RAMALLAH, March 25, 2017 (WAFA) – The Ministry of Education Saturday sent a stern warning to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) against introducing any changes to the Palestinian school curriculum.

UNRWA, which is in charge of Palestinian refugee camps in several host countries in the region since its establishment in 1950 following the Palestinian dispersion from their homes and land after Israel’s creation in Palestine in 1948, is responsible for hundreds of schools in the camps.

The Palestinian ministry said in a statement that it “categorically” rejects any changes or modification to the Palestinian curriculum following reports that UNRWA plans to introduce changes.

“According to international law, UNRWA should apply the curriculum of the host country,” it said, warning that the ministry “will take punitive measures against anyone who tries to change the curriculum or mess with it.”

The Ministry said any attempt to alter the Palestinian curriculum “will be regarded as an aggression against Palestine, targeting, muffling and endangering the national identity.”

It said that what was revealed regarding this matter indicates an attack on the national component in the curriculum “which goes along with schemes by the occupation authority (Israel) aimed at distorting and twisting the curriculum.”

Israel claims the Palestinian curriculum incites against it when it talks about the history of the conflict with Israel or the Palestinian peoples’ struggle for freedom and independence and their resistance against the 50-year-old brutal Israeli occupation.

The Ministry of Education urged UNRWA to clarify its position on this matter and instead of succumbing to pressure from the Israeli occupation authorities, to go straight to the ministry to discuss this matter.

M.K.