Courtesy of IMPACT-se The Swiss government has announced that they will examine recent reports by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) that materials found in the Palestinian school curriculum promote violence, anti-Semitism, and undermine a two-state solution. A spokeswoman for the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said, “School materials that run contrary to the spirit of a two-state solution, which glorify violence, which fuel racism and anti-Semitism or trivialize violations of international law and human rights are not in compliance with the Swiss position on the Middle East. Switzerland will examine reports such as those by IMPACT-se and discuss them with other donor nations.” Last year, IMPACT-se released a report that examined textbooks used by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). 1st through 12th grade textbooks published for the 2017-2018 academic year, taught in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, were found to encourage hatred, violence, and anti-Semitism. Overall, “the new textbooks examined in this report indoctrinate for death and martyrdom. Jews and Israelis are portrayed as quintessentially evil, amid calls for jihad and martyrdom by Palestinian children.” There is no distinction made between Jews and Israelis. Jews are referred to as “enemies of Islam” and are blamed for poisoning the Prophet Muhammad. These textbooks also honor Palestinian terrorists, such as Dalal Mughrabi. Mughrabi participated in the 1978 Costal Road massacre, which led to the death of 38 people, 13 of whom were children. Her photograph was featured in a 5th grade Arabic textbook and the passages states that “her struggle portrays challenge and heroism, making her memory immortal in our hearts and minds. [She] irrigated the land of Palestine with her pure blood; to create a flourishing revolutionary history that will never calm down.”Additionally, the 1972 Munich massacre was referred to as “Palestinian resistance” in an 11th grade history textbook. When the initial report came out, IMPACT-se’s CEO Marcus Sheff pledged that they would share their findings with donor states to the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education, such as the Swiss. Sheff has welcomed the Swiss government’s decision, saying that the funding makes the country “complicit in the radicalization of 450,000 Palestinian schoolchildren in UNRWA schools. It is hard to believe that after having read the material and seen the examples, the Swiss government will willfully continue to financially support the teaching of a curriculum that espouses antisemitism, hate and violence.” The Swiss are not the first to look into Palestinian educational materials. The European Union has already taken steps to prevent aid to the PA from financing educational materials that are found to be discriminatory. Additionally, the United Kingdom and Finland are also conducting their own investigations into Palestinian educational materials. Belgium has also severed ties with the PA’s Education Ministry after it was discovered that one of the schools they provided aid for was named after Mughrabi. Of course, the fact that the United States cut all foreign aid to the UNRWA last year has brought heightened attention to the deeply flawed refugee agency. Switzerland’s Foreign Affairs Minister Ignazio Cassis has previously criticized UNRWA, saying that the organization helps “keep the conflict alive.” Additionally, after a trip to Jordan, he said that Palestinian refugees are really “third-generation families who live not in actual camps but in cities,” and that most of them hold a Jordanian passport. In his view, it is absolutely “unrealistic” that five million Palestinians will return to Israel, “but the UNRWA maintains this hope.” Ultimately, the UNRWA “has become part of the problem. It provides the ammunition to continue the conflict.”