CLAIM:
UNRWA schools do not promote extremism.
STATUS:
Disputed
KEY COUNTERPOINTS:
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Independent curriculum reviews, including a 2022 analysis of UNRWA-produced study materials by IMPACT-se, found content glorifying violence, antisemitic tropes, and narratives that frame armed struggle as virtuous, in materials produced directly by UNRWA rather than inherited from Palestinian Authority textbooks. The significance of this finding is that UNRWA cannot attribute the problem solely to its policy of using host-government textbooks. When UNRWA-produced supplementary materials contain the same categories of problematic content, the institutional neutrality defense is weakened independently of questions about external curriculum sources.
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European Parliament and EU-funded reviews of Palestinian Authority textbooks used in UNRWA schools identified content promoting martyrdom narratives, delegitimization of Israel, and violent resistance as positive values, across multiple review cycles spanning more than a decade. The Georg Eckert Institute review commissioned by the European Union and multiple reports from the European Parliament’s research service documented problematic passages in textbooks that UNRWA uses in its Gaza and West Bank schools. The EU is among UNRWA’s largest donors and has no strategic interest in discrediting the agency; its own commissioned research reaching critical conclusions about curriculum content is evidence that the concern is not reducible to Israeli or pro-Israeli sources.
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UNRWA’s staffing record, including the documented appointment of principals and teachers affiliated with Hamas to leadership positions in UNRWA schools, raises the question of whether institutional messaging in classrooms diverges from official curriculum texts in ways that formal content review cannot capture. The Israeli government’s review of UNRWA schools headed by Hamas principals, compiled from Israeli intelligence and cross-referenced against UNRWA employment records, identifies named individuals holding school leadership positions while allegedly maintaining Hamas organizational roles. A school’s institutional culture and the messaging delivered by its principal and teachers are not fully captured by textbook content analysis alone.
EVIDENCE:
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The IMPACT-se 2022 review of UNRWA-produced study materials found content in UNRWA’s own publications that included glorification of armed struggle, antisemitic imagery, and narratives presenting martyrdom as aspirational, in materials produced by UNRWA’s own education department rather than adopted from Palestinian Authority sources.
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EU-commissioned Georg Eckert Institute analysis of Palestinian Authority textbooks used in UNRWA schools documented problematic content in multiple subject areas and grade levels, including passages presenting violent resistance as a positive value and maps that omit Israel entirely.
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The European Parliament’s research service published briefings in 2021 documenting concerns about Palestinian textbook content and calling for review of EU funding conditionality in relation to curriculum standards.
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UNRWA’s own stated neutrality policy requires that its educational materials comply with UN values. The presence of content identified by independent reviewers as inconsistent with those values in both UNRWA-produced and UNRWA-used materials represents a gap between policy and practice.
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The Israeli government’s review of UNRWA schools headed by Hamas principals documents named school leaders alleged to hold simultaneous Hamas roles, raising questions about institutional culture and classroom-level messaging that curriculum reviews do not address.
PRIMARY SOURCES:
IMPACT-se, Review of 2022 UNRWA-Produced Study Materials in the Palestinian Territories
https://www.impact-se.org/wp-content/uploads/Review-of-2022-UNRWA-Produced-School-Materials.pdf
Analysis specifically of UNRWA-produced materials rather than Palestinian Authority textbooks, addressing the argument that UNRWA bears no responsibility for externally sourced content. The most directly relevant source for this claim because it isolates UNRWA's own institutional output.
↑↑↑ Best source!
IMPACT-se, ongoing reports on Palestinian Authority textbooks used in UNRWA schools
https://www.impact-se.org/reports/
Multi-year series of curriculum reviews documenting problematic content across grade levels and subjects. Provides longitudinal evidence that identified problems have persisted across multiple review cycles rather than being isolated to a single edition.
↑↑↑ best source!
European Parliament, Written Question on Palestinian Textbooks and UNRWA (E-9-2021-003199)
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-9-2021-003199_EN.html
European Parliament documentation of concerns about Palestinian textbook content, significant because the EU is a major UNRWA donor and the concerns arise from within the donor community rather than from parties in the conflict.
