Jordaanse leraren in VN-scholen voor Palestijnse vluchtelingen willen geen les over de Holocaust

 

Een bericht over mogelijke Holocaust-les op UNRWA-scholen voor Palestijnse vluchtelingen in Jordanië, met eronder een commentaar van Elder of Ziyon.

In 2009 veroorzaakte een vergelijkbaar bericht betreffende UNRWA in de Gazastrook veel ophef.

 

Stuitend is hoe Arabische media schrijven over de 'zogenaamde' Holocaust, en hoe ze vooral niet willen dat de leerlingen een breder denkkader over mensenrechten en de Palestijnse zaak aangeleerd krijgen; het zou allemaal alleen maar over de 'onvervreemdbare rechten' van de Palestijnen moeten gaan, met name het 'recht op terugkeer'.

Een aparte lessencyclus over de Holocaust zou misschien wat veel gevraagd zijn, maar het onderwerp is zonder geschiedvervalsing te plegen helemaal niet te vermijden als de geschiedenis van Europa, Israel, of de onwikkeling van het internationaal recht aan de orde komt. Of komen die onderwerpen helemaal niet aan bod in het UNRWA onderwijs?

 

Wouter

Jordanian teachers in UN schools for Palestinian refugees say they'll refuse to teach the Holocaust

Curriculum of 'so-called Holocaust' study would harm the Palestinian cause, deflect focus from main enemy Israel, educators protest

 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/jordanian-teachers-refuse-to-teach-the-holocaust-in-un-run-schools/

By ELHANAN MILLER October 16, 2012, 5:25 pm  

 

Rumors of a UN decision to re-introduce Holocaust studies in schools run by UNRWA — the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees — have raised the ire of Jordanian teachers, who say they will refuse to teach history that "harms the Palestinian cause."

In a statement issued Monday, the Executive Committee of UNRWA teachers in Jordan responded to rumors that Holocaust studies would be reintroduced this year to the enrichment curriculum on conflict resolution, which is taught in schools operated by the UN agency in Palestinian refugee camps.

"We condemn this decision, which equates the butcher and the victim," read the teachers' statement, demanding instead to introduce classes on the Palestinian "right of return" to Israel and the history of the 1948 war with Israel.

Some 2 million Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA's Jordan offices. The UN agency operates 172 schools in 10 refugee camps across the kingdom, serving a total of over 122,000 students.

'Teaching UNRWA students about the so-called 'Holocaust' as part of human rights harms the Palestinian cause … and changes the students'  views regarding their main enemy, namely the Israeli occupation'

Last year, the association of UNRWA employees endorsed a decision to ban the introduction of Holocaust studies in UNRWA schools, Jordanian daily Al-Ghad reported Tuesday, a decision the teachers said was still binding.

"We shall monitor the curriculum being taught under the title 'concepts of human rights' [which is] aimed at reducing [Palestinian] students' awareness of the right of return," read the statement.

"Teaching UNRWA students about the so-called 'Holocaust' as part of human rights harms the Palestinian cause… and changes the students' views regarding their main enemy, namely the Israeli occupation."

Since 2009, Hamas in Gaza has actively opposed UNRWA's attempts to introduce the Holocaust into school curriculum in Gaza, claiming that it contradicted Palestinian culture.

According to Al-Ghad, UNRWA denied any intention of introducing the Holocaust as part of its enrichment courses this year, claiming that it abides by the school curriculum of the refugees' host countries.

A spokesman for UNRWA was unavailable for comment at time of publication.

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Arabs upset at latest alleged UNRWA plan to teach the Holocaust

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.nl/2012/10/arabs-upset-at-latest-alleged-unrwa.html  

 

In 2009, Arab media exploded with the rumor that UNRWA schools planned to teach about the Holocaust to Palestinian Arab kids in Gaza.

The UN had to issue a strenuous denial that they would even consider such a thing. One Arab newspaper even quoted the UNRWA head as saying he was totally against it, a quote that UNRWA later denied.

Soon afterwards, UNRWA announced that it would indeed incorporate the Holocaust into its curriculum on universal human rights, but there is no evidence that it ever did so.

Now, the same rumor is hitting Jordan.

Al-Ghad reports

UNRWA will return to teaching the so-called Holocaust in the context of material enrichment, after freezing it for a while, despite its denials of it.

Informed sources in the UNRWA/Jordan teachers committee said that a decision with the agency to teach enrichment material about the Holocaust, after previously being forced to freeze work on the topic, as a result of the overwhelming uproar against it.

Sources added to al-Ghad that "UNRWA is seeking to exploit the preoccupation with current internal situation, in addition to the uncertain atmosphere in the region, in order to teach suspicious topics that harm the Palestinian cause."

Introduced in this framework would be materials that discuss resolving conflicts and crises, and resolving conflict peacefully, and to cite the so-called plight of Jews and victims of Nazism and their right to live in peace.

A statement issued yesterday by the Executive Committee of Teachers of UNRWA in Jordan expressed "outrage and condemnation of this decision, which conflates the executioner and victim, and urged "the teaching of private Palestinian cause, especially the right of return of refugees to their homes and lands that have been displaced them due to the Zionist aggression in 1948."

For its part, UNRWA's management denied any plans to "to teach about the Holocaust in its enrichment activities, saying its commitment is to the educational curriculum of the host countries, and it has no intention to change it.

Jordanian teachers know that the topic of teaching Arabs something that could make Jews appear as anything less than bloodthirsty monsters is an easy way to create a huge backlash in their "moderate" country. It isn't only that the teachers are anti-semitic, but they know that everyone in Jordan would agree that Holocaust education is a terrible topic to inflict on their children.

If that isn't anti-semitism, I don't know what is.

Meanwhile, UNRWA never answered my questions about their curriculum and school material that teach about jihad and martyrdom, in Gaza. These materials directly contradict UNRWA's official educational vision in that they glorify violence.

Apparently teaching Jihad is OK while teaching that millions of Jews were killed 70 years ago is strictly out of bounds for this progressive, Western-funded UN agency.