Malala Yousafzai’s Plea and Canadian Government’s Response

Wednesday, 3  May 2017

As is the craving and practice of the leader of the present government to be in the limelight at the right time and place to be seen doing the “right” and/or “nice” thing, he seized the opportunity afforded by the presence in the country of the courageous Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, originally invited by former Prime Minister Harper to recognise her achievements, by granting her an Honorary Canadian citizenship with great pomp and ceremony.

In her speech of acceptance, Ms. Yousafzai strongly urged Parliament for Canada to become proactive as a world leader in the proper education of girls.

And as is his wont,  having been “seen” and with the speech of acceptance having entered his  one ear and promptly  exited through the other, the leader scurried off in search of the next limelight.

As Anita Mark of Saanichton ,B.C., in her brief commentary on the Yousafzai visit, in the Globe and Mail, pointed out Canada’s  financial commitment to foreign- aid and development being nowhere near  the U.N. target of.0.7 percent of our gross national income , it lags far behind its peers, let alone  being a leader.

On the facts, Ms. Mark concludes that while “Canada looks pretty good in making Malala a citizen; looking at the numbers, Canada is quite the two-faced laggard.”

Actually, Canada’s record under the present government gets worse when it comes to funding education through foreign aid.

You may recall that on March 3, 2017, I posted under the heading Liberal government, a piece titled “Bizarre Reasoning to Restore Funding to UNRWA: It’s 2016!”, in which I described, the rationale invoked by the present government for restoring   the annual grant of $25 million to UNRWA which was cut off by the previous government: “We want to see Palestinian refugee children in classrooms where they can learn universal values of tolerance and respect”.

By doing so, the government hoped to put down the Harper government, while, earning praise for this magnificent gesture and its noble purpose.

Having done its “thing”, the government then went to other things

As it turns out , it has been long known to  and documented by at least two international  organizations that monitor the contents of  the curriculum and textbooks  used under the UNRWA regime by the P.A. schools, far from teaching tolerance and respect teach hate and incitement to hatred and violence. This has been the best kept secret known to the international community and the government must have known it only too well.

In the circumstances, clearly the government fibbed and restored the grant under false pretences.

It gets worse.

According to The Times of Israel, sometimes during this spring, someone leaked to the Arab press that UNRWA was contemplating or planning to make a number of changes to the Palestinian Authority’s school curriculum and in the process to revise the textbooks to reflect these changes.

According to COGAT (the Israeli Defence Ministry Agency responsible for civilian affairs in the West Bank and Gaza), the proposed revisions to the textbooks, among others,

1. Targeted content that showed gender bias, lacked objectivity and incited violence against Israel;
2.  Sought to make “...[A] balanced representation of  Jerusalem  as having religious significance to the three major monotheistic religions…,and mentioning that Muslim believers  have access to the holy sites’’;
3. Changing the maps of Palestine so as to exclude references to cities inside Israel as Palestinian cities ,and
4. Sought to tone down praise for Palestinian prisoners and to improve Israel’s image.

“COGAT praised the proposed changes as an effort “to create a balanced, positive curriculum with universal values free from violence and incitement.”

When the leaks became public, Chris Gunness, the spokesperson   for UNRWA issued the following statement:  “UNRWA schools follow the curriculum of the host authority, a practice agreed in 1954 with the support of UNESCO and re-affirmed following the Oslo Accords. It is UNRWA policy to review and where appropriate enrich the official PA textbooks, curricula and other learning materials used in UNRWA schools to ensure compliance with UN values and principles.”

I find the phrase “compliance with UN values and principles” intriguing as it begs the question as to whether these values and principles are different from the paramount value of having a positive curriculum imbued with universal values such as tolerance and respect of the others

The leaks caused political outrage both in Gaza and in P.A.s with the former’s leaders warning of serious consequences of introducing the intended changes, while the P.A, immediately suspended ties with UNRWA over the curriculum reform.

At the moment, the outrage appears to be directed to the proposed softening of Israel’s image in the curriculum. The P.A. Ministry of Education called it “an affront to the Palestinian people, its history and struggles” and stated that the suspension would continue until the UN agency’s “positions are corrected”.

In an effort  to resolve the matter, within three days of the leakage  of the news to the Arab press, on April 17, 2017 Rami Hamdallah, Prime Minister of the P.A. met with  Commissioner –General  Pierre Krahenbuhl,  the head of UNRWA.

During the meeting, Krahenbuhl addressed the “recent public misrepresentations of the matter”. According to a statement issued by UNRWA “… [The organization] has a policy of teaching the education curricula of host countries in its schools…. This includes the Palestinian Authority’s curriculum...and UNRWA has no intention of changing this practice…However, the statement goes on to mention that “It has long been UNRWA’s practice to review newly issued textbooks and to produce enriching material which concerns a limited percentage of the content to ensure consistency with UN values and international agreements… [This would be done in consultation with the P.A.] and in full recognition of the right of the Palestinian students to learn about their identity, history and culture.”

Despite the suspension of ties, UNRWA and P.A. Education Ministry have agreed to meet again.

In the meantime, Khaled Abu Tomaeh, a respected observer and writer on Middle-East affairs and on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, reported in the morning of the day of the meeting that “UNRWA says it has no intention to change textbooks and will continue to teach according to the Palestinian Authority curriculum.”

Further, the Jewish Press News Briefs of April 18 reported that the decision was made by the Commissioner-General.

And where was Canada in all of this? Busy conferring an Honorary Canadian citizenship on Malala Yousafza.

Decidedly, advising the UNRWA and the P.A. that the Canada’s contribution to the UNRWA budget must be spent for the specific purpose which the government has in mind, does not afford the kind of photo-opportunities and praise sought by the leader of the government.

So much for the rationale invoked by the government.

In the circumstances, is it unfair  to  conclude that, as matters now stand, Canada, through its financial contribution to UNRWA, contributes  to the promotion  of hatred and  incitement to violence against Israel among the students  in the P.A.’s school system?