U.S. Soccer Agrees to Pay Men and Women Equally. Americans Agree Not To Watch Either One.

(How John Kerry won Afghanistan)


	In groundbreaking news, Soccer players, a game usually played by toddlers and angry America-hating leftists with purple

U.S. Soccer Agrees to Pay Men and Women Equally. Americans Agree Not To Watch Either One.

The pro-crime party <a href="https://pitchfork.com/news/new-york-state-senate-passes-bill-limiting-use-of-song-lyrics-in-court/">keeps on pro-criming</a>.

<blockquote>
	
		New York’s State Senate approved a bill Tuesday (May 17) that would limit prosecutors’ use of song lyrics and other forms of “creative expression” as evidence in criminal cases.&nbsp;Senate Bill S7527&nbsp;would not ban prosecutors from presenting lyrics or other material to a jury, but would require them to show that the work is “literal, rather than figurative or fictional.”

	
		The bill, which was sponsored by Senators Jamaal Bailey and Brad Hoylman, received&nbsp;public support&nbsp;from Jay-Z, Meek Mill, Killer Mike, Fat Joe, and Robin Thicke, among others. Before the bill can become a law, it must pass the New York State Assembly; a&nbsp;companion bill&nbsp;sponsored by Assembly member Catalina Cruz is pending before a committee and awaiting a vote.

	
		The bill, while in the works for months, comes as Atlanta rappers Young Thug and Gunna&nbsp;face RICO charges&nbsp;in Georgia in a case where their lyrics and music videos make up the bulk of the state’s evidence of criminal conspiracy. In the 2013 case&nbsp;Dawson v. Delaware, the Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to use protected speech as evidence, provided that speech is irrelevant to the case.

	
		The court&nbsp;declined&nbsp;to hear the case of Jamal Knox, a Pittsburgh rapper known as Mayhem Mal who was&nbsp;convicted&nbsp;on charges of terroristic threats and witness intimidation over lyrics in a 2012 song called “Fuck the Police.”&nbsp;
</blockquote>


	It is awkward when an entire genre based on violence whose members routinely engaged in violence toward each other and innocent people start pretending that they're engaging in fictional threats, not real ones.


	I usually err on the side of free speech, but a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/rap_song_that_threatened_police_officers_is_not_protected_speech_pennsylvan">recap&nbsp;the Mayhem Mal </a>case in a way that virtually no media outlet, which focuses on celeb rapper support, shows why it happened.

<blockquote>
	
		The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has rejected a free speech claim by a rapper who threatened to kill two Pittsburgh police officers he identified by name in a video titled “F— the Police.”

	
		Using the name Mayhem Mal, Knox and another rapper threatened the officers who were scheduled to testify against them after arresting the pair on drug charges. The other rapper’s case was not before the court.

	
		One of the officers said the video was one of the reasons he left the force and relocated.

	
		Both officers are named, and Knox states in the song that the lyrics are for them. In one part of the rap song, Knox said, “I’ma jam this rusty knife all in his guts and chop his feet,” and, “Well your shift over at 3 and I’m gonna f— up where you sleep.” The song also suggests the rappers know the identity of a confidential informant and a have a plan to murder an informant with a Glock handgun.
</blockquote>


	This is what New York Senate Dems seem to driven to protect.


	Would such a law, clearly preferencing criminals of a certain culture, survive a Supreme Court test?

<blockquote>
	
		If the court found First Amendment protection for the video, Saylor said, “we would in effect be interpreting the Constitution to provide blanket protection for threats, however severe, so long as they are expressed within that musical style.”
</blockquote>


	It's a good question.


	If a criminal writes a death threat in words cut out from a newspaper, isn't that also an art project?


	The New York Senate Dem "F___ the Police" bill, "Establishes an assumption of the inadmissibility of evidence of a defendant's creative or artistic expression against such defendant in a criminal proceeding; requires the proffering party to affirmatively prove that the evidence is admissible by clear and convincing evidence."


	How are prosecutors going to prove that a criminal's communications aren't part of a creative project in an era where anything, from mutilated horses to a golden toilet to Banksy and rap can be considered art?


	There's no metric for art, which means anything is art.


	Drug dealers can freely send text messages brokering drug deals as long as they do it in rap form.


	I'm sure that this won't make New York an even worse hellhole.

