Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what progress her Department has made with the Georg Eckert Institute on the review of the textbooks included in the Palestinian Authority’s school curriculum; and if she will make a statement.

Following the UK’s calls for international action, an EU sponsored independent review of Palestinian textbooks is currently underway. The EU has contracted the Georg Eckert Institute, a specialist textbook analysis centre, to lead this review.

To ensure the review could begin immediately on the signing of the contract, the UK commissioned the Georg Eckert Institute to produce an inception report to establish its methodology in advance.

We understand from the EU that an interim report covering grade 8 – 10 books will be completed in Spring 2020, with the full report covering all the books due later in the year. DFID is part of the steering committee for this review, and we will continue to engage with the EU to press for this timetable to be met.