UNESCO Pulls Financing To (Hate Mongering) Palestinian Magazine

A day after a protest from the Simon Wiesenthal Center to UNESCO's Director-General over a Palestinian youth magazine which published materials exalting Hitler, UNESCO has agreed that it "will not provide any further support to the publication in question." Zayzafouna, a magazine which supposedly promotes democracy and tolerance, published an article by a ten-year-old Palestinian girl who said that in her dreams, Hitler told her, “Yes. I killed them [the Jews] so you would all know that they are a nation who spreads destruction all over the world.” The article was brought to the public's attention by Palestinian Media Watch.

A letter from the office of UNESCO's Director-General read:
"UNESCO’s attention has been drawn to the February 2011 issue of the Palestinian children’s magazine Zayzafouna. This magazine is published by an NGO of the same name under the patronage of the Palestinian National Commission for UNESCO, which is the national body set up by the Palestinian Authority to facilitate its work with the Organization. The February issue features a story written by a 10-year-old girl in which Hitler is quoted by her as stating that he “killed [the Jews] so you would all know that they are a nation who wreak havoc on Earth”. While UNESCO upholds freedom of expression as an integral part of its mandate, the inclusion in this publication of a statement that may be interpreted as an apology of the holocaust is contrary to UNESCO’s constitutional mandate and values. It is totally unacceptable.

UNESCO supported the publication of three issues of the Zayzafouna Magazine six months after the February 2011 issue. The support was provided for these issues following agreement with the editorial board that they would focus on building greater appreciation amongst Palestinians for their heritage and culture. They were to open the way for positive dialogue aimed at overcoming the consequences of the Middle East conflict, and to fight against stereotypes that may be conducive to violence. It was UNESCO’s intention to foster a positive view ofPalestinian heritage based on the values of tolerance and UNESCO’s mandate of building peace in the minds of men and women. This vision guides all of UNESCO’s activities, and we urge all partners to work in this direction.

UNESCO is shocked and dismayed by the content of the February issue, and has requested more detailed information and clarification from the editors of the magazine and to Palestinian Authority.
UNESCO strongly deplores and condemns the reproduction of such inflammatory statements in a magazine associated with UNESCO’s name and mission and will not provide any further support to the publication in question.
The Organization, which is deeply committed to the development and promotion of education about the Holocaust, disassociates itself from any statement that is counter to its founding principles and goals of building tolerance in the full respect for human rights and human dignity."

Palestinians Trying to 'Wipe Out Jewish History'

CBN News
JERUSALEM, Israel -- An Israeli official says that the admission of Palestinians as a member state of UNESCO has emboldened them to claim Judeo-Christian biblical sites as their own.
The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization admitted the Palestinians as a member state Nov. 1.
One of those sites is the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Four thousand years ago, the Bible says Abraham bought the cave in Hebron to bury his wife Sarah. Isaac, Jacob and their wives are also buried there.
But Palestinians want UNESCO to recognize the Cave of the Patriarchs and other sites as Muslim holy places in "Palestine."
Israeli government minister Yuli Edelstein said the Palestinian request is not about peace.

"Their demand is not about cooperation. Their demand is a political demand to wipe off all the traces of the Jewish history and Jewish connection to the region," Edelstein said.
The cave is currently divided between a mosque and a synagogue so each faith has a place to pray.
Israel was highly criticized when it announced plans to improve the site last year and include it as an Israeli heritage site.
The head of the Islamic authorities in Hebron said at the time that the site is holy only to Muslims.
"It is a pure Muslim holy place and there is no right for non-Muslims to be here or to pray here, and I'm against the presence of the Jews, even in the old city," Haj Zeid al Ja'bari, general director of Islamic Religious Authorities in Hebron, told reporters then.