NY Senate Dems Pass "F___ the Police" Bill Protecting Violent Rap Threats

The pro-crime party keeps on pro-criming.


	
		New York’s State Senate approved a bill Tuesday (May 17) that would limit prosecutors’ use of song lyrics

NY Senate Dems Pass "F___ the Police" Bill Protecting Violent Rap Threats

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio shouldn't have had a political career. Radicalism is not a problem in NYC, but even most radicals hate his guts. Bill de Blasio's combination of arrogance, incompetence, laziness and corruption contrived to make him widely hated across the spectrum.


	So of course he ran for president.


	After that fizzled, thought was given to running for governor and <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/05/17/bill-de-blasio-eyeing-run-at-newly-drawn-ny-seat-nadler-has-left-behind/">now the House</a>.

<blockquote>
	
		Ex-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told a state lawmaker he plans to run for New York’s&nbsp;newly drawn 10th Congressional district&nbsp;— the seat entrenched Rep. Jerrold Nadler is vacating to fight it out with former longtime ally Rep. Carolyn Maloney in the rejigged 12th.

	
		De Blasio&nbsp;considered a run&nbsp;for the NY-11 district – before the&nbsp;state’s redistricting maps&nbsp;were thrown out the first time – but then&nbsp;dropped his bid in February before it started.&nbsp;
</blockquote>


	As the Post notes,&nbsp;Bill de&nbsp;Blasio&nbsp;blew a presidential and gubernatorial campaign. If he abandons a House run, what's left? City Council? Assemblyman? Dogcatcher?


	De Blasio's own Twitter feed is a mishmash of attacks and virtue signaling at the state and the federal level, barking about state gun laws and federal social media regulation as if his own online persona can't figure out which office he wants to run for and is just keeping all of his possible options open.


	It seems as if it might be kinder to take him off the street and give him some kind of job where a complete incompetent would be allowed to mismanage billion-dollar budgets and just misplace $800 million.


	Maybe Burger King or Starbucks?

Won't Someone Hire Bill de Blasio To Do Something?

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio shouldn't have had a political career. Radicalism is not a problem in NYC, but even most radicals hate his guts. Bill de Blasio's

Won't Someone Hire Bill de Blasio To Do Something?

Give Chesa Boudin some credit, the Soros DA is responsible for the deaths of a lot more Americans than his Weather Underground&nbsp;parents. This is why the counterculture lefties decided to <a href="https://sfstandard.com/criminal-justice/da-chesa-boudin-fentanyl-court-data-drug-dealing-immigration/">destroy the system from within</a>.

<blockquote>
	
		Despite a surging fentanyl crisis that&nbsp;killed nearly 500&nbsp;people last year in San Francisco, the office of District Attorney Chesa Boudin did not secure a single conviction for dealing the deadly opioid for cases filed during 2021, according to a review of court data.
</blockquote>


	No drug dealer is illegal apparently.

<blockquote>
	
		Another big factor is the DA’s attention to offenders’ immigration status, which by law they are required to consider. Prosecutors and criminal defense attorneys point out that drug dealing convictions are grounds for deportation, and a substantial number of drug dealers in the city are Honduran nationals who could face deadly consequences if deported. The accessory charge still gives them and their families a path toward eventual citizenship.
</blockquote>


	So Americans have to die so that Honduran drug dealers can become citizens.

<blockquote>
	
		The DA’s approach is not winning many fans in the most-affected neighborhoods. “I know the horrors of being undocumented and selling drugs, but we can’t let our people continue to die,” said Rene Colorado, executive director of the Tenderloin Merchants Association.&nbsp;

	
		“My best friend died of a heroin overdose here in San Francisco, because I couldn’t help him. There have to be limits,” he said. “If you’re undocumented and selling fentanyl, guess what, you have to face the consequences. You have to do your time here in the States and you’re probably going to be deported.”&nbsp;
</blockquote>


	Not on Chesa Boudin's watch. Or on any Soros DAs watch.

<blockquote>
	
		In one example of using the “accessory after the fact” conviction for fentanyl dealing, a defendant was arrested and charged five different times from July 2020 through December 2021 for dealing fentanyl, heroin, meth and crack cocaine. According to court documents, evidence included a backpack with cash and “numerous” colorful plastic baggies of drugs. All five cases were consolidated for a January 2022 sentencing where he received two “accessory after the fact” felonies and served several months in jail.

