[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).
                                 <all>