Issue: Negotiations

Legislation on encouraging direct negotiations

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There are many areas of disagreement that have, to date, prevented resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. But at the root of the dispute are themes that permeate Palestinian schools as part of the official Palestinian Authority curriculum used to indoctrinate over one million children: a hatred of Israel and the Jewish people and a rejection of the legitimacy of any Jewish claim to the land.

Just this April, we saw the consequences of such incitement when hundreds of Palestinian youths threw stones and set off fireworks on the Temple Mount in their efforts to block Jews from visiting.

This problem has been well-documented by, among others, NGOs, the European Parliament and by the US government, including the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a report declassified in February 2019 (GAO-18-227C). The problem is pervasive: for grades 2-12, one hundred percent of social studies, history, Arabic language, and national education textbooks contain problematic content.

The American government provides significant funding towards the PA both directly and through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). That funding effectively supports the problematic curriculum described above. A first step towards solving the problem is officially diagnosing it so that Congress can determine what steps to take. That is what the proposed bipartisan legislation does – it requires that the State Department prepare a report that, among other things:

• Determines whether content and passages encouraging violence or intolerance toward other nations or ethnic groups have been removed from the PA official curriculum;
• Assesses the steps the Palestinian Authority is taking to reform such curriculum at schools to conform with standards of peace and tolerance in the Declaration of Principles on Tolerance by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (adopted November 16, 1995); and
• Determines whether United States foreign assistance is used, directly or indirectly, to fund the dissemination of such curriculum by the Palestinian Authority.

What we are requesting of Congress:

House: Will you co-sponsor H.R. 2374, the bipartisan Peace and Tolerance in Palestinian Education Act introduced by Reps. Brad Sherman (D-CA), Lee Zeldin (R-NY), David Trone (D-MD), Brian Mast (R-FL), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Randy Weber (R-TX)? [If already a co-sponsor, please thank.]

Senate: Will you co-sponsor S. 3209, the Peace and Tolerance in Palestinian Education Act introduced by Senator John Kennedy (R-LA)?

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