	
		Another example in San Francisco involved a man with four separate drug dealing arrests last year between June and December. He was charged with selling fentanyl, crack, more than an ounce of meth and over 14 grams of heroin. His ultimate conviction was for two misdemeanors for&nbsp; “accessory after the fact,” and his sentence was two days in county jail, which he had already served.
</blockquote>


	Remember when lefties complained about California's "draconian" drug laws. Then go look at the bodies on the street. That's what the alternative looks like.

Americans Die of Fentanyl Overdoses as Soros DA Protects Foreign Drug Dealers From Deportation

Give Chesa Boudin some credit, the Soros DA is responsible for the deaths of a lot more Americans than his Weather Underground&nbsp;parents. This is why the

Americans Die of Fentanyl Overdoses as Soros DA Protects Foreign Drug Dealers From Deportation

It's official. Women don't exist and neither does "<a href="https://www.mediaite.com/weird/democratic-pro-choice-caucus-releases-language-guide-saying-choice-is-harmful-language/">choice</a>".

<blockquote>
	
		The House Pro-Choice Caucus has released a language guide with suggestions about what to say and not to say on the issue of abortion, including an admonition on the harmfulness of the word “choice.”

	
		In addition to “choice,” words deemed “harmful language” include “reduce abortion,” “safe, legal and rare,” “unwanted pregnancy,” “conscience clause/protections” and “back-alley abortions/coat hangers.”

	
		“Helpful language,” on the other hand, includes words like “decision,” “safe, legal and accessible,” “unexpected pregnancy,” “refusal of care/denial of care laws” and “criminalizing healthcare.”
</blockquote>


	This reeks of a focus group being convened on how to best market abortion to millennials.&nbsp;


	Why is the&nbsp;House Pro-Choice Caucus dumping "choice"?


	Choice, a key element in pro-abortion branding, is 'freedom' language. It's likely been concluded that freedom language is out of sync with an illiberal Left. And thus "choice" has been replaced with the illiberal "decision" which was probably determined to be far more empowering.


	The implication is that abortion is not a choice, that there aren't two sides or options, but an absolute decision. Abortion, the message goes, is not optional.


	But nothing under the Left is. Just ask China's One Child Policy.

The End of "Choice"

It's official. Women don't exist and neither does "choice".


	
		The House Pro-Choice Caucus has released a language guide with suggestions about what to

The End of "Choice"

The appointment of Swiss diplomat Phillipe Lazzarini as the new head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) provides a window of opportunity for UNRWA donor nations, which are mandated to oversee UNRWA policy, to demand a reform of UNRWA -- especially in &nbsp;UNRWA schools, which for the past 20 years have used the new Palestinian Authority curriculum to indoctrinate Palestinian Arab children to conquer all of "Palestine" by force of arms, a goal hardly appropriate to a UN agency.


	Here are 14 policy challenges which the new UNRWA commissioner will now have to grapple with:


	1. UNRWA textbooks which do not jive with UN Values of peaceful reconciliation. UNRWA has introduced a new schoolbook which features Dalal el Mugrabi, whose terror squad commandeered a bus and murdered 38 passengers, including 13 children, as a role model for UNRWA pupils. In the new UNRWA text, Dalal is portrayed in full terror garb, followed by a lesson plan which presents her life story for adulation and emulation. In another new text, UNRWA pupils are taught to chant and sing a poem which encourages children to "exterminate the usurpers" after the Arabs return to Palestine it back. The new UNRWA commissioner could confiscate such textbooks.


	2. UNRWA contracts for exclusive use of school books of the Palestinian Authority, in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and Gaza. UNRWA, like all UN agencies, is supposed to run schools based on the UN slogan "Peace Begins Here". PA education, however, runs schools based on the ideology of the Palestine Liberation Organization: Conquest of Palestine by force of arms. The new UNRWA commissioner can cancel the UNRWA-PA contract


	3 .UNRWA schools are adorned with posters and murals of "martyrs" who died while murdering Jews. The new UNRWA commissioner can order the removal of all violent images in UNRWA facilities


	4. El Kutla youth clubs in UNRWA schools inspire pupils with the mantra of the armed struggle from a young age. The new UNRWA commissioner can order El Kutla clubs in to cease and desist from violent incitement.


