UN Ambassador Arden attacked the agency's director general: "You allow terrorism in your facilities and also incitement in textbooks" • In response, the director general said: "We will work to develop a program to examine the materials we deliver in schools."
UNRWA school in Gaza
Photography:
Reuters
The new director of the UNRWA agency, Philip Lazrini, says he will check whether the textbooks and textbooks in UNRWA schools have inciting content against Israel.
The remarks were made in response to the issue raised by Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gilad Ardan, in a briefing he gave to Zarini on Tuesday for ambassadors and representatives of countries at the UN building.
Arden sharply attacked the refugee agency, saying that it has been proven that UNRWA allows terrorist infrastructure to exist in its facilities as well as the study of inciting content.
"Along with the fact that it does not try at all to integrate the refugees into the Palestinian Authority and the Arab countries, it is in fact perpetuating the conflict and has no right to exist."
Arden added that unlike the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, "UNRWA defines itself as a Palestinian refugee and actually inflates their numbers and is already actually treating the fifth generation of refugee descendants from the War of Independence."
He further stressed that terrorist organizations such as Hamas use the agency's facilities for terrorist purposes and urged UNRWA to take action so that the agency's textbooks do not serve as a tool to promote antisemitic content and question the UN's principles of promoting coexistence and reconciliation.
In response to Arden's remarks, he told Zarini that "UNRWA will work in the near future to develop a program that will examine the content in the education system taught in UNRWA schools. As part of the program, a special report will be submitted to the heads of the agency with recommendations."
It should be noted that UNRWA operates hundreds of educational institutions for Palestinian residents in all refugee camps in Judea, Samaria, Gaza and Jordan, and these are a key part of the entire Palestinian education system. Especially in the Gaza Strip, Hamas operatives are the main backbone of teaching staff.
Numerous studies in recent years have pointed to inciting anti-Israel content in Palestinian textbooks, and the issue has even been examined by advisers to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Also, many studies have found that the agency does not help refugees but perpetuates their situation and that this is done for political reasons.
This policy has been severely attacked by the Trump administration, which has cut back on US aid to UNRWA.
It should be noted that a year ago, UNRWA's secretary general was replaced after it was discovered that his predecessor in office had used the organization's funds for personal hedonism.
