Hamas on Wednesday reiterated its strong opposition to teaching about the
Holocaust in Gaza Strip schools run by the UN Relief and Works
Agency.
The Refugee Affairs Department of Hamas said that teaching the
Holocaust was a “crime against the issue of the refugees that is aimed at
canceling their right of return.”
The Hamas statement came in response to
unconfirmed reports in a number of Arab media outlets that UNRWA was planning to
reintroduce the Holocaust into its school curriculum.
UNRWA teachers in
Jordan also announced this week their strong opposition to teaching the
Holocaust in their schools.
Hamas called on UNRWA to stop “passing
suspicious projects in the context of services it provides to Palestinian
refugees.” The children at UNRWA schools don’t need material about the
Holocaust, Hamas said. “Rather, they need to be re-taught the history and
geography of Palestine as a basic subject. The children are entitled to learn
about the massacres perpetrated by the Zionist enemy against the Palestinians
since the Nakba [disaster].”
Hamas appealed to all political forces,
civil societies and UNRWA teachers in the Gaza Strip to “confront these
suspicious projects and reject them.”