	5. Military parades frequent UNRWA premises. The new UNRWA commissioner can order an end to&nbsp; military parades in any UNRWA facility.


	6. Hamas terror groups present candidates to run teachers and workers unions of UNRWA. The new UNRWA commissioner can demand that any UNRWA employee who runs on a "Hamas ticket" be barred from the payroll. Even the UN defines Hamas as a terrorist organization.


	7.&nbsp; Popular Singer Mohammad Assaf from Gaza, claiming to be "UNRWA Youth Ambassador", whips up crowds to violence. The new UNRWA Commissioner can issue a policy statement, that UNRWA dissociates itself from Assaf and his message


	8. Memorial Events UNRWA schools for Arabs killed in the act of murder occur in UNRWA schools. The new UNRWA commissioner can cancel such ceremonies.


	9.No Transparency. With a flow of $1.2 billion in donations from 67 nations and 32 Ngo's, much of which arrives in cash, the new UNRWA commissioner must make sure that all funds and equipment are used for humanitarian needs, and not stolen, transferred to the hands of terror groups or sold on the open market. The time has come for a new UNRWA commissioner to put an end to cash payments, which makes donor transparency nearly impossible.


	10. Export of UNRWA school texts. Using the diplomatic pouch of donor nations, UNRWA exports school books which promote the right of return and the replacement of Israel with Palestine. The New UNRWA commissioner can put an end to this


	11. Obfuscation of UNRWA financial situation. Following the US funding cutback of $365 million in August 2018, UNRWA&nbsp; announced that all US funding had been replaced by increase of funds from the Germany, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Norway. Ever since the US cutback, however, UNRWA issues statements which attribute the UNRWA financial difficulties to the US cutback. At no time has UNRWA ever specified how it spends its budget. The new UNRWA commissioner could immediately publicize an accounting of expenditures.


	12. UNRWA non-recognition of Israel on the map. UNRWA distributes world and regional maps which obliterate Israel and replacing all Israel locations with Arab names. Should Israel, a UN member in good standing, not appear on a map issued by a UN agency? The new UNRWA commissioner can now make it his business sure that all maps show Israel. .


	13. Fake News: Jews cause Coronavirus. For the past few months, official PA sources have swamped the public domain with statements that Israel spreads the Corona Virus. The new UNRWA commissioner can make sure that the PA personnel who dominate the UNRWA payroll will never repeat any such statement.


	14. Arms training summer camps. For the past twenty years, thousands of UNRWA students, age 9 to 16, have participated in summer camps which feature arms training with live weapons. With summer now approaching, the new UNRWA commissioner can act to curb arms training of "child soldiers", which flies in the face of UN resolutions that protect the health and well-being of children.


	Thus far, Phillipe&nbsp;Lazzarini has refused to answer questions from our Center for Near East Policy Research, to give any press interviews, or to meet with the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, even though Jerusalem hosts the UNRWA refugee camp in Shuafat. Will donor nations (see below) ask him to act on these 14 policy challenges?


	Donor chart of the leading UNRWA donors: 
	 
	<img height="686" width="1041" class="media-element file-default" data-delta="3" src="https://cms.frontpagemag.com/sites/default/files/uploads/2020/06/lki.jpg" alt="" />


	David Bedein, head of Israel Resource News Agency at the Center for Near East Policy Research at Beit Agron in Jerusalem, has provided news coverage of UNRWA since December, 1987, assisted by a team of Jewish and Arab journalists, producing 24 short films shot on location, along with two books and hundreds of news articles.

14 Policy Challenges for the New Head of UNRWA

The appointment of Swiss diplomat Phillipe Lazzarini as the new head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (

Below is the <a href="https://www.cfnepr.com/site/index.asp?depart_id=205640&amp;lat=en">Center For Near East Policy Research</a> Report on UNRWA's Misuse of Donor Funds.


	UNRWA’s mandate has been renewed by the UN General Assembly for the past 70 years, and&nbsp;its current mandate is set to expire on June 30, 2020. Yet, as additional countries join the ranks of those refusing to renew this financia and managerial black hole known as ‘UNRWA,’ the continuation of the charade of ‘perpetual refugee-ism’ may be in doubt.


