Norway suspends some funds to the Palestinian Authority over textbook incitement

 

 

For the first time, Norway will freeze part of the aid it sends to the Palestinian Authority because of incitement in PA textbooks.

Newspapers in Norway reported about the incitement found by IMPACT-SE last November and it caused an uproar. 

 

In December, the Foreign Affairs Committee asked the government to reduce or withhold funds to the PA, much of it earmarked for education, unless significant changes are made. In a letter to the government it wrote, “The Committee believes it is necessary to ensure that Norwegian funds support teaching that is ethically sound and forms the basis for peaceful coexistence and tolerance for future generations in the region, and believes that the government must use available means to achieve this….it asks the government to reduce or withhold financial support for PA if they do not provide satisfactory improvements in school materials within a reasonable time.”

Last month, a  member of Parliament asked Foreign Minister Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide what the status of the issue was. She wrote her response yesterday:

Review of the Palestinian school curriculum from the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research (GEI) has been commissioned by the EU. The corona pandemic has complicated GEI's work, but they expect to complete the final report in November / December 2020.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is following up the question of the curriculum vis-à-vis Palestinian autonomous authorities in line with the remarks to the majority in the Foreign and Defense Committee's recommendation on the state budget for 2020. Among other things, the Government, pending GEI's final report, has withheld the payment of more than half of the planned sector of the year. . Disbursement of these funds will depend on the will and ability of Palestinian autonomous authorities to improve the syllabus.

In my meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh in Ramallah on February 20 this year, I 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. Furthermore, the Norwegian representative office in Al Ram has informed Palestinian self-government authorities of possible withholding of financial support if no positive changes to the Palestinian curriculum are seen within a reasonable time.

Norway raised the issue in a meeting with the Palestinian Minister of Education on May 15. There is also close contact between Norway and other donors to the education sector in Palestine. Norway, together with other donors, participated in a meeting with the Palestinian Minister of Education on reform of the Palestinian school curriculum on May 21. We feel that there is a good and close dialogue with the Palestinian education authorities on the issue. Some of the curriculum changes have already been made by Palestine's own textbook quality control committee.

Norway gives about $6 million a year to the PA. This would not be a huge blow to the PA budget but funding from the rest of the EU might be jeopardized as well.

Last month, the European Parliament passed a resolution that was critical of Palestinian textbooks, saying  it "is concerned about the problematic content of Palestinian textbooks that have not yet been removed and is concerned about the continuing lack of effective action against hate speech and violence in school books." That resolution passed with a vote of 402-263.