The ECAJ and Par­lia­men­tary Friends of Israel co-host­ed Mar­cus Sheff, CEO of The Insti­tute for Mon­i­tor­ing Peace and Cul­tur­al Tol­er­ance in School Edu­ca­tion (IMPACT-se), at an event in Par­lia­ment House in Can­ber­ra on May 23.  IMPACT-se is a research and pol­i­cy non-prof­it that analy­ses text­books, employ­ing stan­dards on peace and tol­er­ance as derived from UNESCO dec­la­ra­tions and res­o­lu­tions and presents rec­om­men­da­tions to pol­i­cy­mak­ers.

Mar­cus Sheff addressed a group of more than 20 MPs, pre­sent­ing a sur­vey of school text books in the Mid­dle East and North Africa, as well as Indone­sia, and the extent to which they com­ply with inter­na­tion­al­ly-recog­nised stan­dards in pro­mot­ing peace and tol­er­ance.  He said that there had been sig­nif­i­cant improve­ments in text­books in coun­tries which have recent­ly nor­malised rela­tions with Israel, as well as Sau­di Ara­bia.  How­ev­er, he gave exam­ples of how the con­tents of school text­books approved by the Pales­tin­ian Author­i­ty have gone from bad to worse in their open pro­mo­tion of anti­semitism and glo­ri­fi­ca­tion of ter­ror­ism and vio­lence.  He also explained how UNRWA both facil­i­tates and col­lab­o­rates in this process, which poi­sons the minds of some 1.3 mil­lion Pales­tin­ian school chil­dren in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and puts out of reach any pos­si­bil­i­ty of peace with Israel on any terms.  In the recent bud­get, the Aus­tralian gov­ern­ment ear­marked $20 mil­lion in over­seas devel­op­ment assis­tance for UNRWA.

Mar­cus Sheff has also briefed at the White House, Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil, US State Depart­ment, the US Con­gress, the Unit­ed Nations, the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment, and Com­mis­sion and to gov­ern­ments and par­lia­men­tar­i­ans around Europe. He has appeared on CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC and many oth­er net­works and been quot­ed in the New York Times, Wash­ing­ton Post and oth­er print media.   The work of IMPACT-se was cit­ed in a recent res­o­lu­tion of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment which con­demned incite­ment and anti­semitism in text­books in Pales­tin­ian schools, some of which receive EU Fund­ing: https://www.jpost.com/international/article-742629

L‑R: ECAJ Co-CEO Peter Wertheim, Chair of Par­lia­men­tary Friends of Israel Sen­a­tor Deb­o­rah O’Neill and Mar­cus Sheff at the event at Par­lia­ment House on 23.5.2023.