↑↑↑ mid source
UK Parliament, House of Commons Library Research Briefing on Palestinian Textbooks (CDP-2021-0105)
https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CDP-2021-0105/CDP-2021-0105.pdf
UK parliamentary research service briefing summarizing findings from European and independent reviews of Palestinian textbook content. Useful as a consolidated secondary source from a neutral governmental research body.
↑↑↑ mid source
Israeli Government, The Connection Between UNRWA and Hamas (April 2025), section on UNRWA schools headed by Hamas principals
https://govextra.gov.il/media/d21mw2f3/the-connection-between-unrwa-and-hamas-280425.pdf
Documents named UNRWA school principals alleged to hold Hamas roles. Use with source disclosure as an Israeli government document; most useful for establishing the staffing dimension of the claim that textbook analysis alone cannot address.
↑↑↑ mid source
STRONGEST COUNTER ARGUMENTS WORTH KNOWING:
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UNRWA’s standard position is that it does not write the curriculum and is required under UN policy to use host government or Palestinian Authority textbooks. The agency argues it cannot be held responsible for content in externally produced materials over which it has limited control.
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UNRWA conducts internal curriculum reviews and has stated it removes or annotates problematic content when identified. Defenders argue this shows an active neutrality monitoring process, even if imperfect.
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IMPACT-se has been criticized by some academics and NGOs as a politically motivated organization with ties to pro-Israel advocacy. Opponents of its findings argue that its methodology selectively highlights problematic passages while minimizing neutral or peaceful content in the same materials. This is the most substantive methodological challenge to the primary evidence base.
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The European and UK reviews, while more independent, have been contested by UNRWA and by Palestinian advocacy groups who argue the framing of “extremism” reflects political bias in how resistance narratives are categorized.
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UNRWA argues that operating in conflict zones where political violence is part of lived reality makes some degree of contested political content in educational materials difficult to eliminate entirely, and that this is different from institutional promotion of extremism.
NOTES:
The IMPACT-se sourcing objection is the opponent’s most reliable attack. Address it preemptively by leading with the European Parliament and EU-commissioned findings, which come from major UNRWA donors with no strategic interest in discrediting the agency. Establish that the concern is cross-source before introducing IMPACT-se for the more detailed content analysis.
The most important analytical distinction in this note is between UNRWA-produced materials and Palestinian Authority textbooks used by UNRWA. The 2022 IMPACT-se review specifically covers UNRWA’s own produced materials, not the PA curriculum. This matters because the standard UNRWA defense is “we use host government textbooks under UN policy.” That defense does not apply to UNRWA’s own supplementary materials.
The staffing argument (Hamas principals in UNRWA schools) is a separate evidentiary track from curriculum content and should be treated as additional rather than integrated. The two tracks together are stronger than either alone, but conflating them allows the opponent to challenge the intelligence-based staff allegations as a way of deflecting the documentary evidence on curriculum content.
Watch for the “isolated passages” defense: the response is that EU and UK reviews cover multiple subject areas and grade levels across multiple editions, and that UNRWA’s own materials contain the same categories of content. The pattern across sources and years is not consistent with “isolated passages.”
The status remains Disputed rather than False because UNRWA schools do not promote extremism in every classroom in every lesson. The claim is about whether promotion occurs; the evidence shows it does occur in documented materials and contexts, which is sufficient to dispute the claim without requiring proof of comprehensive or deliberate indoctrination.
__see more:
Evaluating UNRWA After the Colonna Report.pdf
Independent Review of UNRWA Neutrality, Colonna Report, April 2024.pdf
Review of 2022 UNRWA-Produced Study Materials in the Palestinian Territories.pdf
Review of UNRWA Schools Headed by Hamas Principals.pdf
The Activities of UNRWA.pdf
The Connection Between UNRWA and Hamas.pdf
**RELATED CLAIMS:
Hamas does not use UNRWA facilities
UNRWA employees are not involved with Hamas
UNRWA has no connection to Hamas