A general view at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, December 13, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo

The European Parliament on Wednesday passed a resolution calling on the European Commission to suspend aid to the Palestinian Authority’s educational system until antisemitic and violent themes are removed from textbooks issued to K-12 students.

The resolution, passed with 421 yes votes with 577 members of parliament participating, “deplores the problematic and hateful material in Palestinian school textbooks and study cards which has still not been removed” and noted that the content is influencing a rise in terrorist activity among Palestinian teenagers.

Wednesday’s measure, which the PA delegation reportedly tried to supress, marked a significant escalation in approach from the EU towards the PA’s tolerance of antisemitism, according to Israeli education watchdog Impact-se.

“The Palestinian Authority lobbied hard in Brussels against this resolution, but found itself up against the hard reality of its hateful school curriculum and the anger and frustration of European Parliament members with a Palestinian national strategy of inciting schoolchildren to hate and violence on their dime, year after year,” CEO Marcus Sheff of Impact-se, which has issued numerous reports on antisemitism and incitement in Palestinian textbooks, said in a press release shared with The Algemeiner. “This strategy has murderous consequences. The resolution will also be noted at the European Commission and by Commissioner Varhelyi, who stated last week that EU funds can no longer be used to incite violence against Israel.”

The resolution marked the fourth year in the row that the EU has demanded immediate changes to Palestinian curriculum, which experts and lawmakers have described as the most antisemitic in the region and a factor protracting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It also followed  assurances by European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi, whose office supervises aid to the Palestinian Authority, to Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen that the EU will not fund terror groups and programs inciting violence against Israel.

The EU parliament passed a similar measure in December, declaring that PA curriculum is in tension with European values. The previous year, in May 2021, the body froze aid to the Palestinian Authority for 13 months. Aid resumed the following January, with former European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen insisting that “all the difficulties are gone.”

The Palestinian Authority never reformed its educational system, however, according to several reports by Impact-se, which has continued to find, for example, grammar lessons saying “The Palestinians sacrifice their blood to liberate Jerusalem” and Arabic Drill Cards for 9th graders that say, “When the [Muslim] nation is negligent in protecting al-Aqsa, then the Jews will dare to defile it.” Israel also does not appear on any maps shown to students.

Other examples  of antisemitic material provided to children living in territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority include study cards for eleventh graders accusing Jews of being “in control of global events through financial power,” assignments instructing seventh graders to describe Israeli soldiers as “Satan’s aides,” and a textbook chapter imploring Muslims to “liberate” the Al-Aqsa Mosque, according to Israeli education watchdog Impact-se.

Exposing Palestinian youth to violent imagery and themes has inspired real-world bloodshed. In May 2022, it was revealed that a 17-year-old who was shot dead after attempting invade an Israeli family’s home in the West Bank while armed with a knife attended a school that taught students to murder Israelis. The twelfth grader attended A-Zeer Boys High School in the Bethlehem Governorate, which used textbooks promoting “Jihad and martyrdom” and described Jews as “dangerous” and “perverted in nature.”

Teachers and staff working at Palestinian schools, who salaries are paid for by money the EU gives to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) also promote antisemitism and hate on social media and in the classroom, a report issued by Impact-se in March said, citing over 200 examples.

UNRWA received over $511.5 million in funding from the European Union and United States in 2021. In May, the EU announced that it would contribute $266 million to the agency through 2024.

Across the Atlantic, US lawmakers have called for conditioning aid to the Palestinian Authority’s education system, proposing in March the United Nations Relief and Works Agency Accountability and Transparency Act, which would require the US Secretary of State’s certifying that UNRWA is audited by an independent body that determines its schools do not teach antisemitic tropes, employee individuals linked to terrorist organizations, or allow their grounds to be used for terrorist activities.

Proposed in the US Senate and House of Representatives by Sen. James E. Risch (R-ID) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), the bill has yet to be voted on be either body.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.