Palestinian Media Watch - NEWS UPDATE Impact of report on Palestinian School
Books
EU money to be denied for PA schoolbooks
(Jerusalem Post Nov 2, 2001)

Background:
The report on Palestinian school textbooks written by PMW staff for CMIP
continues to have significant influence on international policy toward the
PA. It continues to affect the international standing of the Palestinian
Authority, as indicated by yesterday's decision by the European Union to
withhold funding of the PA school books.

[In related news, as part of the on going effort to create public pressure
on the PA to educate for peace, PMW director, Itamar Marcus, met in British
Parliament this week with some Labour MPs and presented an overview
detailing the precise problems with the Palestinian school books and media.]

The following is the news report on the EU decision to stop funding PA
school books:

Jerusalem Post Nov 2, 2001
EU money to be denied for PA schoolbooks
By Herb Keinon
JERUSALEM (November 2) - A group of pro-Israeli members of the European
Parliament attached a rider to an EU budget line this week saying EU money
must not be provided for Palestinian textbooks if they contain material that
is anti-Semitic or incites hatred.

Foreign Ministry acting spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said this is the most
significant victory yet in the battle against funding Palestinian Authority
textbooks that includes incitement against Israel.

The budget line, B7-42, allocates some 45 million euros for programs to
promote the peace process in the Middle East, money which has in the past
been used for Palestinian textbooks and other educational activities in the
PA.

The amendment to the budget line reads this money must not be "for
activities, projects, and programs that promote principles or opinions that
are not consistent with the basic values of the European Union. On the
contrary, this money is to be used only for projects that support peace,
understanding, reconciliation, and a decrease of hate."

In an explanatory note accompanying the rider, it was written it is
forbidden for the EU to support text books that include racism and
anti-Semitism, and that the European Commission must ensure that the money
is not being used for publishing textbooks that contradict basic European
values.

The European Parliament is the body that approves the EU's massive budget,
and is the one function that gives the parliament any real power.

Nahshon said the passage of this amendment is a "small step but a moral
victory," and he hopes this will serve as a precedent for other European
countries who provide money to the PA educational apparatus via bilateral
ties.

Nahshon said the passage of this amendment was the result of intensive
diplomatic activity by Israel's mission to the EU in Brussels, and the work
of a number of European Parliament members determined to fight incitement
and anti-Semitism in the Palestinian textbooks.

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