Last week, Norway endorsed a cut in aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA), after the PA failed to remove material inciting violence against Israel and Jews from its school curriculum.
The Norwegian parliament approved a cut of 30 million Norwegian krone ($3.4 million) to Norway’s aid budget to the PA. Parliamentarians called on the PA to focus on “peace and cooperation” and stop “hate education”.
In June 2020, Norwegian Foreign Affairs Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide confirmed that Norway had withheld over half a year’s funding to the PA due to concerns over textbooks promoting hatred and violence.
The Foreign Minister said that in a meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh in February this year, she “communicated the government’s views on the matter, stressing that lack of improvements in the school curriculum could have budgetary implications for future Norwegian aid”.
In December 2019, the Norwegian parliament called on the PA to reform its curriculum, citing reports by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) that found that the most recent Palestinian Authority school textbooks are even more extreme than previous editions.
The EU-led Georg Eckert Institute (GEI) review into the PA curriculum is due for publication by the end of 2020, but concerns have been raised over the credibility of the review by European parliamentarians. The PA has since updated its curriculum without removing concerning material.
Conservative MP Jonathan Gullis wrote to Middle East Minister Rt. Hon. James Cleverly MP last month to express his concerns over the “long overdue” review.
In his letter, Mr Gullis referred to comments by Dr. Riem Spielhaus, the head of the textbook study at the GEI, who confirmed in an interview with German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel that researchers “mistakenly reviewed Israeli Arabic-language textbooks, presenting them as Palestinian Authority books”.
The former school teacher added that “these Israeli textbooks were the only examples of peace, tolerance, and recognition of Israel cited in an online presentation of the classified EU interim report”.
He writes that Dr. Spielhaus’ remarks “directly contradict” assurances the UK Government has received from the EU that researchers have not looked at Israeli textbooks.
In March 2020, Mr Gullis led his first Westminster Hall debate on the subject of radicalisation within the Palestinian school curriculum, with 20 Conservative MPs in attendance.
