[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3280 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
106th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 3280
To prohibit assistance to the Palestinian Authority unless and until
certain conditions are met.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
December 15 (legislative day, September 22), 2000
Mr. Specter introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To prohibit assistance to the Palestinian Authority unless and until
certain conditions are met.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Today in the West Bank and Gaza, textbooks used in
Palestinian schools are teaching hatred towards Jews and the
incitement towards violence.
(2) Article XXII of the Israeli-Palestinian Interim
Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip of 1995 declares
that Israel and the Palestinian Authority will ``ensure that
their respective educational systems contribute to the peace
between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples and to peace in the
entire region, and will refrain from the introduction of any
motifs that could adversely affect the process of
reconciliation''.
(3) As a result of the Oslo Accords, the responsibility for
education in the West Bank and Gaza was transferred from the
Government of Israel to the Palestinian Ministry of Education.
(4) Since the early 1950s, Palestinian schools in the West
Bank have used Jordanian textbooks and the schools in Gaza used
Egyptian textbooks, but when these areas were under the control
of the Israeli government, anti-Semitic and anti-Israel content
was removed from the school books.
(5) While beginning to develop their own curriculum, the
Palestinian Ministry of Education continued to use Egyptian and
Jordanian books, but failed to remove the anti-Israel and anti-
Semitic content.
(6) The Palestinian Ministry of Education directly
supervised the production of new textbooks which are now used
in schools in the West Bank and Gaza.
(7) The new textbooks contain anti-Semitic and anti-Israel
content, and the Israeli government no longer has the authority
to change the content of the textbooks.
(8) Palestinian Authority school children are actively
taught that the Jews and Israel are the enemy in a broad range
of contexts, and for example, page 79 of the Islamic Education
for Ninth Grade reads, ``One must beware of the Jews, for they
are treacherous and disloyal''.
(9) The Islamic Education for Ninth Grade also instructs
that ``one must beware of civil war which the Jews try to
incite, scheming against the Muslims,'' on page 94.
(10) On page 182, the text of the Islamic Education for
Ninth Grade reads ``The Jews . . . have killed and evicted
Muslim and Christian inhabitants of Palestine, whose
inhabitants are still suffering oppression and persecution
under racist Jewish administration.''
(11) The Islamic Religious Education for the Fourth Grade
teaches students on page 44, `` . . . the Jews--as is their
way--do not want people to live in peace.''
(12) The books include lessons equating Zionism with
Nazism, Fascism, and racism, and for example, The Contemporary
History of Arabs and the World, on page 123, states ``The
clearest examples of racist belief and racial discrimination in
the world are Nazism and Zionism.''
(13) Islamic Education for the Fourth Grade teaches
children ``the Jews are the enemies'' on page 67.
(14) The new textbooks do not acknowledge the State of
Israel, but rather the creation of Israel is explained as the
Israeli occupation of 1948.
(15) All the maps of ``Palestine'', be they political,
historical, geographical, or natural resource maps in the
textbooks, erase mention of Israel.
(16) The calls to fight and eliminate Israel through Jihad
(Holy War) and Martyrdom for Allah, appear frequently in the
school books.
(17) In addition there is a separate recurring theme: the
children are taught to fight and conquer Israel's capital,
Jerusalem, and for example, the book Islamic Education for
Seventh Grade asks: ``How are we going to liberate our stolen
land? Make use of the following ideas: Arab unity, genuine
faith in Allah, most modern weapons and ammunition, using oil
and other precious natural resources as weapons in the battle
for liberation'' on page 15.
(18) The need to fight Israel, all of which is said to be
on ``occupied Arab land'' becomes a religious imperative, with
teachings like the following from Islamic Education for Seventh
Grade, page 108: ``if the enemy has conquered part of its land
and those fighting for it are unable to repel the enemy, then
Jihad becomes the individual religious duty of every Muslim man
and woman, until the attack is successfully repulsed and the
land liberated from conquest and to defend Muslim honor . .
.''.
(19) The same message appears in the fifth grade text Our
Arabic Language for Fifth Grade on pages 69 and 70, ``there
will be a Jihad and our country shall be freed. This is our
story with the thieving conquerors. You must know, my boy, that
Palestine is your grave responsibility.''
(20) Children are specifically taught to protect all
mosques, and for example, Islamic Education for the Seventh
Grade instructs students that ``they must devote all their
efforts and resources to repairing them and to protecting them
and must wage a Jihad both of life and property to liberate al-
Aqsa Mosque from the Zionist conquest'' on page 184.
(21) Palestinian Authority Television is under direct
control of the Palestinian Authority.
(22) The same hateful portrayal of Jews and Israel found in
the school books is promoted regularly on Palestinian
television, and for example, on May 14, 1998, Palestinian
television broadcast statements such as ``The Jewish gangs
waged racial cleansing wars against innocent Palestinians . . .
large scale appalling massacres saving no women or children''.
(23) Also, radio and television broadcasts made by publicly
funded facilities in the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas
of the West Bank and Gaza include programs having an anti-
Semitic, anti-Israel content.
(24) On May 14, 1998, on Palestinian Television Zionism was
presented as ``a cancer in the body of the nation.''
(25) The Palestinian Television also refuses to acknowledge
the state of Israel, and broadcast in May 1998, ``the war of
1948 brought about the establishment of the Zionist entity on
Palestinian land.''
(26) The message of Jihad is also conveyed on the
Palestinian Television, and for example, the broadcasts
declared in May 1998, ``This is our Palestine. We defend it
with blood.''
(27) While the United States has not given aid directly to
the Palestinian Authority since 1995, in fiscal year 2000 the
United States allocated $485 million in development assistance
to non-governmental organizations working in the West Bank and
Gaza, including funds for education programs.
(28) Between 1995 and 1998 international aid provided by 21
countries and 4 international organizations provided $226.9
million to educational projects in the Palestinian Territories.
(29) From 1994 to 1999, the European Community committed
over $600 million in assistance to the Palestinian Territories,
including funds for education programs.
SEC. 2. RESTRICTION ON ASSISTANCE.
(a) Restriction.--No assistance shall be provided to the
Palestinian Authority unless and until the President certifies to
Congress that the Palestinian Authority has removed the anti-Semitic,
anti-Israel content included in the textbooks used in schools, and
radio and television broadcasts made by publicly funded facilities, in
the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas of the West Bank and Gaza.
(b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that the
President should urge allies of the United States to apply an
equivalent restriction on assistance as described in subsection (a).
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