I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2343 
To require the Secretary of State to submit annual reports reviewing the 
educational material used by the Palestinian Authority or the United 
Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near 
East in the West Bank and Gaza, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 18, 2019 
Mr. SHERMAN (for himself, Mr. ZELDIN, Mr. TRONE, Mr. MAST, Mr. 
GOTTHEIMER, and Mr. WEBER of Texas) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To require the Secretary of State to submit annual reports 
reviewing the educational material used by the Pales-
tinian Authority or the United Nations Relief and Works 
Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East in the 
West Bank and Gaza, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Peace and Tolerance 
in Palestinian Education Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) In 2016 and 2017, the Palestinian Author-
ity published modified curriculums for school-aged 
children in grades 1 through 11. 
(2) The new Palestinian curriculums fail to 
meet the international standards of peace and toler-
ance in educational materials established by the 
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural 
Organization. 
(3) Textbooks used by the Palestinian Author-
ity and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency 
for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) 
in the West Bank and Gaza demonize Israel, encour-
age war, and teach children that Palestinian state-
hood can be achieved through violence. 
(4) On April 26, 2018, the Government Ac-
countability Office published a report that found 
that textbooks in UNRWA schools do not mention 
Israel or Judaism, feature maps of the region that 
exclude Israel, and include content that incites vio-
lence. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that the Palestinian Au-
thority and UNRWA have not sufficiently worked to elimi-
nate all content and passages encouraging violence or in-
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tolerance toward other nations or ethnic groups from the 
curriculum used in their respective schools. 
SEC. 4. REPORT REQUIRED. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter 
for ten years in accordance with subsection (c), the Sec-
retary of State shall submit to the Committee on Foreign 
Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Com-
mittee on Foreign Relations of the Senate a report review-
ing curriculum used in schools controlled by the Pales-
tinian Authority or UNRWA in the West Bank and Gaza 
that includes the following: 
(1) A determination whether all content and 
passages encouraging violence or intolerance toward 
other nations or ethnic groups has been removed in 
such curriculum, and a detailed explanation of the 
reasons for reaching such determination. 
(2) An assessment of the steps the Palestinian 
Authority and UNRWA are taking to reform such 
curriculum at schools to conform with standards of 
peace and tolerance in the Declaration of Principles 
on Tolerance by the United Nations Educational, 
Scientific and Cultural Organization (adopted No-
vember 16, 1995). 
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