The remains of the Israeli bus hijacked by Palestinian terrorists in 1978 in an attack masterminded by terrorist Dalal Mughrabi. Photo: MathKnight via Wikimedia Commons.

A European-funded foundation trained Palestinian teachers with material glorifying notorious PLO terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, according to the Israeli watchdog Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).

Mughrabi participated in the deadliest terror attack in Israel’s history, the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre, which killed 38 Israelis, including 12 children.

On Tuesday, PMW said it found that the UK-based A.M Qattan Foundation recently concluded a “learning experience” program in Hebron training Palestinian teachers with textbooks teaching that “Dalal and eight of her heroic squad members ascended to Heaven as Martyrs” and that she “watered the soil of Palestine with her pure blood.”

PMW said the material, taught in partnership with the Palestinian Authority (PA) Ministry of Education, was likely drawn from the PA 5th Grade Arabic Language Schoolbook, but could only confirm from the A.M. Qattan Foundation that it taught a section titled “Dalal Mughrabi” based on “5th grade lessons.”

Palestinian leaders have celebrated Mughrabi as a hero and role model naming sport events, schools, and summer camps in her honor. PMW noted that A.M. Qattan Foundation lists the European Union, France, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) as “co-funding” partners of its operations.

“The instructors from the foundation saw no problem choosing educational material for young children that glorifies the most lethal terror attack in Israel’s history and honors the murderer who led it,” PMW said.

Educational material praising Mughrabi was among the examples cited at a European Parliament meeting in September on incitement found in PA textbooks by an EU-funded report.

The European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets later approved an amendment to the 2022 EU budget that, if adopted, would cut more than $23 million of funding from UNRWA if the PA continues to use antisemitic and violent content.

Approved on Sep. 28, the amendment would require UNRWA, to which the EU plans to appropriate $167 million this year, to issue textbooks that “promote coexistence and tolerance with the Jewish-Israeli ‘other’ and peace education with Israel in alignment with the goals of the two-state solution.”

The Israel-based NGO IMPACT-se, which studies Palestinian Authority educational materials, called it at the time a “crucial measure which speaks volumes about the ongoing frustration felt by European lawmakers, who are simply no longer prepared to fund the teaching of hate in Palestinian classrooms.”