Palestinian School Textbooks: EU Review

Chris Green Excerpts

Wednesday 30th June 2021 Westminster Hall

[Chris Green (Bolton West) (Con)]

We could understand it if, in the history curriculum or other elements of the curriculum, contentious issues were presented in a way that was unfavourable to Israel. That would be understandable, albeit unwelcome. But to get such things into the maths curriculum indicates a conscious will and effort to do so. Does my hon. Friend agree?

[Mary Robinson]

I do agree. We must remember that young minds are very absorbent and they tend to take on board and trust what they are taught in school.

Members who have asked questions over the past four years have been told to wait for the publication of this report and assured that this is an important issue, which is why we are having this debate. I hope that the Minister will acknowledge that, with the release of the report, the Government’s long-standing stance on this issue may require some reassessment.

I am, however, grateful and thankful that the report has provoked an international discussion about linking aid to the PA and UNRWA—which runs a number of schools in the west bank and Gaza and uses the same curriculum as the PA—to the removal of antisemitic incitement from the Palestinian curriculum. It is important to highlight that linkage. The United States has said that it will do this for its aid to UNRWA—it will delink—and the European Commissioner responsible for aid to the PA and UNRWA has said that the EU should look at doing so for its funding to the PA. In the light of this report, it may be time for this country to look again at our aid to the PA, ensure that we do not fund the curriculum that is in place while also encouraging the PA to reform their curriculum in a more positive and constructive manner.

The events of the past month have underscored how far we will have to go to heal the divisions in the region and put a permanent stop to the death and destruction. The need to tackle Hamas in particular is as clear as ever, but a lasting peace depends on a Palestinian Authority who take seriously their commitment to co-existing alongside Israel. We have to encourage the PA to demonstrate that this is taking place not just with words but at all levels of society, including education. I therefore hope that Ministers will take this report and build on its efforts to promote moderate, pragmatic Palestinian leadership, working with the PA to improve their textbooks and curriculum. However, they must also ensure that our aid money is not funding an existing curriculum that is morally objectionable and runs against our and all peace-loving people’s aspirations for the region.

--- Later in debate ---

[Chris Green (Bolton West) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne (Caroline Ansell) on securing this important debate. It is a particular pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Bury South (Christian Wakeford), who captured so many of the important issues, including a particularly important reference to rejecting the Durban conference and its agenda.

A quote from the beginning of the Georg Eckert Institute’s report captures the importance of the issue:

“School textbooks play a crucial role as transmitters and indicators of the hegemonic knowledge that a society deems appropriate for teaching to the next generation, particularly when it comes to topics relating to peace and conflict…‘for millions of people they are the first, and often the only, books that they read’.”

If the material is a source of information that people will take with them through the rest of their lives, it is so important to get it right from the beginning, so that those problems, failings and introduced concerns are not there. The evidence in the report is clear that in the textbooks, as well as in the teaching guides, those materials should be characterised as antisemitic. They delegitimise and deny the state of Israel. As my hon. Friend the Member for Henley (John Howell) highlighted, room can be found in the mathematics curriculum to promote or highlight the use of slingshots—that is absolutely extraordinary, and it is not by accident, but by design. It is toxic and runs through so many of the materials.

That division cuts through generations: as one generation learns, so will the next. We have to find ways and mechanisms to cut that out immediately. We have influence and the ability to apply pressure on the Palestinians. My right hon. Friend the Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire (Stephen Crabb) really captured what we can do and how this debate can and should have an impact.

We used to talk about being an aid superpower. Aid ought to bring influence. It ought to help to persuade and be a mechanism for trying to convince our friends around the world, but other players too, that receiving it is contingent upon the correction of these materials, because they are wrong. Indeed, I think everyone speaking today has said that they are wrong and need changing, so I urge my hon. Friend the Minister to make a clear statement about how he will use aid to correct these failings.