U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) took to the floor last week to detail the myriad instances of United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) teachers who indoctrinate students with hatred and incite violence, terrorism, and anti-Semitism.
Blackburn, who also has introduced a bill to halt funding for the suspect UNRWA, read from a report from UN Watch, the non-profit organization whose mission is to hold the United Nations accountable to its founding principles.
“But something that hasn’t gotten nearly enough attention is how our tax dollars are radicalizing the next generation of Hamas extremists,” the senator said. “UN Watch published a report in March exposing UNRWA-affiliated schools for what they are: indoctrination centers.”
UNRWA staff are breeding the next generation of Hamas in their US-funded schools. One praised the Oct. 7 murderers as “martyrs of the Islamic nation.” Another praised the firebombing of an Israeli bus as a “barbecue party.” 🇺🇸Senator @MarshaBlackburn citing UN Watch's report. 🔽 pic.twitter.com/N2NMkkCest
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 27, 2023
The report, co-authored by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), an international research and policy institute that analyzes school curricula through UNESCO-defined standards of peace and tolerance, shows teachers and schools at the U.N. agency that run education and social services for Palestinians regularly call for the murder of Jews. They also create teaching materials that glorify terrorism, encourage martyrdom, demonize Israelis, and incite antisemitism.
Titled “UNRWA Education: Reform or Regression? A Review of UNRWA Teachers and Schools Concerning Incitement to Hate and Violence,” the report uncovers 47 new cases of incitement by UNRWA staff, in breach of the agency’s stated policies of zero tolerance for racism, discrimination or antisemitism in its schools and educational materials.
“A teacher posted a picture of Hitler with the caption “Hitler, are you sleeping? Wake up, honey, there are still some people you need to burn,” Blackburn said in her speech, questioning why U.S. taxpayers are funding such abuses.
“UN Watch also found official curriculum from last year celebrating Dalal Mughrabi. In 1978, she led a band of PLO terrorists in a massacre that left 38 Israeli civilians dead. Thirteen of her victims were children,” the senator added.
In another case, a UNRWA employee shared an Instagram post praising a Palestine Islamic Jihad fighter killed in a shootout as a “little cub who fights like a thousand lions.”
Another piece of propaganda written for ninth-graders described the firebombing of a Jewish bus as a “barbecue party.”
UNRWA’s activities have garnered a bigger spotlight than ever after Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attack that killed more than 1,400 people, most of them Israeli civilians, with thousands more injured. The brutal regime that governs the Gaza Strip and is celebrated by many Palestinians as “freedom fighters” murdered at least 33 Americans and took more than 200 hostages.
“One UNRWA teacher assigned seventh-grade boys anti-Semitic poetry that urged the students to expel ‘Israelis with blood and flesh from Palestine,’” Blackburn said in her floor speech. “All of this was subsidized by the American taxpayer. Hamas is responsible for the October 7 massacre in Israel, but anyone who believes that Hamas is a solo actor is willfully ignorant.”
Lost in the din of the leftist calls for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war that followed the terrorist attacks is the Covenant of Hamas.
“The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement was issued on August 18, 1988. The Islamic Resistance Movement, also known as the HAMAS, is an extremist fundamentalist Islamic organization operating in the territories under Israeli control. Its Covenant is a comprehensive manifesto comprised of 36 separate articles, all of which promote the basic HAMAS goal of destroying the State of Israel through Jihad (Islamic Holy War),” according to the Federation of American Scientists.
UN Watch’s report shows UNRWA teachers and teaching materials promoting Hamas’ hatred of Jews.
“The report captures evidence taken from inside UNRWA classrooms, showing the teaching of these materials, and revealing how UNRWA’s own content directs students to study specific hateful passages in Palestinian textbooks — which the organization claims teachers are told to skip,” the report states.
“The report identifies 133 UNRWA educators and staff who were found to promote hate and violence on social media, and an additional 82 UNRWA teachers and other staff affiliated with over 30 UNRWA schools involved in drafting, supervising, approving, printing, and distributing hateful content to students. The hatred is systemic at UNRWA, and its internal self-auditing mechanisms are not fit for purpose, alleges the report.”
Perhaps then it’s not surprising that a strong majority (58 percent) of Palestinians support a “return to the armed intifada [terrorism] and confrontations.”
That’s why Blackburn has proposed the U.N. Anti-Terrorism Accountability Act of 2023.
If enacted, the bill would halt all funding for the UNRWA until Iran is expelled from the U.N. and investigated for violations of the Genocide Convention, which is an international treaty that criminalizes genocide and obligates state parties to pursue the enforcement of its prohibition.
The UNRWA is funded nearly entirely by voluntary contributions from U.N. Member States. In June, the U.S. contributed $153.7 million to the fund “in support of humanitarian assistance, human development and protection of Palestine Refugees.”
“The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees has a long history of being anti-Semitic and employing individuals that are affiliated with Hamas,” Blackburn said in a video statement. “Hamas has a long history of stealing funds from the agency and using their facilities to stash weapons. Now in 2018, President Trump halted all funding to the organization. Under President Biden, he has sent $730 million to this anti-Semitic organization and he’s done it knowing that there is a high risk that this money could end up going to Hamas. So, I’ve introduced legislation to halt all funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees until Iran is expelled from the U.N. and investigated for violations of the Genocide Convention.”
– – –
M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Image “Senator Marsha Blackburn” by Senator Marsha Blackburn.
