The horror of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 massacres in Israel confirmed years of warnings that UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians, is neither an honest nor credible partner.
It quickly became clear that staff from the agency were among the brutal perpetrators of that darkest of days, inviting unprecedented and justified scrutiny. Scratching beneath the surface revealed that not only were hundreds of October 7 terrorists graduates of UNRWA schools, but that their schools had been used to store weapons, while their teachers (including school principals) had been educators by day, terrorists by night.
However, none of this was at all new, certainly not for those who had closely followed what actually happens in UNRWA schools. Detailed research by the international research institute IMPACT-se had exposed for many years that UNRWA classrooms have been teaching Palestinian children that Jews are malevolent and that their role in life is to become a martyr.
Nothing new
At the heart of UNRWA schools in both Gaza and the West Bank, which Israelis refer to as Judea and Samaria, is a Palestinian Authority (PA) curriculum that is hateful and violent. For example, an Arabic language reading comprehension teaches 14-year-old Palestinian children grammar and vocabulary through a grotesque text that lionizes suicide bombers wearing “explosive belts,” praises Palestinians’ daggers slashing Israelis’ throats, and explicitly instructs students “not to forget” the image of burned Israelis – accompanied by a graphic illustration.
Meanwhile, third-grade students learn numerical digits not by adding apples or oranges, but by counting numbers of “martyrs.”
As if this wasn’t enough, UNRWA teachers and schools have routinely added their own supplementary material to the classroom, which is equally hateful and inciteful.
In one example, ninth graders were given a reading comprehension exercise on a Palestinian firebombing attack on an Israeli bus near the city of Ramallah, celebrating the attack as a “barbecue party.”
In another example, photo evidence showed that UNRWA schoolchildren were being taught to exalt Dalal Mughrabi, a terrorist who perpetrated the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre, slaughtering 38 civilians, including 13 children.
When so many Gazans have been thoroughly indoctrinated to believe that it is a noble ambition and honorable duty to kill Jews, nobody should be surprised that so many gleefully answered the call on October 7.
And yet, for years UNRWA has doubled down on an unfit education system. It continues to insist on teaching the “host country” PA curriculum as best practice, and that it is not permitted to change its textbooks.
However, the UN mandate given to UNRWA makes no such demands. It is a conscious choice. Meanwhile, UNRWA claims it employs a “rapid review” process to identify content not in line with UNESCO educational standards, which finds alternative ways to teach content.
Yet, UNRWA has continually refused to disclose documents that identify the offending material, or how teachers are asked to deal with the materials in the classroom.
Under new scrutiny
For years, UNRWA simply hoped the fact that its schools were breeding hatred, violence, and extremism could simply be brushed away.
Yet the furor in the wake of October 7 rightly sparked a whole other level of scrutiny. This culminated in January 2024, when the United Nations launched a review into UNRWA’s neutrality, educational content, staff conduct, and the agency’s links to terrorist organizations.
Led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, the independent review assessed UNRWA’s governance, neutrality framework, and institutional safeguards – a narrow remit from the start.
IMPACT-se was the only NGO asked to brief Colonna and her panel. The review eventually issued 50 recommendations intended to strengthen accountability, oversight, educational neutrality, and operational integrity.
A recent analysis demonstrates that two years on, UNRWA has failed to meaningfully implement many of Colonna’s key recommendations – particularly those addressing educational neutrality, hate speech, and antisemitism.
Notably, Colonna concluded that UNRWA teaching materials “constitute a grave violation of neutrality” and demanded that the agency immediately “stop using such material.” UNRWA continues to sit on its hands.
Around a dozen governments, including UNRWA’s largest donor, the United States, have drawn the appropriate conclusion and have ended or cut their contributions to UNRWA, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.
Meanwhile, the Board of Peace, set up by US President Donald Trump and composed of 27 member states, including Qatar and Turkey, has stated: “UNRWA has no place in the new Gaza.”
Protestations by UNRWA officials that the agency’s demise would spell disaster ring hollow.
It is now an open question: What is the alternative to UNRWA?
Beyond the agency
The fallout from October 7 has brought with it fresh thinking when it comes to education and child development. Independent initiatives have sprung up for Gazan children who have endured so much.
For example, the Gaza Children Village is already educating thousands of Gazan children. Reimagining how education can build a better future not only in Gaza, but for the region, it has discarded the “host country” curriculum in favor of a de-radicalized peace education curriculum.
In other words, out of the horror of October 7 and the Israel-Hamas War, new and hopeful possibilities are emerging. The time has come to embrace this spirit. UNRWA is a failed organization, and its education system promises only yet more conflict and suffering. We must all move on.■
Marcus Sheff is the CEO of the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se).