Palestinian School Textbooks: EU Review

Stephen Crabb Excerpts

Wednesday 30th June 2021 Westminster Hall

[Caroline Ansell]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his question, which strikes at the heart of the point I was making: although there is increased coverage and focus on human rights, that does not extend to the Israelis. Actually, the very point that I rested on was that the conclusion rests on a report that offers up, in its body, example after example that contradict those UNESCO values. We need to understand that and challenge it.

[Stephen Crabb (Preseli Pembrokeshire) (Con)]

My hon. Friend is making a really important point. To underline it, is it not the case that when we read the report—the executive summary, the main body of the report and the conclusions—it appears that there is a disconnect between what the executive summary says and the conclusions and the real evidence, which is contained deep in the body of the report? That is the concern and that is what we should be discussing today.

[Caroline Ansell]

I concur entirely. What is required is a full reading of the body of evidence, because the executive summary does not seem to reflect that evidence. In fact, it must be contested that the textbooks adhere to the UNESCO standards when they simultaneously espouse a narrative of resistance to Israel and display antagonism towards it. How can the report’s conclusion be reconciled with the extensive evidence within the body of the report?

There are other issues with the report. A wider analysis highlights glaring omissions—or apparent omissions. The justification of the Munich Olympics terrorist attack as an attack on Zionist interests abroad is not covered. On the 2020 claims, the report suggests positive editing and improvement in the most recently published textbooks, but are these criticisms put forward? Are these phantom changes? Are they based on books that reportedly are not in the curriculum, or on books that do not appear on the Palestinian Authority’s official Education Ministry online portal? Is the scale and scope of the review sufficiently robust? For example, 15% relates to the coverage of the 2020-21 textbooks.

Notwithstanding the discordant finding of the report, as mentioned by the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael), last week, following the completion of the EU review, the Foreign Office issued a statement acknowledging that anti-Israel content remains. The UK is not alone in reaching that conclusion. Norway has already cut its funding and the Biden Administration are now making aid conditional on the removal of incitement of antisemitism from educational materials.

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[Stephen Crabb (Preseli Pembrokeshire) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dame Angela. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne (Caroline Ansell) on securing this important and timely debate.

For years, Members from both sides of the House have raised concerns about problematic examples of what is being taught in Palestinian schools and how that fosters a culture of hate and violence and works against the aims of many Governments around the world who support a viable two-state solution in the middle east. I remember a debate early last year when my right hon. Friend the Member for Chipping Barnet (Theresa Villiers) referred to the fact that she had first started raising concerns about the Palestinian curriculum when she was a Member of the European Parliament 20 years ago. It is not only British parliamentarians; parliamentarians all across Europe, including in Sweden and Germany, and the United States have raised similar concerns. There are serious and real issues to address.

I have sat down with different Ministers and officials over the years to talk about these issues, and at different times the responses have ranged from trying to downplay the seriousness of some of the examples that we raised, to suggesting that the problem was historical and had been fixed, or was in the process of being fixed, to suggesting that, because the UK Government do not fund educational materials directly—we only fund the salaries of Palestinian teachers—it is somehow less of a problem for us to be concerned about. Each time, it felt like we were being put on the back foot.

The review we are debating was supposed to be the critical moment when an objective look could be taken and the UK Government, in partnership with other Governments around the world, could take a strong and unified approach. The contents of the report are problematic, as has been said, and I am pleased that Members with different viewpoints on this subject agree that there are problematic examples.

The Minister is very experienced and knowledgeable and is deeply committed, as I hope we all are, to humanitarian support around the world. I want to hear from him a clear message about what the Government intend to do now. For years, when Palestinian Authority Ministers have reassured us and suggested that we should move along and that there is nothing to see, we have wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. The truth is that there is something to see, and we need a clear and well-defined position from the Government about what we intend to say and do with our friends in the Palestinian Authority.

I support a strong aid budget. Now is not the moment to open up the 0.7% issue. However, I put on the record that, at a time when we are making deep cuts to important humanitarian programmes overseas, we are protecting funding for the Palestinian public sector. If we are going to do that, surely we should demand the highest possible standards, to really foster that culture of tolerance and respect and to work against hate and violence, which risks dragging that region back into old cycles.