The School Year is Starting in the PA

The School Year is Starting in the PA

Will Mara Rudman and US AID receive new feedback from the government of Israel to attach conditions to aiding PA and UNRWA education? Or will the US continue funding curricula that incite against Israel?

David Bedein

The decision of the government of Israel,  announced in March 2011 and reiterated in August 2012, to place incitement  in PA education on the agenda of Middle East negotiations,lacked any communication to the foreign governments that fund PA education.

All of these countries consistently claim that the  Israeli government has never asked them to condition help to PA schools and UNRWA on.a change in  a curriculum.that promotes the armed struggle to liberate Palestine under the banner of the “right of return”.

This is particularly surprising since PA school books and PA Educational TV explicitly praise those who murder Jews. http://www.israelbehindthenews.com/library/pdfs/RightofReturninUNRWASchools.pdf

The question remains : Will  the government of Israel ask  foreign governments and their consuls in Jerusalem to  attach conditions to funding PA education?

A case in point: The US is the largest funder of PA education and UNRWA, via US AID.

UNRWA uses PA school curricula which promote the "right of return" by  means of the armed struggle. A UN agency should not be promoting the decimation of a fellow state- especially because the theme of UNRWA, in all of its recent publications, is "PEACE BEGINS HERE".

When our agency wrote to US AID about the curriculum of PA education, USAID wrote back to our agency that US AID will not examine the PA educational curriculum as part of the US AID funding process.

At the recent AIPAC conference, our agency met Mara Rudman, the US State Department official who oversees US AID to the UNRWA and Palestinian Authority education.

We asked Rudman about conditioning US AID funds to PA education and UNRWA to not promote the armed struggle to liberate Palestine under the banner of the “right ofreturn” .

Rudman responded that Israel had never asked that US AID condition funds to  the PA or UNRWA on a change in their curriculum..

Rudman  insisted that she was always encouraged by what she described as the “warm support” that US AID received from the head of the Israel Civil Administration, General Dangot, for allocations that USAID provided for the educational system of UNRWA and the Palestinian Authority.

Rudman went on to say  that Gen. Dangot had described the PA and UNRWA schools as a “responsible source of moderation”.

Will the Israeli government convey a different message to Mara Rudman of US AID?

Or will General Dangot continue to thank US AID for funding the PA /UNRWA schools of war?


http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/12076#.UDQZ78hSQcg