The Jerusalem Post reported in its August 18 edition that  the US and the Palestinian Authority signed a $148 million economic aid agreement.  

Our agency asked PA officials where the money was going.

The answer: education, for the new school year of the PA schools, many of  which function in United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)  facilities.

That is because the texts taught in the UNRWA schools are prepared by the Palestinian authority in conjunction with UNRWA.

UNRWA uses that PA curriculum - which .openly rejects the existence of Israel and instead encourages "The Right of Return" of the Palestinians - by  means of the "armed struggle."

The PA curriculum does  not acknowledge Jewish rights in any part of "Palestine," on either side of the 1967 lines, nor does the PA curriculum recognize any Jewish past in the Land of Israel. Indeed,  in PA texts,  Israeli cities are identified as Palestinian cities

Israel is demonized in these texts, while no peaceful solution to the Arab-Israel war is  ever discussed in the PA curriculum.

In the words of Dr. Anon Gross, the Arabic language journalist expert who translated the texts: "The manifestations of the "Right of Return" in the PA textbooks taught in UNRWA's schools are not nostalgic literary pieces. Rather, the "Right of Return" plays a prominent role in the Palestinian political vision of a continued struggle against a delegitimized and demonized Israel until its eventual destruction".

The educational message provided by UNRWA to Palestinian students thus help to propagate a war like message,  in  contradiction to the UNRWA's declared slogan, which is that "Peace Starts Here".

Two months ago, our agency sent a registered letter to  US AID with a questions about US AID to UNRWA/PA education . The letter has not received the courtesy of a response. .

The letter simply asked if the officials of US AID would ask   UNRWA schools to not use textbooks which deny the existence of the State of Israel or undermines it, and/or encourages "The right of return," or the use of violence of any kind.

Here are a few choice quotations from the PA textbooks used by UNRWA:

"The number of the Palestinians in the world is close to nine million... Four and a half million live in the Diaspora outside of Palestine... Most of them are refugees who wait to return to the motherland after having been expelled from it..."

National Education, Grade 4, Part 1 (2011) p. 43(

"The [refugee] camp is not considered an original home for the Palestinian refugee. Rather, it is a temporary place where he has been forced to live. All the Palestinians wait for the return of every Palestinian to his city or village from which he was made to emigrate."

Islamic Education, Grade 6, Part 1 (2011) p. 69)

In addition,  there are language exercises using this theme such as the following one:

"Activity 2: Let us fill in the empty space with the appropriate noun...

The ... [refugee]... dreams of returning to his homeland."

Our Beautiful Language, Grade 5, Part 1 (2011) p. 91

And  poems  are taught...:

            "We Shall Return"n

...Tomorrow we shall come back and the ages shall listen

To the footfalls during the return

We shall return with the resounding storms

With the sacred lightening and the star

With the winged hopes and the songs

With the soaring vulture and the eagle

Yes! The thousands victims shall return

Victims of oppression shall open every door"

Our Beautiful Language, Grade 7, Part 1 (2002) p. 3)

"We Shall Return

Return, return, we shall return

Borders shall not exist, nor citadels

"We Shall Return

Return, return, we shall return

Borders shall not exist, nor citadels and fortresses

Cry out, O those who have left:

We shall return!

We shall return to the homes, to the valleys, to the mountains

Under the flag of glory, Jihad and struggle

With blood, sacrifice [fida'], fraternity and loyalty

We shall return

 We shall return, O hills; [we] shall return, O heights

We shall return to childhood; [we] shall return to youth

To Jihad in the hills; [to] harvest in the land"

(Our Beautiful Language, Grade 5, Part 1 (2011) p. 50)

*Over the past 24 years, Israel Resource News Agency and the Center for Near East Policy Research have facilitated news coverage from schools in UNRWA facilities which operate  in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and Gaza, Most recently, these agencies produced CAMP JIHAD, which filmed  the inside story of UN summer camp activity,..

The author is, Director, Israel Resource News Agency & ​ Center for Near East Policy Research, in Beit Agron, Jerusalem,