The Daily Mail has discovered that tens of millions of pounds of UK foreign aid is helping fund Palestinian schools in Gaza and the West Bank that use textbooks on martyrdom and radical Islamism. The textbooks include a reading exercise for six-year-olds with the words “martyr” and “attack,” plus poems for eight-year-olds which include phrases such as “sacrifice my blood” to “eliminate the usurper from my country” and “annihilate the remnants of the foreigners.” Ten-year-olds learn the most important thing is giving their life for “sacrifice, fight, jihad, and struggle.”
The British aid money goes via UNRWA. During the past five years, the UK has given 330 million pounds and pledged another 65 million pounds for this year. A spokesperson for Britain’s Department for International Development, which hands out foreign aid, said: “The UK Government has a zero tolerance approach towards incitement to violence. The UK lobbied for a thorough independent review of textbooks…which is now underway.”