	This paper examines the exorbitant, highly inflated rise of UNRWA’s budget demands over the past 10 years ($1.11 billion USD in 2018 alone), and both the misuse and the utter lack of transparency and accountability as to how those billions of dollars have been spent. 
	 
	I. Historical Overview


	On 14 May 1948, the 30-year British Mandate for Palestine was formally ended by the British Colonial Office. Britain’s chaotic evacuation of its civilian and military personnel was immediately followed by an invasion by seven Arab countries vowing to annihilate the newly declared State of Israel. In the course of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, approximately one million people, both Arabs and Jews, were left displaced and homeless. In the aftermath of these developments&nbsp;the UNGA responded by calling&nbsp;to a post-World II war refugee crisis&nbsp;upon international organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to provide humanitarian aid to the refugees. 
	 
	II. Creation of UNRWA


	Six months after the war, in November 1948, the UN established the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees (UNRPR) to extend aid and relief to Arab refugees who did not remain under Israeli sovereignty, and to coordinate the efforts of NGOs and other UN bodies. On December 1948, the UN established the ‘United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East’ (UNRWA), as a ‘subsidiary organ of the UN’. UNRWA was assigned the assets of the UNRPR and took over the ICRC’s refugee registration records. 
	 
	III. The UNRWA Mandate


	According to the UNRWA website, the UN agency was originally mandated to “carry out direct relief and works programs in collaboration with local governments, consult with the Near Eastern governments concerning measures to be taken preparatory to the time when international assistance for relief and works projects is no longer available, and plan for the time when relief was no longer needed.”


	All other UN refugee relief efforts globally are handled via the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which is tasked, as part of its specific mandate, “to aid its refugees&nbsp;to eliminate their refugee status&nbsp;via local integration into the host country, resettlement in a third country, or repatriation where feasible.” (Emphasis added.)


	No such requirement to resolve the refugee status of beneficiaries&nbsp;has ever applied&nbsp;to&nbsp;UNRWA.


	IV. Perpetuation of Refugee Status


	The UNRWA definition of ‘refugee’ differs radically from that used by other refugee relief agencies. According to the UNRWA mandate, the operational definition of a Palestine refugee is any person whose ‘normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948 and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict”—and&nbsp;descendants of fathers fulfilling the definition. In practice, this means that ‘Palestinian refugee status’ is inherited&nbsp;from generation to generation.


	V. Today’s UNRWA Refugee Beneficiary Figure


	The official figure of displaced Arabs stands at 700,000—although even that figure is in dispute given the records of the 1949 census and the report of the UN Mediator on Palestine which arrived at a figure 472,000, and&nbsp;which calculated that only about 360,000 Arab refugees required aid.


	Regardless of the original figure of Arab refugees from the 1948 war, due to its policy of ‘perpetual inheritability of refugee status’, UNRWA cites a&nbsp;whopping 5.4 million ‘Palestinian refugees’ on the dole of UNWRA.&nbsp;It is this figure that UNRWA points to as it campaigns to wrest additional millions of dollars from donor countries to fund its ‘duty stations’ in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.


	VI. Critical Findings Of DIOS: UN’s Internal Oversight Apparatus


	In April 2018, the UN’s Department of Internal Oversight Services (DIOS) released its report covering a wide variety of investigations of management and financial improprieties of UNRWA during 2017.


	A. Lack of integrity of UNRWA Promotion process


	Among the issues cited by DIOS were instances of promotion to senior positions even as those staff members who were facing serious, unresolved allegations of misconduct. No legal framework existed for dealing with such, nor was there any provision to delay an appointment while such allegations were being investigated. The DIOS report cited the need for integrity checks—for which no procedure currently existed—to be made before promotion to senior positions. Furthermore, they cited the need for management to have the legal capacity to delay an appointment until integrity objections were resolved. Thus, the spectre of cronyism and nepotism looms over UNRWA’s promotion and selection process without regard for circumstances which, for other international organizations, would halt such promotions.


	B. No AdCom Oversight over Financial or Operational Management


	It must be noted that although UNRWA has an advisory commission (AdCom), it has&nbsp;neither charter nor power to inspect or examine financial expenditures and operational management. Furthermore, it has no input into senior appointments or strategic direction.


