Photo: A teacher leads a class at an UNRWA school in the Gaza Strip, September 2011. Photo courtesy of Shareef Sarhan/U.N. Photo.

(JNS)

Teachers and other staff members with the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) have expressed support for Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre of Israeli civilians, according to a report by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) released on Monday, Nov. 6.

The report also reveals evidence of the connection between the curriculum sponsored by UNRWA and the atrocities committed on Oct. 7, reflecting years of hate taught in its schools.

Celebrating Atrocities

At least 14 teachers and staff at UNRWA schools have publicly celebrated the Hamas massacre and other Hamas attacks on their social-media accounts.

One UNRWA teacher in the school system in Gaza, Sarah Alderawy, posted a video clip on the day of the massacre showing Hamas terrorists roaming Israeli streets with rifles while shooting at passing cars, along with rocket attacks on Israel.

The video is overlaid with a Quranic verse: “We will surely come to them with soldiers that they will be powerless to encounter, and we will surely expel them in humiliation, and they will be debased.”

Another UNRWA employee in Gaza, Mahmoud Abu Adhm, posted multiple times since Oct. 7 showing support for the Hamas atrocities. On Oct. 10, he encouraged Hamas to kill Israeli hostages, citing Islamic texts that advocate harshness towards the enemy: “Do not walk past a captive who has not been given amnesty without striking off his neck so as to terrorize the enemy.”

Another Gaza-based UNRWA teacher posted to her Facebook page a video describing the Hamas massacre as the “first real victory” on the way to liberating all of “Palestine.” Yet another praised the Hamas massacre as it was taking place, noting with fire emojis that “this is an unforgettable glorious morning.”

At noon on Oct. 7, a social-studies specialist at UNRWA in Gaza praised God in a post for “keeping us alive to witness this day,” referring to the Hamas attack.

An official Facebook page belonging to a UNRWA elementary school in Nablus shows a school rally held on Oct. 26 that features a young boy, accompanied by what seems to be a UNRWA administrator, pleading for victory for Hamas’s “jihad warriors” in Gaza and evoking the defeat of the Jews at Khaybar at the hands of Muhammad’s forces in 628 C.E.

The student body collectively responds “Amen” to each line. The video also shows students reading from a fifth-grade Islamic education textbook that contains content inciting violence and encouraging death through jihad against Israel.

Who Funds UNRWA?

“Time and again we have warned that UNRWA staff and school materials have created a breeding ground for terror,” IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff said.

Referring to the fact that the U.S. is UNRWA’s largest donor, disbursing almost $1 billion in funds to the U.N. agency over the last five years, followed by the European Union and other countries, Sheff said:

“These taxpayer funds not only pay for the production of inciteful supplementary teaching materials by UNRWA staff branded with the agency’s logo and purchasing of textbooks glorifying violent jihad against Jews but they also fund the salaries of UNRWA teachers, who are responsible for teaching them to students.”

More than 500,000 students study at schools in the Gaza Strip, with over half attending UNRWA-operated schools. These schools teach the Palestinian Authority curriculum, which is replete with anti-Semitism and encourages violence.

UNRWA staff also produce harmful material of their own taught in these schools, IMPACT-se said.