Published : 10-06-2021
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed that the Biden administration’s renewal of funding for UNRWA is conditional on anti-Israel and anti-Jewish education reform on Tuesday.
“We’re also determined that UNRWA pursue very necessary reforms in terms of some of the abuses of the system that have taken place in the past, particularly the challenge that we've seen in disseminating in its educational products antisemitic or anti-Israel information, so we're very focused on that,” Blinken said before the Appropriations Committees of the House and Senate regarding the State Department's budget requests for the 2022 fiscal year.
He continued, adding that the State Department would be “looking very, very carefully” at the mechanisms that the refugee organization for Palestinians says it has in place in order to address problematic educational materials, which were discovered by a January 2021 review by Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), a non-profit that monitors the content of school textbooks.
UNRWA warned that the recent attacks on the Agency – alleging that it teaches “jihad” and “terrorism” – are biased attempts to drag a principled humanitarian agency into a highly politicised sphere where it does not belong. Moreover, they incorrectly cast UNRWA students as prone or supportive to jihad and terrorism.
However, in a statement issued earlier this year, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said: “There should be no tolerance for stereotyping. Firmly sticking to neutrality and non-discrimination ensures that we can work with all parties to be able to assist and protect Palestine refugees.”
“As the largest UN or humanitarian agency operating in one of the most complex and longest-standing conflicts in the Middle East, we know better than anyone else the importance of remaining neutral”, he said. “The ongoing attacks and unfounded allegations against UNRWA are but a political tool to delegitimise the agency and the Palestine refugees that it protects. These attacks seek to draw the focus away from the hardships Palestinian refugees face due to their ongoing dispossession and displacement”.
UNRWA has always maintained that strict commitment to humanitarian principles drives all of its positions and decisions. Every UNRWA staff member is trained in upholding the principles of neutrality and non-discrimination and is held accountable and disciplined if found in breach of them. At all 711 UNRWA schools in the region, students organise in school parliaments and learn about the importance of human rights, equality and tolerance. UNRWA schoolteachers are constantly trained on how to approach critically any educational content that is not in line with UN values.
“This means that all UNRWA operations are exclusively driven by the alleviation of suffering (humanity), while ensuring that its response is independent from military and political aims (independence), with no discrimination (impartiality), and not taking sides in conflict (neutrality). Being political is antithetical to being a humanitarian”, added Lazzarini.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed that the Biden administration’s renewal of funding for UNRWA is conditional on anti-Israel and anti-Jewish education reform on Tuesday.
“We’re also determined that UNRWA pursue very necessary reforms in terms of some of the abuses of the system that have taken place in the past, particularly the challenge that we've seen in disseminating in its educational products antisemitic or anti-Israel information, so we're very focused on that,” Blinken said before the Appropriations Committees of the House and Senate regarding the State Department's budget requests for the 2022 fiscal year.
He continued, adding that the State Department would be “looking very, very carefully” at the mechanisms that the refugee organization for Palestinians says it has in place in order to address problematic educational materials, which were discovered by a January 2021 review by Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), a non-profit that monitors the content of school textbooks.
UNRWA warned that the recent attacks on the Agency – alleging that it teaches “jihad” and “terrorism” – are biased attempts to drag a principled humanitarian agency into a highly politicised sphere where it does not belong. Moreover, they incorrectly cast UNRWA students as prone or supportive to jihad and terrorism.
However, in a statement issued earlier this year, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said: “There should be no tolerance for stereotyping. Firmly sticking to neutrality and non-discrimination ensures that we can work with all parties to be able to assist and protect Palestine refugees.”
“As the largest UN or humanitarian agency operating in one of the most complex and longest-standing conflicts in the Middle East, we know better than anyone else the importance of remaining neutral”, he said. “The ongoing attacks and unfounded allegations against UNRWA are but a political tool to delegitimise the agency and the Palestine refugees that it protects. These attacks seek to draw the focus away from the hardships Palestinian refugees face due to their ongoing dispossession and displacement”.
UNRWA has always maintained that strict commitment to humanitarian principles drives all of its positions and decisions. Every UNRWA staff member is trained in upholding the principles of neutrality and non-discrimination and is held accountable and disciplined if found in breach of them. At all 711 UNRWA schools in the region, students organise in school parliaments and learn about the importance of human rights, equality and tolerance. UNRWA schoolteachers are constantly trained on how to approach critically any educational content that is not in line with UN values.
“This means that all UNRWA operations are exclusively driven by the alleviation of suffering (humanity), while ensuring that its response is independent from military and political aims (independence), with no discrimination (impartiality), and not taking sides in conflict (neutrality). Being political is antithetical to being a humanitarian”, added Lazzarini.
