More on UNRWA, Hamas and Holocaust denial

Credit J Street with being first out of the gate in condemning Hamas for seeking to suppress Holocaust education at UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip.

A day later, three other groups have weighed in with appeals to the United Nations to ignore Hamas and press ahead with the course.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center calls for the firing of two top UNRWA officials, presuming (I’m not sure on what evidence) that the relief agency has already caved:

The Simon Wiesenthal Center called on United Nations Secretary General Ban ki Moon to fire two senior United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) officials for refusing to teach the UN curriculum on the Nazi Holocaust and for denying that the Holocaust is a human rights issue. The Center also called on the U.S. and Canada to suspend funding to UNRWA and Gaza until the UN Holocaust curriculum is implemented in UNRWA schools.

The Abu Zayd and Ging quotes SWC cites in its release (below the jump) are weaselly, it is true, but do not conclusively imply an UNRWA decision to pull Holocaust education. (I’ve got a call into UNRWA for clarification.)  Additionally, I’ve covered the U.N., and it is a formidable bureacuracy with lots and lots of protections for staff : I’m not at all sure Ban ki Moon is able to fire himself, never mind officials in a separate bureacracy.

The American Jewish Congress seems to presume similar powers to Ban, calling for a change in UNRWA’s leadership, but stops short of naming names:

The Secretary General should immediately direct UNRWA to include the Holocaust at appropriate places in the curriculum in the schools it operates. This latest failure on UNRWA’s part makes it too plain for argument that it is time for new leadership at UNWRA, one that fosters peace and understanding, not nurtures “bigotry and hatred.”

B’nai B’rith International frames has the most careful appeal, simply calling for the education plan to be implemented, without attributing to Ban the power to fire, to shame, and to launch into Gazan skies a flock of black helicopters packed with editions of Anne Frank’s diary attached to tiny little parachutes:

We call upon the United Nations to continue with its educational plans for its schools in Gaza. Only after the next generations are taught, and take the lessons of the Holocaust to heart, can we have any hope for true and lasting peace in the region.

Full statements after the jump.

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B’NAI B’RITH URGES UNITED NATIONS TO STAND FIRM ON HOLOCAUST EDUCATION IN THE GAZA STRIP

(Washington, D.C., September 2, 2009)—The United Nations is reportedly considering a Holocaust education curriculum for its schools in the Gaza Strip. The plan is meeting fierce resistance from Palestinian Hamas leaders. The very vehemence of the objection, Hamas’ rejection of Israel, and Hamas’ ongoing anti-Jewish rhetoric, continue to block any real progress for peace.

B’nai B’rith International President Moishe Smith and Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:

It is outrageous that the Palestinian Hamas leaders are so vehemently opposed to teaching the children of Gaza about the Holocaust. According to a statement from Hamas, "Talk about the holocaust and the execution of the Jews contradicts and is against our culture, our principles, our traditions, values, heritage and religion.”

The Holocaust is an indisputable fact. For Hamas to so adamantly oppose the teaching of it is further proof that the main obstacle for the peace that has eluded the region for far too long lies on the Palestinian side.

We call upon the United Nations to continue with its educational plans for its schools in Gaza. Only after the next generations are taught, and take the lessons of the Holocaust to heart, can we have any hope for true and lasting peace in the region.

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WIESENTHAL CENTER URGES BAN TO FIRE TWO SENIOR UN OFFICIALS FOR REFUSING TO TEACH HOLOCAUST CURRICULUM AT UN GAZA SCHOOLS  UNWRA OFFICIAL DENIES HOLOCAUST ‘IS A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE’

SWC Urges Washington and Ottawa to Suspend UNRWA Funding

The Simon Wiesenthal Center called on United Nations Secretary General Ban ki Moon to fire two senior United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) officials for refusing to teach the UN curriculum on the Nazi Holocaust and for denying that the Holocaust is a human rights issue. The Center also called on the US and Canada to suspend funding to UNRWA and Gaza until the UN Holocaust curriculum is implemented in UNRWA schools.

“The Holocaust – the most profound example of man’s inhumanity to man in history – is universally accepted as the heart and soul of any human rights agenda," said Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, Founder and Dean, and Associate Dean (respectively) of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “But even as the world gathered in Poland to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II in which fifty million human beings lost their lives, officials of the UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza were unilaterally deciding to eradicate any references to WWII’s Nazi Holocaust,” they continued.

“UNRWA must not act as if it is a subsidiary of Hamas,” they said. “But Karen Abu Zayd, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, sounded very much like a Hamas official when she declared at a press conference, ‘I can refute allegations that the UN school curriculum includes anything about the Holocaust… we focus on human rights in curriculum…and the murder of six million Jews and five million other undesirables…is not a human rights issue.’ And John Ging, UNRWA’s Gaza Director, mocked UN policy when he said, ‘There is no intention to integrate materials and topics [on the Holocaust] that are inconsistent with the desire of Palestinian society.’”

Both UNRWA officials were responding to protests from Gaza groups demanding that UNRWA drop the curriculum because, “The refugee camps committees categorically refuse to let our children be taught this lie created by the Jews and intensified by their media.”

“On behalf of the 400,000 members of the SWC, we urge UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon to dismiss these senior officials immediately. The role of UNRWA must be to help set the stage for peace and reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis, not as agents for the agenda of terrorist groups,” Rabbis Hier and Cooper concluded.

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AJCongress Calls on UNRWA To Teach Holocaust, Defy Hamas

It is bad enough that Hamas dismisses the Holocaust as a “lie invented by the Zionists.” What is far more discouraging is that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) did not criticize Hamas for denying the children of Gaza knowledge of one of the central events of the twentieth century. Instead, it rushed to deny that the Holocaust was being taught in its schools or that it was contemplating teaching it in the future.

On the occasion of International Holocaust Victims Remembrance Day earlier this year, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said: “We must continue to teach our children the lessons of history’s darkest chapters. That will help them do a better job than their elders in building a world of peaceful coexistence. We must combat Holocaust denial, and speak out in the face of bigotry and hatred.

Perhaps the place to begin this solemn task is in the Secretary General’s own backyard: UNRWA. The Secretary General should immediately direct UNRWA to include the Holocaust at appropriate places in the curriculum in the schools it operates. This latest failure on UNRWA’s part makes it too plain for argument that it is time for new leadership at UNWRA, one that fosters peace and understanding, not nurtures “bigotry and hatred.”

As for Hamas, its dismissal of the Holocaust as a Zionist lie could not be more at odds with President Barak Obama’s assertion this past April in Cairo that denying the Holocaust is “baseless, ignorant and hateful” and “prevent[s] the peace that the people of the region deserve.” This latest Hamas tirade about the Holocaust is just one more reason why insisting on its participation in Middle East peace negotiations is to condemn those efforts to failure.