Ministers pledged urgent action last night after it emerged that British foreign aid cash is funding schools where textbooks on martyrdom and radical Islamism are used.
The Daily Mail has discovered that tens of millions of pounds of UK foreign aid is helping fund schools in Gaza and the West Bank that use such material in lessons.
The money goes via a UN agency that some other nations have chosen to stop financing because of concerns.
The textbooks include a reading exercise for six-year-olds with the words ‘martyr’ and ‘attack’, plus poems for eight-year-olds which include phrases such as ‘sacrifice my blood’ to ‘eliminate the usurper from my country’ and ‘annihilate the remnants of the foreigners’.
UK foreign aid is helping fund schools in Gaza and the West Bank that use textbooks on martyrdom in lessons. Pictured is a page on Newton’s Second Law, used to teach 11-year-olds, showing the image of a boy with a slingshot targeting Israeli soldiers. A caption alongside it reads: ‘During the first Palestinian uprising, Palestinian youths used slingshots to confront the soldiers of the Zionist Occupation and defend themselves from their treacherous bullets. What is the relationship between the elongation of the slingshot’s rubber and the tensile strength affecting it? What are the forces that influence the stone after its release from the slingshot?’. Textbook examples research and translations by Impact-se
Nine-year-olds learn maths by adding the number of martyrs in Palestinian uprisings in textbooks illustrated with pictures of their funerals.
And ten-year-olds learn the most important thing is giving their life for ‘sacrifice, fight, jihad, and struggle’.
Newton’s Second Law is taught to 11-year-olds through the image of a boy with a slingshot targeting Israeli soldiers.
The schools are attended by 325,000 pupils, up to age 16.
The Mail has also learned that teachers who work at them have called for Jews to be murdered, abused them as ‘pigs and apes’ and praised Adolf Hitler.
And the schools are said to be ‘fertile grounds’ for terrorist groups to recruit with scores of suicide bombers and jihadi leaders among past pupils.
Other pages from the textbooks – which are funded through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees – show children being taught to pronounce a letter with picture of violent struggle (right). Right is a page teaching reading comprehension with a glorified account of terrorist Dalal al-Mughrabi, who led the 1978 ‘Coastal Road Massacre’ in which 38 Israelis including 13 children were murdered on a bus
A poem for eight-year-olds on this page described the liberation of Palestine, reading: ‘We sing and remember: The Land of the Generous I vow I shall sacrifice my blood, to saturate the land of the generous and will eliminate the usurper from my country, and will annihilate the remnants of the foreigners. Oh the land of Al-Aqsa and the Haram, oh cradle of chivalry and generosity Patient, be patient as victory is ours, dawn is emerging from the oppression’
The British aid money goes via the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). During the past five years, the UK has given £330million and pledged another £65million for this year.
Although the UN agency’s work also includes healthcare, relief and social services, most of the funding it receives – 58 per cent – goes on education.
Of that money, about 62 per cent is for schools in West Bank and Gaza – which means about £120millon of UK funding has gone where the textbooks are used. UNRWA insists these schools have to follow a curriculum set by the Palestinian Authority, which produces and pays for the textbooks.
However, the Department for International Development, which hands out foreign aid, last night said the UK had lobbied for a thorough independent review of the material, which was now being led by the EU.
Another part of the textbooks teaching Arabic Language again mentioned terrorist Dalal Mughrabi listed as one of the national heroes to be celebrated. The writing translated too: ‘We are proud of them, we sing with their wonders, and study their march, and give their names to our children; we put their names on our streets and squares and the cultural places. We spray our gatherings with the perfume of their memory, and each of us wishes to be like them. They have decorated the pages of history. They taught people that drinking the cup of bitterness with glory is much sweeter than a pleasant long life accompanied by humiliation. Hooray for the heroes and down with the cowards!’
