UN-funded Textbook Claims ‘Zionist Occupation Started in 1856’

A United Nations-funded textbook for Arab students offers revisionist history as part of its goal to incite violence against Israelis and Jews.

By: JNS.org

“Since the Zionist movement established in 1856 its first settlement, known as ‘Montefioriyyah’ [Mishkenot Sha’ananim, built by Sir Moses Montefiore before the emergence of modern Zionism], south-west of the Jerusalem city wall, the series of division [actions] in Palestine has not stopped,” claims a social studies book for Arab ninth-graders funded by the Palestinians’ dedicated United Nations agency UNRWA.

“[The Zionist movement] established settlements that included training centers and arms depots. After the ‘Catastrophe’ [Nakba in Arabic] of 1948 it ruled over more than 78% of Palestine’s territory,” continues the text.

In reality, Palestine has never at any point in history been a state.

“More than 850 thousand Palestinians were made to emigrate and they and their families lived in refugee camps in Palestine and in the Diaspora. Nothing of it [Palestine] was left, except the Gaza Strip and the West Bank that were occupied [later] in 1967,” continues the biased, inaccurate book.

In reality, the United Nations in 1947 offered a partition plan of the land that the British occupied and then left, which was accepted by the Jews and rejected by the Arabs. The following year, the State of Israel declared independence, leading to victory in war over its neighbors.

The Palestinians have been offered statehood numerous times, only for its leadership to reject each offer and respond with further violence.

UNRWA’s distribution of textbooks that promote Palestinian violence against Israel has long been documented.

The Trump administration slashed all U.S. funding to UNRWA last August.