	In consequence of that lack of oversight controls, the DIOS report raised the following caveat:


	UNRWA appears to be unique in the UN system, in not having any board of governors, board of directors or similar body. It appears no other UN body has this situation. Compounding matters, UNRWA does not have an audit committee. These two bodies would normally examine operations, inspect finances, and approve senior appointments.


	Those serious governance deficiencies have resulted in UNRWA operating at both the managerial and the fiscal level with a significant lack of transparency.


	C. Lack of Centralized Investigations


	As DIOS reported in previous years, the conducting of&nbsp;decentralized investigations&nbsp;by individual UNRWA Field Offices has limited the influence of DIOS and hampered the ability to undertake centralized, objective investigations. DIOS’ operational staff is thus hobbled, both in terms of the technical skills of the investigators, and their lack of independence from Field Office Senior Management.


	D.&nbsp;&nbsp;15% Increase in Misconduct Allegations


	The total numbers of misconduct allegations at UNRWA received by DIOS has continued to increase steadily since the previous review in 2004. Corporal punishment cases continue to be the most frequent type of allegation received among all Field Offices except in Syria. Notably, Breach of Neutrality violations (de-legitimization, demonization, and teaching of war education against Israel) increased from 16 2016 to 55 in 2017.


	E.&nbsp;&nbsp;Mismanagement at Cairo Liaison Office


	DIOS’s inspection of the UNRWA Cairo Liaison Office in Egypt revealed a pattern of mismanagement of UNRWA resources, misrepresentation, and ‘conduct not befitting a civil servant’. Pursuant to the issuance of the 2017 report, various actions were taken by management to rectify the situation, but not all recommendations have been implemented.


	VII. Funding&nbsp;“Citizen- Refugees”&nbsp;of Host States


	Not only are UNRWA’s beneficiary ranks swelled by the aforementioned ‘inherited refugee’ status of all of those descended from male displaced persons, but also by an oxymoronic category of ‘citizen-refugees’. Indeed, individuals who, rather than remaining ‘homeless’, have obtained citizenship in host countries, nevertheless continue to be classified as ‘refugees’ entitled to UNRWA relief. This is especially true in Jordan,&nbsp;where the vast majority of UNRWA ‘refugees’ hold Jordanian citizenship.&nbsp;To a lesser degree, the same scenario presents in Lebanon. Furthermore, this ‘status-based’ basis for receiving UNRWA aid has nothing to do with a ‘need-based’ assistance program.


	No real justification exists for millions of dollars’ worth of donor funds going to subsidize beneficiaries who are citizens of Arab states and who can well afford to pay for the very UNRWA benefits they receive.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;


	VIII. Inordinate Population Growth


	In December 1982, the UN General Assembly, aiming to increase the Palestinian displaced persons count, requested that UNRWA issue identification cards to ‘all Palestinian refugees globally and their descendants, irrespective of whether they were recipients of UNRWA rations and services’. Prior to that resolution, UNRWA ID cards were issued ‘per family’. Among the significant aspects of this resolution was the&nbsp;population figure for UNRWA aid recipients&nbsp;being pegged at ‘1.9 million’. Yet, the 2019 figure used by UNRWA in order to convince donor countries of the need to boost their UNRWA donations, is 5.4 million—a 280% increase— much higher than neighbouring Egypt and Syria and more than double that of industrialized Western countries over the same 37 years.


	IX. Global Palestinian Population Count Falls Short of Claims


	To assist in the implementation of the aforementioned resolution, governments around the world were asked to report on resident Palestinians. From the few replies received, the&nbsp;total of those referred to was less than 500. In light of the unexpectedly low figures submitted by world governments, the UN Secretary General determined that he was ‘unable, at this stage, to proceed further with the implementation of the resolution’.


	X. Bloated Budget, Bloated Staff


	UNRWA’s&nbsp;$1.2 billion&nbsp;budget is out of line relative to the beneficiaries it serves. By contrast, the&nbsp;2019 budget of UNHCR—the UN’s relief agency serving&nbsp;all other displaced persons from every other conflict around the globe—is&nbsp;$8.6 million.&nbsp;Note that UNHCR funds the relief efforts for&nbsp;20.4 million refugees—four times the reputed number of UNRWA beneficiaries and 11 times more than actual registered refugees—on that comparatively meager budget. Thus, UNRWA has approximately $530-$1500 per refugee for every $1 available to UNHCR.


