Joseph C. Ben-Ami is the Director of Operations at the Nahum Bedein Center for Near East Policy Research. The Canadian government plans to join France and the UK in recognizing a “State of Palestine” at the UN General Assembly later this month. The declaration — little more than diplomatic virtue signaling — does nothing to advance peace in the Middle East. Meanwhile, Canada continues to support the single greatest obstacle to that peace — the indoctrination of Palestinian children in UN and Palestinian Authority schools and camps.First, a short history lesson for context.The much vaunted “two-state solution” is nothing new. It was implemented shortly after World War One when the British partitioned “Palestine,” handing over all the land east of the Jordan River — approximately three-quarters of the region — to the Arabs and making Abdullah bin Hussein Emir as a reward for his family’s help defeating the Ottomans. The British also created Iraq for the same reason, installing Abdullah’s brother Faisal as Emir..EDITORIAL: If Nenshi says the pornographic books are fine in school libraries, bring them to the mic.Although residents of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (Abdullah and his brother were members of the Hashemite clan from the Arabian Peninsula) never really referred to themselves as Palestinians, they are as Palestinian as the Arabs who made their home west of the Jordan River. Even the Jews called themselves Palestinian prior to Israel becoming independent in 1948. “Palestinian” was, and remains, a political rather than an ethnic or national term.Of course, none of this means that an independent Arab state in Gaza and the West Bank can never be part of a future negotiated agreement. It has become fashionable to blame Israel’s current Prime Minister for the lack of progress toward such an agreement, but Benjamin Netanyahu’s opinion on the subject could not be less relevant. Arab leaders themselves rejected such a solution on four occasions since the original post-World War One partition, including as recently as 2008, and they launched three wars against Israel from Gaza after being given control of the territory in 2005. .How much more evidence does the world need?A key reason for this persistent rejectionism can be traced to the Oslo Accords, when leaders of the Arab community in situ were forcibly replaced by Yassir Arafat and his PLO cronies at the behest of the international community and with the acquiescence of Israel. Since the year 2000, children in Palestinian schools and summer camps have been taught to disdain the idea of a Jewish state alongside an Arab one in the remaining 25% of Palestine. They receive military training and are indoctrinated into what has aptly been characterized as a death cult that worships violence, reveres martyrdom, and seeks the destruction of Israel and the death of Jews. What is particularly disturbing is that these schools and camps are funded by countries like Canada, that naively hand over hundreds of millions of dollars every year to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees — UNRWA for short — with virtually no accountability for how the money is spent. .ALBERS: Free speech with limits is no freedom at all .Originally intended to deliver basic services such as healthcare, food, and education for refugees from the 1948-49 war, UNRWA has morphed into a multi-billion-dollar cash cow that perpetuates Palestinian dependence while bankrolling shady activities such as the “education” and training described above.Last year, Canadians contributed close to $40 million to UNRWA despite having paused payments in January in response to revelations of UNRWA personnel participating in the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. Those payments were resumed in April of last year. The Carney government recently pledged an additional $10 million to the Palestinian Authority to finance its “reform” and help it prepare to assume the role of national government. Exactly what reforms Canadians are paying for is a mystery, as is how to recover the money if they are not achieved..This is not simply an Israel — or Jewish — issue. What is being perpetrated in UNRWA and PA-run schools and youth camps is child abuse on a colossal scale — a humanitarian crime in which Canadian taxpayers are unwittingly complicit.It is also a major contributor to the violence gripping the region.For years, the Nahum Bedein Center for Near East Policy Research has been documenting this abuse and has joined with affected parents in calling on UNRWA contributors to end their funding or, at least, make their continued support contingent on genuine, verifiable reform of the UN body and the “education” it provides. Sadly, with few exceptions, these pleas have fallen on deaf ears..BYFIELD: Charlie Kirk, Mark Carney, and learning to love the least.The world can no longer afford to turn a blind eye to this cancer. The young men who committed the frenzied attacks of October 7 — and took perverse pleasure in subjecting their victims to the most sickening violence imaginable — did not just appear from nowhere. They were — and are — the product of the macabre teaching being carried out in their schools and camps. They are the child soldiers the IDF is having to confront in Gaza, and their malevolent influence is now spreading beyond the region.Instead of making a “two-state solution” the cornerstone of its Middle East policy, Canada can lead the world by highlighting this systematic theft of Palestinian children’s innocence and leveraging its aid and reputation as a staunch defender of human rights to press for its end. In so doing, Canada would be making a far greater contribution to peace than the meaningless proclamations Mr. Carney and his colleagues are currently proposing.Joseph C. Ben-Ami is the Director of Operations at the Nahum Bedein Center for Near East Policy Research.
