Palestinian children look on as Islamic Jihad terrorists stand guard following an Israel-Hamas truce, in Gaza, May 21, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

The US House of Representatives on Thursday passed legislation that would require the US secretary of state to report on whether teaching materials provided to Palestinian students is promoting antisemitism and jihad.

The bipartisan Peace and Tolerance in Palestinian Education Act was introduced by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), along with Reps. Brian Mast (R-FL), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Elise Stefanik (R-NY), and David Trone (D-MD).

If the bill, co-sponsored by 30 other representatives, becomes law, the US secretary of state will be required to annually audit textbooks and other education materials that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) — the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees — and the Palestinian Authority (PA) provides to students.

The legislation is the result of years of advocacy for an investigation of the role US foreign aid may play in financing the PA’s and UNRWA’s teaching of antisemitism and content that glorifies terrorism.

One of the lawmakers who have called for an official inquiry is US Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), who on Wednesday urged Congress to pass the legislation.

“We have known for decades that Palestinian children are taught from a young age to hate Israel and the Jewish people,” Lawler said in a speech delivered on the floor of the House of Representatives. “Nongovernmental institutions continue to show that Palestinian school children are being indoctrinated with deeply disturbing violent imagery.”

Lawler cited several examples of incitement in Palestinian curricula that have been previously reported by The Algemeiner, including poems glorifying jihad and textbooks describing Jews as “dangerous” and “perverted in nature.”

During his remarks, Lawler linked Hamas’ invasion of Israel on Oct. 7 to what he described as Palestinian schools manufacturing successive generations of antisemites and terrorists, arguing that the problem is an obstacle to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“We will never arrive at a peaceful solution for Israelis and Palestinians if Palestinian children are being taught hatred,” Lawler continued. “Why else would Hamas terrorists call home bragging that they murdered Jews? Why else would they live-stream their barbaric attacks? That disgusting and gruesome cruelty is possible because these Hamas fighters were indoctrinated with hatred at a young age. They were taught to glorify terrorism and other so-called martyrs who killed Jewish people, and this must end.”

The legislation’s passing drew praise from Israeli education watchdog Impact-se, which earlier this month reported that at least 100 Hamas terrorists involved in the Oct. 7 massacre of Israelis graduated from UNRWA schools.

“Impact-se has been warning for years about UNRWA indoctrination. This bill takes on a great deal urgency following the Oct.7 massacre,” Impact-se CEO Marcus Sheff said in a statement, citing examples of violent texts taught to Palestinian students. “Let’s be crystal clear: this modern-day pogrom was conducted with relish by thousands, with the majority likely graduates of UNRWA education in Gaza.”

Sheff added, “Where did they learn to ‘cut the necks of the enemy?’ Where were they taught that ‘Jews spread corruption which will lead to their annihilation?’ More than half of UNRWA’s budget is earmarked for education. No decent society can continue paying for this horror.”

Antisemitic incitement and violence in Palestinian curricula has persisted despite years of outrage and international pressure to change the teaching materials. Study cards for 11th graders accusing Jews of being “in control of global events through financial power,” seventh graders instructed to describe Israeli soldiers as “Satan’s aides” in a textbook chapter imploring Muslims to “liberate” the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and children gathered to listen to a poem with the following line: “Give me a Kalashnikov, an [M-] 14, an axe and a knife” are just some of the examples of the themes to which Palestinian students have been exposed.

In a science textbook for seventh graders — images of which can be found in a report released by Israeli education watchdog Impact-se in May 2021 — Newton’s Second Law of Motion is explained with an illustration depicting a masked Palestinian “aiming a slingshot at approaching soldiers.” In another textbook, titled Mathematics and used in grade nine, a word problem asks students to calculate, based on a given probability, how many Palestinians would be shot by “one of the settlers.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.