	Similarly, UNRWA’s bloated staffing numbers defy all logic: 30,000 employees are on the UNRWA payroll, but about half that number—16,800—are on the payroll of UNHCR.


	XI. Contractors’ Opposition to GRM


	Five years ago, an arrangement was carved out between Israel, the UN, and the Palestinian Authority (called the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism, or ‘GRM’) pursuant to which war-torn areas of Gaza were to be rebuilt, and ‘essential construction materials’ would be allowed into Gaza. Objections from numerous Palestinian organizations scuttled the deal.&nbsp; Nevertheless, UNRWA claimed GRM housing assistance expenses for over 11,000 families as part of its budget, and further claimed to be coordinating dozens of UNRWA infrastructure projects.


	XII. UNRWA Contractor Tenders


	Among the requirements for bidding on UNRWA infrastructure projects in Jordan and Gaza is that the contractor be a ‘member of the Palestinian Contractors Union’. No other UN agency has such exclusion clauses designed to benefit a particular trade consortium. To do so would raise fair play and open competition issues in violation of the UN’s own ‘Guiding Principles on Humanitarian Assistance of 1991’. More troubling still is that Israel has identified 40% of those contractors as security risks to whom projects should not be awarded nor dual-use material transferred.


	XIII. Skewing UNRWA’s Expenditures


	Make-work projects for ‘construction of a retaining wall’ or for endless ‘camp infrastructure’ and ‘remodelling’&nbsp;are&nbsp;hidden in UNRWA’s otherwise impressive ‘Educational Budget’—leaving donors to assume that all such expenses are for books, teachers, and classrooms rather than for well-connected contractors.


	David Bedein is Director of Israel Resource News Agency at the&nbsp;Center for Near East Policy Research.

UNRWA's Misuse of Donor Funds

Below is the Center For Near East Policy Research Report on UNRWA's Misuse of Donor Funds.


	UNRWA’s mandate has been renewed by the UN General Assembly

The think tank that I run, the Center for Near East Policy Research, has completed a four-year research activity in which all 364 schoolbooks for grades 1-12 that were published by the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the years 2013-2018 were examined. The chief researcher whom we hired to examine the texts used by the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) schools was Dr. Arnon Groiss, a scholar of Middle Eastern studies. The goal of this research project was to check the Palestinian attitude toward the Israeli-Jewish "other" and to the possibility of solving the war with the "other" in a peaceful manner, in the spirit of the peace agreements known as "the Oslo Accords" that were signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel in 1993-1995. The project yielded three <a href="https://israelbehindthenews.com/israel-jews-and-peace-in-the-new-pa-textbooks-used-in-unrwa-schools-today-final-study/16903/">studies</a> which demonstrate that Palestinian students are learning that a peaceful resolution of the war with Israel is not an option. Instead, the theme that runs through the PA curriculum is that "Palestine" must be liberated from "Zionist occupation" by way of an armed struggle titled "Revolution [Thawrah]," which involves terrorist actions styled as "self-sacrificing operations ['amaliyyat Fidaiyyah]."


	You can see this in the context in a PA schoolbook reference in one of the books to the "1972 Munich operation" in which 11 members of the Israeli team at the Olympic Games were massacred (History Studies, Grade 11). Those who carry out such actions are called "self-sacrificing ones [Fidais]" and those among the liberation struggle are called on to liberate the Muslim holy place of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and removing it from the Jews' sway.


	Palestinian pupils are taught that “struggle for liberation” is not limited to the areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but rather the whole country from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea, as Zionist occupation is said to have started in 1948 in what is termed "the Catastrophe [Nakbah]", and not in 1967. Israel's pre-1967 territory is termed "the Palestinian territories that were occupied in 1948" (Management and Economics, Grade 11). Pre-1967 Israel is never presented as a legitimate sovereign state nor does it appear on the map where it is replaced in its entirety by "Palestine."


	Israel's very name is replaced in PA texts as "the Zionist Occupation" or "the Zionist Entity," which should be extirpated from the Middle East (History Studies, Grade 12). Cities inside pre-1967 Israel, such as Nazareth, Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Tiberias, Beer Sheba and Ashkelon, are transformed by PA schoolbooks into Palestinian cities. Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war and their five-million-or-so descendants are mandated by PA education to return to liberated Palestine and thus the 70-year old "Catastrophe" would end.


