Palestinian School Textbooks: EU Review

Debate between Christian Wakeford and James Duddridge

Wednesday 30th June 2021 Westminster Hall

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (James Duddridge)]

It is great to be back in Westminster Hall. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne (Caroline Ansell) for securing this debate, for her work in support of peace and stability in the region, and for the knowledge that she brings as a teacher, a school inspector and an excellent parliamentarian. She teed up an excellent debate.

The right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) asked for a balanced debate. I did think that a debate with the words “EU” and “Palestine” in the title was unlikely to be balanced, and was much more likely to be polarising, but I have been pleasantly surprised by the speeches that were balanced, and those that were not were balanced out by one another.

There have been a number of contributions, and, like my hon. Friend the Member for Penistone and Stocksbridge (Miriam Cates), who spoke virtually, most if not all Members have been to the region. I visited it as part of the International Development Committee, as the junior Member of the Conservative MPs on that Committee. Unfortunately, one of those Members had to leave—he was offered a job by the Labour party and went to the Lords—and the other has recently left the Conservative party, joined the Labour party and hopes to go to the Lords, so I seem to be the last man standing from that little delegation.

The Minister for the Middle East and North Africa, my right hon. Friend the Member for Braintree (James Cleverly), would have loved to be here to take part in this debate. He apologises that he cannot do that as he is elsewhere on ministerial duties. It is a pleasure for me to respond. I will discuss all the issues with him when he returns to the Department, and with officials.

The Government welcome the publication of this report, which has taken some time. My right hon. Friend the Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire (Stephen Crabb) says that I may downplay this issue—well, I will not. He says that I may say that the issue is fixed—I will not. He says that I will pray in aid the fact that we fund the teachers, not the books, and I will do that. I will come to the issues that he and others raised about conditionality later in my speech.

We urged our European partners to publish these findings, and I am happy that they have done so. It has been a long time coming. I suspect there will be more debates on this subject. There have been many before. Hon. Members referred to my right hon. Friend the Member for Chipping Barnet (Theresa Villiers). Sorry—I was going to say Chipping Norton; I have spent far too much time there, as other colleagues have recently. This debate is part of the process, not the end of it. I will not be able to say definitively to colleagues, “This is something that happened in the past, and these are the 10 things we’re going to do that solve the problem,” but I will hopefully give an indication of some of the changes.

[Christian Wakeford]

I recognise that changes to the curriculum will be immensely difficult, but what hope does the Minister have that we will see changes when the Palestinian Prime Minister has vowed to continue the printing of the textbooks, and to pay for them with water, telephone and electricity bills if that is what it takes?

[James Duddridge]

I am not sighted on that statement, but I am naturally an optimist. The report talks of the progress made as well as some of the very real and unacceptable problems that remain.

Reflecting on the report, the Georg Eckert Institute is a specialist organisation that looks at textbook analysis. It was instructed to undertake a robust and impartial review of the contents of those textbooks. Hon. Members have talked of the period being 2017 to 2019. My hon. Friend the Member for Bury South (Christian Wakeford) said that there was nothing more up to date. Some bits were more up to date. A smaller sample of textbooks from the most recent academic year was included, but they were principally from 2017 to 2019.

The aim was to provide a comprehensive and objective basis for the dialogue with the Palestinian Authority and to promote quality education, addressing the issues of incitement. There has generally been an acceptance of the value of education—we heard historic quotes from a number of Members—and of the power of getting it right, but part of that is getting the textbooks right. It is positive that the textbooks analysed were found to adhere to UNESCO guidelines on human rights and generally to promote political pluralism and cultural, social and religious values that support co-existence. However, it is very clear from the examples used today that there are concerns. My hon. Friends the Members for Cheadle (Mary Robinson) and for Henley (John Howell) voiced concerns specifically about maths textbooks and the issue of the use of maps, which I am sure the Minister for the Middle East will want to review in more detail and perhaps discuss with colleagues.

There is an acceptance that the report found that there continues to be anti-Israel, antisemitic comment in those textbooks. That clearly is not acceptable to the House or to the Government. The UK Government continue to have zero tolerance for incitement to hatred and antisemitism in all forms. I thank hon. Members who referred to the Durban conference as an example of that.

International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace

Debate between Christian Wakeford and James Duddridge

Tuesday 17th November 2020 Westminster Hall

[James Duddridge]

I will speak later about people-to-people programmes in general. I am not sure what the opportunities are, and there are real sensitivities in education and other matters that the House has discussed, but I will certainly take away that suggestion.

[Christian Wakeford]

I fully appreciate that £20 million is going to fund teachers and healthcare workers, but part of the problem is the curriculum that is being taught. If we are funding teachers to teach that curriculum, we perpetuate the problem. If we are funding it, can we do some meaningful work in reforming the curriculum so that we can truly bring about peace?

[James Duddridge]

I am conscious that this has been the subject of a number of debates. There is no funding of textbooks and there is careful selection of teachers. There is also a review, through our European partners, of some of these issues. I am happy to engage with the hon. Member in more detail outside this debate.

The UK is also a key supporter of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in providing aid and development assistance to the Palestinian refugees.