Norway’s ruling coalition wants to freeze aid to Palestinians over incitement

Parliament members in Norway, one of the world’s main donors to the Palestinian Authority, demanded contributions be suspended over incitement in school textbooks.

“Antisemitism is a crime and we will fight it in Westhoffen as everywhere until our dead can sleep in peace,” Macron wrote.

Members of the ruling coalition said in a statement Thursday that it is instructing the government to “reduce or withhold financial support to the Palestinian Authority if they do not provide satisfactory improvements in school materials” soon.

The instruction is not legally binding but politically difficult to ignore for Norway’s centre-right government under Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

If implemented, it spells a loss of $24 million (£18 million) in funding for the Palestinian Authority, according to a statement on the move by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education.

The coalition’s statement cites a recent review by the Institute of textbooks being used in Palestinian Authority schools.

“Examples of content in the school books include references to violence, martyrdom and terror. The coalition considers this to be devastating to the peace process and the development of democracy in the region, as well as being an expression of irresponsible pedagogy, and finds it unacceptable that Norwegian funds support a school system that promotes such destructive values,” the statement read.

In 2017, the Palestinian Authority paid about $198 million (£150 million) to a fund for the families of terrorists killed during their attacks and about $160 million (£121 million) to Palestinians being held in Israeli jails, according to Israeli Defence Ministry figures.