Hamas, UNRWA and the Holocaust

GAZA, Aug. 31 2009 (Xinhua News Agency ) -- The Islamic Hamas movement and the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) argued on Monday over the inclusion into the curriculum of UNRWA preparatory schools a course on human rights that speaks about the "Jewish Holocaust."

UNRWA educates some 200,000 refugee children aged between 6 and15 in the densely populated Gaza Strip, which has been ruled by Hamas since it routed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' security forces and seized control of the enclave in June 2007.

A course of human rights for the 14-year-old children of eighth grade in schools run by UNRWA in Gaza angered Hamas when it talked about the Jewish Holocaust.

The Popular Committee of Palestinian refugees, a pro-Hamas group in the Gaza Strip, severely slammed the UNRWA and demanded it to "immediately" erase the part that speaks about the Holocaust from the Palestinian pupils' curriculum.

The committee sent a letter to the chief of the UNRWA office on Sunday, calling on the UN relief organization to erase the Holocaust subject from the human rights books.

Husam Ahmed, the Popular Committee's coordinator in the Gaza Strip said the material, which is included in the human rights subject, "was formed in a way that shows sympathy with the Jews." He warned of having an attitude "to construct a generation that supports the Jews and the Holocaust" in the Palestinian territories.

Ahmed warned that "if UNRWA ignores our demand, we will organize protests, rallies and demonstrations that are allowed by the law."

"We call on UNRWA to erase the subject ... and stop any future attempt to insert strange concepts or cultures that contradict with the Palestinian values, traditions and principles," said the committee's letter.

"We are against it because those who added the subject to the curriculum aim at playing with the feelings and thoughts of our children," said the pro-Hamas popular committees' letter.

Meanwhile, the interior ministry of Hamas de facto government in Gaza said in a statement that "it expresses astonishment because UNRWA curriculum is talking about the Jewish Holocaust."

"We reject teaching our pupils such thoughts that contradicts with our Palestinian beliefs," said the interior ministry statement, which called on the ministry of education "to check if such news is right."

Meanwhile, UNRWA denied that it teaches the Holocaust in preparatory schools and also denied that the Holocaust is included in the pupils' curriculum.

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Shadyglow · F

well regardless of curriculum many lives would have been saved if Israel hadn't made sure none were left standing.

When Israel bombs a school is that their way of telling the world about the Holocaust?

Or are they simply telling themselves why the holocaust has DESTROYED Judaism entirely?

Disciplinarian · 61-69, M

@Shadyglow Apart from your strange use of the word "curriculum", if it is the choice of Hamas to stand and fight in hospitals and built-up areas including safe zones, it is entirely within the rules of war to engage them. Your childish reduction ad absurdum trivialises the Holocaust and does you no credit, instead of using proper arguments and sources.
The IDF is the most moral army in the world, and no country would have behaved better after such a brutal and genocidal attack, given Hamas' wish to draw them into civilian areas. And don't take my word for ithttps://www.algemeiner.com/2024/02/01/west-point-urban-warfare-expert-idf-implemented-more-measures-to-prevent-civilian-casualties-than-any-other-military-in-history/

CorvusBlackthorne · 100+, M

@Disciplinarian I was not aware that it was moral to attack civilians because of the actions of a terrorist group. Is this some strange new definition of morality with which I am unfamiliar?

Disciplinarian · 61-69, M

@CorvusBlackthorne The laws of war may indeed not be familiar to you. It is entirely justified to engage a terrorist group if it fights in a home, or a hospital, or school, all of which are the chosen, proven battlegrounds of Hamas whose leaders are quite explicit on their intention to suffer Palestinian casualties like their role models in the Algerian war of independence. In actual fact the IDF has shown far more restraint in Gaza than the Coalition in Iraq or Russia in Syria and elsewhere, as the facts show. There is just so much cant among Western anti-Israelis like you, when any country in the world would have done the same or worse to defend itself after an equivalent genocidal, bloodthirsty and depraved attack.

CorvusBlackthorne · 100+, M

@Disciplinarian

The laws of war may indeed not be familiar to you.

They are not.

It is entirely justified to engage a terrorist group if it fights in a home, or a hospital, or school...

And how many times has the IDF "mistakenly" or "accidentally" killed civilians in places where Hamas terrorists turned out not to be? How many times will you continue to defend such actions?

And were I you, I would not compare this war to such conflicts as the

Algerian war of independence

Particularly as you are choosing to defend the aggressors and occupiers.

In actual fact the IDF has shown far more restraint in Gaza than the Coalition in Iraq or Russia in Syria and elsewhere, as the facts show.

Well, then. I apologize. I did not know that if worse atrocities were committed elsewhere, it justified the current atrocities. That's me told.

There is just so much cant among Western anti-Israelis like you...

To whom do you think you are talking? Certainly not me.

Disciplinarian · 61-69, M

@CorvusBlackthorne You say you are not a Western anti-Israeli, so how would you define yourself on this point? If you don't recognise the right of Israel to exist, then I place you among those I will not debate with further. Your are not interested in the inconvenient fact that Hamas model themselves on the Algerian Islamists of the 1950s to bring on civilian casualties, yet it is deeply relevant, as you view Israel as an occupier. Of course 1000s of innocent people will tragically die if Hamas fights among them. That is the war they started, which they can stop by surrendering.. FYI Israel fully withdrew from Gaza in 2006 only to get 32,000 Islamist rockets and numerous suicide bombs in return. Have you any better solution while Hamas remain in power?

helenS · 36-40, F

@Disciplinarian Bravo!!! 👍🏽 🌷 🇮🇱

CorvusBlackthorne · 100+, M

@Disciplinarian

You say you are not a Western anti-Israeli, so how would you define yourself on this point?

I recognize the right of all humans to exist. Or no humans. There is no in between. I recognize Israel and Palestine. I do not approve of the genocide currently being carried out by the Israeli military.