Germany Funds Holocaust-Denial Curriculum in Palestinian Schools

Berlin’s continued funding of Palestinian Holocaust-denying teachers and curriculum is a tremendous stain on Germany.

By Pesach Benson, United with Israel

The problem began, ironically, with Germany and other European donor states not wanting to use their public money to support odious Palestinian terror stipends.

European tax money supporting imprisoned terrorists and the families of Palestinian “martyrs” was morally bankrupt and too toxic for public opinion.

So the Europeans stopped funding the Palestinian Authority’s general budget, and instead began earmarking funds for ostensibly politically safe recipients, such as salaries for Palestinian teachers. The PA’s 60,000 teachers make an average monthly salary of around $722.

What could possibly go wrong with helping the PA cover teachers’ salaries?

The General Union of Palestinian Teachers

PA President Mahmoud Abbas touched off a diplomatic firestorm during a visit to Germany in August. At a joint press conference with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Abbas refused to condemn a deadly attack by Palestinian terrorists on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Instead, Abbas went on to accuse Israel of committing “50 Holocausts” against the Palestinian people.

Scholz said he was “disgusted with the outrageous remarks” but took flak for not walking off the podium.

Holocaust denial and the Munich massacre are two of the biggest skeletons in Abbas’ closet.

While studying in the Soviet Union, Abbas also wrote a doctoral thesis claiming that less than one million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. The Zionists, he insisted, inflated the death toll.

Mohammad Daoud Oudeh, also known as Abu Daoud, who masterminded the Olympic attack, wrote in his autobiography that the Black September terror operation was funded by Abbas. The PA’s ruling Fatah party, which Abbas leads, continues to celebrate the massacre.

The Chancellor, if he was aware of similar comments by Saed Erziqat, the head of the General Union of Palestinian Teachers, would be even more appalled.

In an August 20 interview on official PA-run state television cited by Palestinian Media Watch, Erizqat praised Abbas’ comments and took them further.

“A blessing to His Honor [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas, He is the one who wrote about Nazism and Zionism, that they are two sides of the same coin… When His Honor the President spoke [in Germany] about [50 Palestinian] holocaust[s] he did not deny what happened to the entity- and the Jews in Germany, rather he attempted to show that the Palestinian people has also been subjected to massacres, more than the Jews in Germany experienced… We in the Palestinian Teachers’ Union sent a letter to the German teachers’ union that there are massacres that have happened to the Palestinian people that were worse than the Holocaust itself.”

Erziqat insisted that these “Holocausts” are still happening today.

“Also, the Palestinian holocaust has not ended. The occupation’s (i.e., Israel’s) daily measures are a holocaust that renews every day… It attempts to do to our Palestinian people what they did to [the Jews] in Germany… He [Abbas] is the most knowledgeable person on the thinking of the occupation and the thinking of Zionism, because he wrote [a thesis] about the comparison between Zionism and Nazism. Therefore, he is the person who most understands the importance of [this] narrative to the world.”

School Textbooks

In August, Ynet reported that Palestinian schools implemented a directive from Abbas’ office to reform the curriculum.

Changes described by Ynet included textbooks becoming more radical in their incitement against Israel — and in their Holocaust denial. History books contain no reference to the Holocaust, though the curriculum includes a mock trial in which students “prosecute the UN for not protecting the Palestinian during The Nakba, also known as the Palestinian Catastrophe.”

The paper added that other terror attacks, including Munich, are lauded as a legitimate example of Palestinian resistance.

The European Union — and Germany in particular — had an opportunity to draw a line in the sand this year. Around $220 million in EU aid designated to cover the salaries and pensions of some Palestinian civil servants was held up for six months as senior EU official Oliver Varhelyi sought to condition the assistance on the PA reforming its educational material to remove antisemitism and incitement and glorification of violence.

In the end, the money was released without any preconditions and the Palestinians claimed a diplomatic victory.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism includes Israel-Nazi comparisons. Germany formally adopted the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism in 2017.

Berlin’s continued funding of Holocaust-denying teachers and curriculum is a tremendous stain on Germany.

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