Making UNRWA funds conditional on the content of Palestinian schoolbooks
12.9.2023
Question for written answer E-002620/2023
to the Commission
Rule 138
David Lega (PPE), Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou (PPE), Petras Auštrevičius (Renew), Antonio López-Istúriz White (PPE), Lukas Mandl (PPE), Bert-Jan Ruissen (ECR), Miriam Lexmann (PPE), Andrey Kovatchev (PPE), Carmen Avram (S&D), Ondřej Knotek (Renew), Loránt Vincze (PPE), Niclas Herbst (PPE), Dietmar Köster (S&D), Anja Haga (NI)
A recent study conducted by the Commission through the Georg Eckert Institute has identified antisemitic material in Palestinian schoolbooks. As the EU’s budgetary authority, Parliament has on several occasions called on the Commission to make EU funding to the Palestinian Authority conditional on textbooks being free from antisemitism and hate, in full compliance with UNESCO standards.
In the 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018 Commission discharges – and recently in its recommendation on relations with the Palestinian Authority of July 2023 – Parliament has again and again stressed that antisemitic content in Palestinian textbooks, including even incitement to violence, has still not been removed. Nor have curriculum and study cards been revised, despite the Palestinian Authority’s promises to its international partners that it would make improvements.
Given this:
- 1.How is the Commission responding to the continued presence of antisemitic content in Palestinian schoolbooks?
- 2.Will the Commission revise funding to the Palestinian Authority and make the EU-funded salaries of civil servants responsible for textbook production conditional on the content of textbooks they produce reflecting EU and UNESCO values of peace, tolerance and coexistence?
Submitted: 12.9.2023