![This page, aimed at 13-14-year-olds, appeared alongside the length caption: 'During the Palestinian Stone Uprising of 1987, the youth of Palestine used a slingshot or the 'shu'ba' to confront the bullets of the Occupation army soldiers who were breaking in Palestinian towns. The Palestinians had no other means of defending themselves. Answer the questions: 1. Have you seen a slingshot in your environment? What are its uses? 2. What is its usefulness for shooting stones? How does it work? 3. Examine the forms of energy transformations of the stone, from the moment it is set in the slingshot position until its launch toward the target. 4. Formerly, bows and arrows were used as a means of self-defense. Explain the principle of how it [the bow] works in launching an arrow toward the goal and compare it with the principle of how slingshots worked in the Palestinian stone uprising. 5. What safety precautions should be taken into account when using the slingshot?](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/02/21/21/25038214-8030511-This_page_aimed_at_13_14_year_olds_appeared_alongside_the_length-m-113_1582320529926.jpg)
This page, aimed at 13-14-year-olds, appeared alongside the length caption: ‘During the Palestinian Stone Uprising of 1987, the youth of Palestine used a slingshot or the ‘shu’ba’ to confront the bullets of the Occupation army soldiers who were breaking in Palestinian towns. The Palestinians had no other means of defending themselves. Answer the questions: 1. Have you seen a slingshot in your environment? What are its uses? 2. What is its usefulness for shooting stones? How does it work? 3. Examine the forms of energy transformations of the stone, from the moment it is set in the slingshot position until its launch toward the target. 4. Formerly, bows and arrows were used as a means of self-defense. Explain the principle of how it [the bow] works in launching an arrow toward the goal and compare it with the principle of how slingshots worked in the Palestinian stone uprising. 5. What safety precautions should be taken into account when using the slingshot?
A maths page for 9-10 year olds, pictured above, asked: ‘The number of martyrs of the First Intifada (the Intifada of Rocks) is 2026 martyrs, and the number of martyrs of the Al-Aqsa Intifada is 5,050. The number of martyrs in the two intifadas is _________ martyrs’
Newly appointed International Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan also promised to take up the issue ‘urgently’ with the Palestinian authorities.
‘The UK Government has a zero tolerance approach towards incitement to violence,’ a spokesman for Dfid said.
‘The UK lobbied for a thorough independent review of textbooks used in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, which is now under way.
‘The new International Development Secretary will urgently press the Palestinian Education Minister to take swift action on what it recommends.’
Britain is now the fourth largest contributor to UNRWA.
But the US and other European countries have frozen aid over how the agency is run. Other content from the textbooks include glorified images of terrorists such as Dalal al-Mughrabi, who led the 1978 ‘Coastal Road Massacre’ in which 38 Israelis including 13 children were murdered – along with the slogan ‘Hooray for the heroes and… down with the cowards!’.
Another exercise for six or seven-year-olds included words like ‘martyr’ and ‘attack
In this expert from an Islamic Education textbook for ages 10-11, the caption read: ‘The heroism of the of the people Palestine Ever Since Palestine is under Jewish-Zionist occupation, its people are facing situations of heroism and sacrifice¿ The heroism of the children of Palestine was also evident in the first and second intifada – they opposed the Zionist enemies with force and courage. A large number of them became martyrs during the protection of the land of Palestine.’ ‘Exercise 3: Mention situations in which the people of Palestine demonstrated courage and heroism. Issue for discussion: What is the role of courage in national liberation?’
Other material praises children who were martyred while fighting ‘Zionist enemies’. In history, pupils learn that the PLO 1973 hijacking of Pan Am and Lufthansa planes that killed 32 passengers were ‘operations against Zionist targets’.
A new report from the Henry Jackson Society, a British foreign policy think-tank, entitled Reconsidering the Future of UNRWA, alleges the agency ‘spreads extremist propaganda, and is infiltrated by extremists.’
The report adds: ‘Its educational initiatives, both formal and informal, are full of anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic incitement, and UNRWA helps nurture a culture of violence towards Israelis through its educational activities.’
Marcus Sheff, of Israeli-based Impact-se, an organisation that monitors school textbooks, said: ‘British taxpayers are paying for UNRWA to support the radicalisation of over 300,000 children every single school day.’
And former Tory party chairman Lord Pickles described the agency as a ‘significant road block to peace’.
UNRWA claims to review troubling material – but when it tried to act in 2017 it was forced to back down after the Palestinian Authority suspended ties.
An UNRWA spokesman said last night: ‘UNRWA cannot alter host government curriculum as this is a matter of national sovereignty, but it does have robust systems in place to ensure education delivered in its schools reflects UN values.
‘All UNRWA students receive human rights, conflict resolution and tolerance education.’