The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees launched an investigation into 10 of its teachers and employees who had been accused by the watchdog group of promoting hate speech and antisemitism online.
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Last week, the Geneva-based nongovernmental organization UN Watch said in a report that over 100 UNRWA staff members had publicly promoted violence and antisemitism on social media. The report, titled "Beyond the Textbooks," listed 22 recent cases of incitement by agency staff online, violating UNRWA's own "zero-tolerance policy for hatred."
For instance, UNRWA math teacher in Gaza, Nahed Sharawi, posted a video on social media of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler with "inspirational" quotes to "enrich and enlighten your thoughts and minds," and UNRWA teacher Husni Masri shared antisemitic conspiracy theories that Jews controlled the world, were responsible for the coronavirus pandemic and sought to destroy Islam.
In response, the UNRWA published a statement on Sunday in which it called UN Watch "an organization with a deep history of unfounded and politically-driven assertions against the agency."
It also said that only 10 of the 22 people mentioned in the report were associated with the agency, against whom they immediately launched a "thorough investigation" to determine whether they in fact "violated the agency's social media policies."
The agency further claimed that the watchdog was deliberately exaggerating the severity of the matter.
"In previous reports over a five-year period, UN Watch identified a total of 101 cases where UNRWA personnel allegedly posted content on social media that was in breach of its Regulatory Framework," it said.
"To suggest that hate is widespread within the agency and schools is not only misleading and false but validates sensationalist and politically motivated attacks that deliberately harm an already vulnerable community: refugee children.
The statement said that "UNRWA's mandate is to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to over five million Palestine refugees," emphasizing that the agency invests immense efforts in training its personnel to promote their understanding of neutrality and ethics training."
UN Watch's Executive Director Hillel Neuer shot back, saying that UNRWA was not addressing the bigger picture. "The fact that UNRWA's education system is repeatedly hiring and putting in the classroom teachers that admire Hitler and propagate hatred and terrorism," is the problem, he said.
"Deleting a post on Facebook does not remove the hate in those teachers' hearts and minds. It does not solve the problem. Palestinian children deserve to be fully protected from teachers of hatred and racism. Zero tolerance in schools means you remove racists from the classroom, period."
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
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