Peace and Tolerance in Palestinian Education Act

Peace and Tolerance in Palestinian Education Act

This bill directs the Department of State to report annually to Congress on the school materials used by the Palestinian Authority or the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in the West Bank and Gaza. Specifically, the report shall address (1) whether the materials used encourage violence or intolerance toward other nations or ethnic groups, (2) the steps the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA have taken to reform such materials, and (3) whether U.S. foreign assistance is used to fund the dissemination of the offending materials.

The State Department shall make such reports publicly available.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2343 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2343

 To require the Secretary of State to submit annual reports reviewing 
   the educational material used by the Palestinian Authority or the 
 United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the 
      Near East in the West Bank and Gaza, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 18, 2019

    Mr. Sherman (for himself, Mr. Zeldin, Mr. Trone, Mr. Mast, Mr. 
  Gottheimer, and Mr. Weber of Texas) introduced the following bill; 
         which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To require the Secretary of State to submit annual reports reviewing 
   the educational material used by the Palestinian Authority or the 
 United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the 
      Near East in the West Bank and Gaza, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Peace and Tolerance in Palestinian 
Education Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) In 2016 and 2017, the Palestinian Authority published 
        modified curriculums for school-aged children in grades 1 
        through 11.
            (2) The new Palestinian curriculums fail to meet the 
        international standards of peace and tolerance in educational 
        materials established by the United Nations Educational, 
        Scientific and Cultural Organization.
            (3) Textbooks used by the Palestinian Authority and the 
        United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees 
        in the Near East (UNRWA) in the West Bank and Gaza demonize 
        Israel, encourage war, and teach children that Palestinian 
        statehood can be achieved through violence.
            (4) On April 26, 2018, the Government Accountability Office 
        published a report that found that textbooks in UNRWA schools 
        do not mention Israel or Judaism, feature maps of the region 
        that exclude Israel, and include content that incites violence.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that the Palestinian Authority and 
UNRWA have not sufficiently worked to eliminate all content and 
passages encouraging violence or intolerance toward other nations or 
ethnic groups from the curriculum used in their respective schools.

SEC. 4. REPORT REQUIRED.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter for ten years in 
accordance with subsection (c), the Secretary of State shall submit to 
the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and 
the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate a report reviewing 
curriculum used in schools controlled by the Palestinian Authority or 
UNRWA in the West Bank and Gaza that includes the following:
            (1) A determination whether all content and passages 
        encouraging violence or intolerance toward other nations or 
        ethnic groups has been removed in such curriculum, and a 
        detailed explanation of the reasons for reaching such 
        determination.
            (2) An assessment of the steps the Palestinian Authority 
        and UNRWA are taking to reform such curriculum at schools to 
        conform with standards of peace and tolerance in the 
        Declaration of Principles on Tolerance by the United Nations 
        Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (adopted 
        November 16, 1995).
            (3) A determination whether United States foreign 
        assistance is used, directly or indirectly, to fund the 
        dissemination of such curriculum by the Palestinian Authority 
        or UNRWA.
    (b) Public Availability.--The Secretary shall make each report 
submitted pursuant to subsection (a) on a publicly available website of 
the Department of State.
    (c) Subsequent Deadlines.--Each report required by subsection (a), 
other than first, shall be submitted not later than 90 days after the 
date on which a new school year begins for schools controlled by the 
Palestinian Authority or UNRWA schools in the West Bank and Gaza.
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