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