Antisemitism and the Israeli Palestinian Conflict

Antisemitism and the Israeli Palestinian Conflict – Part II

UNRWA and the Palestinian Authority

The Gaza War brought to the surface, and to public awareness, the saturation of the discourse of the extreme political left with antisemitic language and slogans. This article discusses the argument that the surge in antisemitism following October 7th has a unique trajectory and stems from as distinct context. This background makes the conceptual framework, and the toolkit, used to address traditional antisemitism ineffective and misguided. Although the manifestations of antisemitism 2023 fit, somewhat, past patterns – different countermeasures are needed.

Antisemitism in the Palestinian anti-Zionist rhetoric
Palestinian society is currently in a state of deep disarray, chaos and dysfunctionality. For the last two decades, two million Palestinians living in Gaza have been used as human shields by Hamas, a Jihadist terror organization outlawed by most Arab countries and a surrogate and minion of Iran. On the other hand, the Palestinian authority, corrupt, undemocratic and deeply unpopular is barely functional. A longstanding predisposition to embrace extreme and unrealistic goals and policies coupled with society-wide corruption, division, mistrust, disarray and crime have exacerbated political paralysis.

The Palestinian cause, at the forefront of Western attention and media, and once at the center of Arab consciousness and politics – is no longer a top priority to most Arab countries. The main Arab nations, that fought four large scale wars on behalf of the Palestinian cause, pay lip service to the cause and are looking forward to a once utopian Suni-American-Israeli alliance in the Middle east. Hamas, in a desperate attempt to stop this emerging alliance perpetuated the October 7 atrocities in a failed attempt to ignite a full-scale regional war – that would have preempted the emergence of this New Middle East configuration.

Furthermore, the decades-long incorporation, into the pro-Palestinian rhetoric, of pre-existent antisemitic content, slogans, and tropes originating in traditional antisemitism – has immersed the Palestinian mind in a deep-rooted antisemitic mindset. Submerged in extreme and strident rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and demonic and derogatory images of Israelis and Jews, the Palestinian political arena is paralyzed, uncompromising and unrealistic.

Recurring rejection of proposals presented (2000, 2003 and 2008) by moderate Israeli politicians, has lead to the demise of the previously dominant peace camp in Israel. These Israeli offers include the Camp David Summit (2000) when US President Bill Clinton hosted Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. The Road Map for Peace (2003) proposed by the Quartet (the United States, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations) and the Annapolis Conference (2007): Hosted by the US.

The chronic Palestinian refusal to accept Israeli overtures has discredited the Israeli peace camp and has caused a shift of the Israeli electorate to the right, and away from support for a two-state solution. Furthermore, the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7th have deeply impacted the Israeli psyche and have all but eliminated any residue of good will towards an accommodation with the Palestinians.

Education
Another major cause for concern is the anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli indoctrination inflicted upon Palestinian youth. In the Palestinian territories, education is saturated in anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish incitement – according to a recent IMPACT (The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance) report. This report investigated the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) that operates in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, as well as in Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. UNWRA reportedly provides education to almost 545,000 children in its schools. According to UNWRA’s website. The Palestinian National Authority (PA) curriculum is taught in UNRWA schools across the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. As has been extensively documented, since a revision of the PA curriculum was undertaken in 2016, these textbooks have remained openly antisemitic and continue to encourage violence, jihad and martyrdom. Peace is not taught as preferable or even possible. Extreme nationalism and Islamist ideologies proliferate throughout the curriculum taught to Palestinian children everywhere, including in science and math textbooks. A recent report analyzed a sample of 82 UNRWA teachers and other staff affiliated with over 30 UNRWA schools who were involved in drafting, supervising, approving, printing, and distributing hateful content to students. These and other examples violate UN values, UNESCO standards, and UNRWA’s “zero-tolerance policy for discrimination or for incitement to hatred and violence in its schools, educational materials, or in any of its operations.”

Moreover, the recent IMPACT-se report identified 133 UNRWA educators and staff who were found to promote hate and violence on social media. It is against this background that this report has uncovered equally disturbing results. The first section of the report details how 13 UNRWA staff members have publicly praised, celebrated or expressed their support for the unprecedented deadly assaults on civilians on 7 October. In the short time since the horrific massacre of around 1,400 Israelis, mainly civilians, IMPACT-se has used open-source material to analyze the social media activity of UNRWA staff and schools. This research indicates that by Hamas’ own admission more than 100 UNRWA graduates have become active Hamas terrorists. The third and final section of the report highlights select examples of educational material distributed to students in UNRWA schools, which either harness antisemitism or encourage martyrdom or violent jihad.

Summary
Since the dawn of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Arab countries and later the Palestinians, incorporated pre-existent antisemitic content, slogans, tropes and images in their propaganda efforts against Zionism. However, a peculiar and somewhat unnoticed gap has emerged during the last years: on one hand, the leading Arab powerhouses (Egypt, Saudia Arabia, UAE) and some of their Suni followers, have name significant efforts to reduce-eliminate antisemitic, anti-Zionist and anti Israeli indoctrination in the public and educational arenas. They have also made significant initial efforts to modernize and democratize their political, economic, educational and social sectors. The Palestinian population, on the other hand, remains immersed in extreme anti-Jewish and ant-Zionist indoctrination. It is noteworthy that Saudi Arabia has also shifted from a decades-long promotion and financing of terrorism – to moderation in education, media and policy. The Abraham accords, the Saudi interest in pursuing an USA-Suni-Israel alliance, recent political, religious and social changes, and the 2023-4 reports of IMPACT on the shift in educational policies in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and other Arab countries – would seem to indicate that this is a significant, persistent, and society-wide promising shift.

This schism, between the Arab Saudi-led recent, but paradigmatic, shift and the Palestinian continuing addiction to antisemitic rhetoric and its wholesale immersion and saturation in extreme anti-Zionist and antisemitic worldviews is consequential and problematic – but hopefully transitional. The saturation of the Palestinian educational system and society by extremist and antisemitic ideology may not be an unsurmountable dead-end. The historical precedents of the transformation of Germany and Japan from deeply and centuries-long extreme indoctrination, into democratic societies -underscores and highlights the hope for a plausible future de-indoctrination of Palestinian society. Furthermore, the recent, ongoing and thorough de-indoctrination of Saudi Arabia and the UAE is an encouraging sign. Indeed, Saudi support and the availability of de-indoctrinated Saudi and UAE texts and teachers can encourage, facilitate and enable a similar process in Palestinian society.

The Palestinian immersion in anti-Zionist and antisemitic indoctrination is a danger to any prospect of Israeli-Palestinian accommodation. So is the current success in casting Zionism as settler colonialism – another ill-fitting, cumbersome and inadequate, but nonetheless effective tool of anti-Zionist warfare.

Regardless of the nature and details of the aftermath of the Gaza war, Palestinian society needs a transitional period of supervision towards a democratic future and a gradual reconciliation with Israel, aiming to secure its peaceful integration into an emerging New Middle East. This process should include de-indoctrination of Palestinian society from its deep addiction and dependence on antisemitic and anti-Israeli rhetoric.