Israel's end. Its schools and aid projects have been
hotbeds of radicalism aimed at erasing the existence of the Jewish
state and have even been used by Hamas. In particular, critics have
noted the way UNRWA schools in the West Bank and Gaza have curricula
and textbooks that teach up to 600,000 Palestinian youngsters to reject
Israel's legitimacy and glorify the struggle to destroy it.
But, like the rest of
the U.N., UNRWA has been feeling some pressure to reform. The Trump
administration has shown a willingness to throw its weight around that
directly contrasts with former President Barack Obama's support for the
U.N. Under new Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who previously
headed the U.N.'s other refugee agency, efforts to promote the libel
that Israel is an apartheid state were rejected. So when the Arab press
reported leaks about a shift in UNRWA's education policy, this seemed
to indicate that even that agency was feeling some pressure to change
its ways.
According to those
reports, UNRWA was planning to alter the textbooks it uses in its
schools. Among the planned changes, cities inside Israel would stop
being labeled as Palestinian, a practice that instills a sense in
readers that the Jewish state is merely a colonialist intrusion built
entirely on "stolen" Arab land. Other changes included an effort to
tone down praise of Palestinians who commit terrorism against Jews and
Israelis. Its teaching about Jerusalem would treat it as a city that is
as holy to all three monotheistic religions, rather than just Islam.
That's significant because Palestinian efforts to claim that shrines
such as the Temple Mount and even the Western Wall are exclusively
Muslim were part of a campaign of incitement that led to the recent
"stabbing intifada." Perhaps just as significant is that the new texts
would also seek to correct gender bias that was part of the old
books.
But rather than welcome
reform, the Palestinian Authority has reacted with fury. Last week,
the PA announced that it was suspending ties with UNRWA over the
proposed changes, which have yet to be formally announced. It said the
revisions to the curriculum were an "affront to the Palestinian people,
its history and struggles" and that the suspension would continue
until the agency's "positions are corrected."
The PA Education
Ministry issued the following statement: "Any distortion of the
Palestinian curriculum is a flagrant violation of the laws of the host
country, and any change to any letter to appease any party is a betrayal
of the Palestinian narrative and the right of the Palestinian people
under occupation to preserve its identity and struggle."
The implications of the PA position for the prospects for peace in this or future generations cannot be overestimated.
For more than a
century, Palestinian national identity has been inextricably tied to the
war on Zionism. Throughout two decades of failed peace negotiations,
the supposedly moderate Palestinian Authority has consistently rejected
Israeli offers of independence that would obligate it to recognize the
legitimacy of the Jewish state within any borders. Any chance that
this will change rests not so much on more Israeli concessions but on a
sea change in Palestinian political culture. Leaving aside the role of
Hamas, unless the PA's future leaders are able to embrace peace
without fear that doing so will be seen as a betrayal, the failure of
more talks is foreordained. UNRWA's proposed changes are a step in the
right direction. The PA's opposition is more proof that it is an
obstacle to any hope for a better life for both Israeli and Palestinian
children.
Jonathan S. Tobin is the opinion editor of JNS.org and a contributing writer for National Review. Twitter @jonathans_tobin.
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Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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