	PA schoolbooks present all of the six million Jewish&nbsp;citizens as&nbsp;colonizing settlers motivated by racist sentiments (History Studies, Grade 12), who occupied Palestine, massacred and expelled many of its original inhabitants, and have held the rest “under occupation” to this very day. The illegitimate status of the Jews in the country in the eyes of Palestinian educators is well expressed by the noted absence from the map of cities established by Jews in modern times, or showing them under Arabic names. Tel Aviv's name is presented as "Tal al-Rabi.“ Eilat appears as "Umm al-Rashrash."


	Not only is the current Jewish presence in Palestine delegitimized, but PA education denies past Jewish history in the country, as well as their holy places that are presented as exclusively Islamic ones, including the Western Wall in Jerusalem and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. The Jews' notions of historical ties to Jerusalem in particular, are described in PA texts as "baseless claims," "superstitions," "legends," "illusions," and "distorted narratives" (Arabic Language 1: Reading, Grammar, Prosody and Expression - Academic Path, Grade 12) and the Jews themselves are presented as "usurpers" and "invaders."


	As if this heavy de-legitimization of both Israel's existence and the Jews' very presence in the country is not enough, the PA schoolbooks also contain numerous pieces demonizing all Jews within two Islamic contexts: as a people disobedient to, even blasphemous of, God, according to Koranic verses, and as a group hostile to Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, and the early Muslims in Arabia. The impact of these accusations on the minds of young Palestinians who are relatively religiously-oriented portrays all Jews in Israel in a negative light, even more than their demonization in the context of the ongoing Arab-Israeli war which was launched by the Arab League in 1948. Israel, referred to in the PA texts by the epithet "the Zionist Entity," is demonized in the context of the "primary sin" of its very establishment.


	Meanwhile, PA textbooks accuse the Zionist entity of perpetrating numerous massacres against Palestinians, assassinating Palestinian leaders, destroying Palestinian villages, causing Palestinian children's suffering, being aggressive, violating international laws and conventions, maltreating Palestinian "prisoners of war," confiscating Palestinian land, uprooting trees, causing Palestinian unemployment, limiting Palestinians' free movement, detaining school students, damaging Palestinian economy, polluting the Palestinian environment, and even endangering Palestinian nutritive security and causing the desertification of Palestine. PA texts ignore any Palestinian terror actions that may have contributed to the creation of this situation.&nbsp;


	The effort of the PA schoolbooks is augmented by the absence of any objective information about Israel and the Jews that would counterbalance it. Nor do the PA schoolbooks refer to the Jewish-Israeli individual as an ordinary human being. Jews are referred to as a hated ethnic group, with all the accompanying connotations of alienation and threat, which makes them a legitimate target for violence. Indeed, using violence against Israel and the Jews is considered by the PA schoolbooks as legitimate (in defense of Islam and its holy places in the country), moral (in light of their perceived inherent evil), and legal (because they are presented as foreign occupiers who act in contradiction to international law, and said to constitute an existential threat to the Palestinian people).


	Peace and co-existence cannot be an option, given the indoctrination of PA schoolbooks. Thus, these new schoolbooks contribute to the perpetuation of war. Indeed, one of the findings of the present study is that such indoctrination has spread to all school subjects, especially mathematics, and it appears as well in purely professional textbooks such as "Small Businesses" and "Management and Economics" of the Entrepreneurship and Business stream and "Entrepreneurship in Business" of the Technological stream.


	We have presented our findings before the U.S. Congress, the Canadian Parliament, the Swedish Parliament, the British Parliament and, most recently, at the United Nations. People who support peace in the Middle East should raise their voices and demand that the Palestinian Authority change its war-oriented curriculum as a precondition to any move towards peace, in accordance with its commitments by virtue of the Oslo Peace Accords which form the basis of the very establishment and operation of the nascent PA. A peace accord without peace education seems futile.

How Palestinian Schoolbooks Indoctrinate Students Against Israel

The think tank that I run, the Center for Near East Policy Research, has completed a four-year research activity in which all 364 schoolbooks for grades 1-12

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