The sovereignty of the state of Israel was directly attacked twice over the Jewish Sabbath this weekend. The first attack, which received a lot of international media coverage, took place on Friday evening in front of a synagogue and resulted in 7 killed in cold blood. Although this attack was truly horrendous and combined so many elements, such as breaching the sanctity of a house of prayer, and killing Jews on International Holocaust Memorial Day, the second attack near the old city of Jerusalem on Saturday morning is far more alarming given that the pistol carrying terrorist was a 13-year-old boy. 

Many questions immediately come to mind when trying to depict such a scenario: Who gave a young boy a gun? What inspired him? Why has no Palestinian official condemned such violence by a child? Although the police are surely investigating to discover the immediate answers to all these troubling issues, a far broader educational crisis is at the heart of this heinous and quite frankly pointless attack; UNRWA. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which has been funding virtually all education in the Palestinian territories and East Jerusalem for over 50 years, is both directly and obliquely responsible. 

The refugee agency, funded by leading European and North American governments, had a budget of $1.6 billion as of 2022 that was allocated for a region and people in which the average monthly salary is less than $800. Their intentions are genuinely good-hearted, but the execution of its policies is so bad that the phrase ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’ is a laughable understatement in comparison to the damage UNRWA has inflicted on Palestinian society.

The teaching of hate & extremism
A 13 year old shot two people in a terror attack
Why does New Zealand fund @UNRWA that teaches & extremism in their schools?
Why does NZ have a double standard?
PM @chrishipkins @MFATNZ @NZUN @GerryBrownleeMP@dbseymour
https://t.co/jwJnzfOuA3

— The Consultant (@TheConsultant18) January 29, 2023

The strategy used by them is to organize the funds from international donors, and instead of overseeing the schools bearing the agency's name, allocate those funds to Palestinian groups throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip while occasionally checking in to ensure funds are ‘being used properly’.

(Below is an example of what students in UNRWA schools in East Jerusalem are being taught. From their own mouths, the hate, the false history and the desire to bring harm unto others comes from the lessons they are being taught in school.)

This process, with no checks and balances, has allowed Palestinian groups, radical and moderate alike, to do whatever they want annually with the billions in donations received. Many Arab children in East Jerusalem, who are defined as 'refugees' by UNRWA, will be fully educated using those UN funds while being taught about the duty they have to physically assault and banish Jews from the “occupied land of Palestine”, instead of the traditional curriculum such as science, math and language studies. 

The 13-year-old boy who committed the terror attack was praised by all Palestinian leaders for his 'heroism'. If his peers in East Jerusalem in the video above are any indication, he likely grew up being taught that Jews are the enemy and the only way to better his life is through attacking Zionists. To even question the impact of his studies on his actions would be out of touch, given the fact that by all measures, a 13-year-old is incapable of using critical thinking to act independently. He was certainly not born with the urge to kill Jews on a nationalistic basis, some powerful nurturing body had to embed such an idea in his head.

Tell me this double tragedy is not entirely due to child abuse and indoctrination of kids in #UNRWA schools funded in large part by aid from the #UK and #EU. https://t.co/qFyF3ttp6o pic.twitter.com/97GLU7x7Ay

— Likud-Herut UK (@LikudUK) January 29, 2023

Nonetheless, from the point of view of Israel’s police and security circles, the boy is responsible for the shooting and will most likely spend years in jail for it. But from every other aspect, UNRWA, and with it its list of donors that included average taxpayers in the United States, England, and the European Union are to blame for their poorly-run system that has been permitting the violent indoctrination of an entire generation. 

What the UN has created through UNRWA is not simply an ever-growing amount of refugees from a conflict that happened 75 years ago, but a neverending cycle of violence. Israel and Palestine are far enough away for the personal comfort of the people who control the agency, and potent enough to continuously receive outrageously large funds from well-intentioned donors over the decades. It is time for this to end, for the sake of Palestinians and Israelis alike; enough is enough. Either fix the system in place so it adheres to standard educational guidelines and can positively benefit Palestinian children, or stop the funding altogether. End the intellectual enslavement of millions who have become convinced that killing, blood, and martyrdom are the only solution.