(Fox News) A shocking report by a watchdog organization on Thursday revealed that a UN agency tasked with, among other things, educating Palestinian students in places such as Lebanon, the West Bank and Jordan, employs teachers who promote terrorism and the murder of Jews.
UN Watch, a Geneva-based NGO, uncovered in its 49-page report that United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) computer teacher Nihaya Awad, who works in the West Bank, supported Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians after last year’s war. The U.S. and the European Union classified Hamas—the Sunni jihadi organization that controls the Gaza Strip—as a terrorist entity.
In one internet post, Awad wrote: “Greetings to the people of Gaza, Blessed victory.” A second post Awad wrote said “In the name of Allah, one victory after the other, Palestine will be fully liberated.”
Awad “encouraged Palestinian terrorists’ exploitation of child soldiers, in a May 21, 2021 post on Facebook,” UN Watch reported.
Awad posted the entries two months after a UNRWA director, Gwyn Lewis, praised Awad in a certificate of appreciation for her “fantastic efforts” as a “best performer” in UNRWA education, according to the report.
“We are proud that you are part of the UNRWA team,” Lewis wrote on March 23, 2021.
1. Meet Nihaya Awad, a teacher at UNRWA. She glorifies Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and encourages Palestinian use of child soldiers. UNRWA official Gwyn Lewis gave her a certificate of appreciation for being a a “best performer” teacher.https://t.co/5kXwQV9UxX pic.twitter.com/JkNV1aCYFR
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) June 23, 2022
Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch, said, “UNRWA should therefore be considered complicit in its staff members’ misconduct. Around the world, educators who incite hate and violence are removed. Yet UNRWA, despite proclaiming ‘zero tolerance’ for incitement, systematically employs preachers of anti-Jewish hate and terrorism.”
UN Watch documented 20 new examples in the report of UNRWA teachers and staffers advocating terrorism and antisemitism in its school programs.
An example from Lebanon, where the U.S.-designated terrorist movement Hezbollah has great control over the state, showed UNRWA Lebanon teacher Elham Mansour posting on Facebook on May 11, 2022: “By Allah, anyone who can kill and slaughter any Zionist and Israeli criminal, and doesn’t do so, doesn’t deserve to live. Kill them and pursue them everywhere, they are the greatest enemy….All Israel deserves is death.”
2. Meet UNRWA teacher Elham Mansour. On Facebook she writes: “By Allah, anyone who can kill and slaughter any Zionist and Israeli criminal, and doesn’t do so, doesn’t deserve to live. Kill them and pursue them everywhere. All Israel deserves is death.” https://t.co/GjvxPQNn3H pic.twitter.com/90iMDCUquf
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) June 23, 2022
Neuer said, “We call on the governments that fund UNRWA, as they gather at the United Nations to announce new pledges, to declare that they will stop enabling a system that teaches new generations of Palestinians to hate and murder Jews.”
“The U.S., EU, Germany, UK, Canada and other donor states cannot morally send more money to UNRWA until it shows a genuine commitment to basic norms of education in its schools,” he continued. “This means the agency must publicly condemn UNRWA employees who incite terrorism and antisemitism, remove them from their positions, and create an independent and impartial investigation of all of its staff.”
The U.S. and other predominantly Western states that fund UNRWA met Thursday at the United Nations with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. They are expected to promise additional monies to fund UNRWA.
