EU Threatens to Cut Aid Over Anti-Semitic Texts in PA

After being shown the English translation of textbooks used by the Palestinian Authority (PA), Armin Laschet, a German representative in the European Union Parliament threatened to halt all EU funding of PA educational institutions "until all the Palestinian textbook passages antagonistic to Israel are removed."

One example from the books Laschet saw was a textbook on Islam that calls on high school students to beware of the Jews because they are "deceitful and disloyal." Another blamed European anti-Semitism on Jewish greed and fanaticism.

Peter Hansen, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, gave the PA response in Al-Hayat al-Jadida, "We cannot expect a people under occupation to have textbooks which idealize, praise and express love for their occupiers."

Israeli texts do not "idealize, praise and express love" for the Palestinians, but they do not malign or disseminate hatred against them either.

The PA's deputy minister for education denied the books were being used, but Yasser Arafat confirmed that they were in the PA schools. He claimed the books were old ones from the Jordanian system and that the PA lacked funds to replace them. Laschet replied that the European Union was providing the PA with 300 million Euros [roughly $300 million] "and they certainly can bear the cost of publishing new textbooks."