Even before UNESCO admitted what it calls Palestine as a full member this month, it had already called the Cave and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem "Palestinian sites."
The Palestinian Authority now also wants the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to be deemed a Palestinian site. The church is built over the site many believe to be the birthplace of Jesus.
Palestinians are also threatening to sue Israel for what they say is stealing Palestinian antiquities and attempting to change what they call the Islamic and Arabic character of Jerusalem's Old City.
Israelis say Jews and Christians alike should be concerned. Based on past experience, they won't likely be able to visit the site in Hebron if it comes under Muslim Palestinian control.

"We know for a fact that when the authorities were not Israeli authorities, Jews were not allowed even to be here," Edelstein said.
"The concept of an Islamic holy place is that no one else is allowed to be here," said David Bedein, bureau chief, Israel Resource News Agency.
"The concept of a Jewish holy place is exactly the opposite," he said. "When there's a Jewish holy place, everyone can visit."
Bedein said that in 1975, Israel's then-ambassador to the U.N. Chaim Herzog answered an Arab challenge to Israel's rights to the Cave by using the Bible to make his case.
"He opened up the Bible to Genesis 23 and said, 'This is our right. We purchased it.'"
"It's ours and we're going to live here," he continued. "We're going to pray here and we're going to invite all the nations of the world to pray with us here.'"

UNESCO ... We Will Survive

USA Pulls The Plug on UNESCO Funding

Learn the language of the Jews in order to be safe from their cheating

Jerusalem Post

NGO: PA doesn’t meet UNESCO statehood guidelines

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

01/11/2011

IMPACT-SE report uncovers continued demonization of Israel and Jews in Palestinian textbooks.

The Palestinian Authority does not meet the UNESCO recommendations for becoming a full member in the international organization, according to a study published on Monday by IMPACT-SE – the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education.

IMPACT-SE is a research organization that monitors and analyzes schoolbooks and curricula across the Middle East with an eye toward determining their compliance with international standards on peace and tolerance, a goal derived directly from UNESCO declarations and resolutions.

“The monitoring of the Palestinian schoolbooks in use for the school year 2011 shows that the fundamentals against Israel and the Jews are upheld,” the study concluded.

It said that the fundamentals included negating both Israel and the Jews.

Israel, for example, is not mentioned among the states of the Levant (which presently consists of the states of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria as well as the Palestinian territories) and Jewish holy places are never mentioned as such. For instance, Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem is presented as the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque.

According to the study, the Jewish and Hebrew identity of Palestine under the British Mandate is stricken out. One illustration twists a stamp of Palestine under the British Mandate by erasing the Hebrew term ERETZ ISRAEL PALESTINA.

The study also found that there was continued demonization of both Israel and the Jews in the books. Jews are described, among others, as violating treaties, getting rich unduly, deceitful, murdering children, disemboweling women and invading snakes. They are never presented in neutral or positive terms.

The study quotes the following examples from the Palestinian schoolbooks: “The Messenger of God [Muhammad] ordered Zayd Ibn Thabit to learn the language of the Jews in order to be safe from their cheating,” History of the Arabs and Muslims, Grade 6, (2009), page 133; “Your enemies killed your children, split open your women’s bellies, held your revered elderly men by the beard, and led them to the death pits,” Reading and Texts, Grade 8, Part 2, [2003] (reprinted 2007), page 16; and “By your life! How come snakes invade us and we [still] observe a protection covenant [dhimma] which respects commitments?” Arabic Language– Linguistic Sciences, Grade 12, (2010), page 61.

“The Oslo accords and the Declaration of Principles are mentioned and even quoted, but they are not praised and a peacefully negotiated settlement is not advocated or supported,” said the authors of the study.

“In contrast, there is a lot of praise for jihad and martyrdom to free Palestine without defining clearly the territory to be liberated, hence implying that Israel’s territory is also to be liberated.”

The study quotes the following paragraph from a Grade 8 book: “Today the Muslim countries need urgently jihad and jihad fighters in order to liberate the robbed lands and to get rid of the robbing Jews from the robbed lands in Palestine and in the Levant.”

The Shoah is not mentioned at all, though one ambiguous passage reads as follows: “The Jewish question is first and foremost a European problem.”

Newest UNESCO Member: Palestine