UN official slams Israel for blocking textbooks

UNITED NATIONS: The top U.N. official in Gaza criticized Israel on Monday for blocking the shipment of paper to print textbooks for a new human rights curriculum that will be taught to children in all grades in the Palestinian territory.

Israel also has refused to allow 12 truckloads of notebooks into Gaza as well as plastic sheeting which is turned into plastic bags to distribute food that the U.N. provides to some 900,000 people, John Ging, head of Gaza operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency which helps Palestinian refugees, said in a videoconference with reporters at U.N. headquarters.

He said 60 percent of the textbooks needed in Gaza have not been printed, so children don't have the material they need to study.

Ging said he was "extremely frustrated" at Israel's refusal to allow paper into Gaza, "not least because we have a new human rights curriculum which everybody here is very excited to teach the children."

The human rights courses are modeled on those developed by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, with input from the human rights community in Gaza, he said. They will be taught by specialist human rights teachers in every school, and human rights organizations in Gaza will evaluate the teachers' performance.

"Hopefully when the kids leave our schools, they'll have the clearest understanding of rights, responsibilities and the effective mechanisms to uphold and achieve those rights," Ging said.

"We want these kids to come up with a civilized outlook, with the mindset that is orientated toward peace and tolerance, and we're being obstructed," he said. "Not being allowed to bring in paper to print the human rights textbooks means that there is an obstruction for the teaching of human rights to the children here in Gaza."

Because Israel and Egypt have blockaded Gaza since Hamas gunmen seized control of the territory in June 2007, most Gazans depend on U.N. food and other aid. But Israel controls the key crossing points, and determines the quantity and nature of goods that enter Gaza.

The U.N. halted aid shipments last week after Hamas officials, who control Gaza, took thousands of U.N. blankets, food parcels and tons of rice and flour.

Ging announced Monday that Hamas officials had returned the stolen cargo, and U.N. officials had lifted their freeze.

"The return of every sack of flour and every blanket that was taken is now evidence in my mind of their realization and their seriousness in terms of the assurances that we have received from them that there will be no recurrence," he said.

Ging said all Gaza crossing points will be closed Tuesday because of elections in Israel, so shipments aren't expected to resume until Wednesday.

"There are thousands of tons ... of urgently needed food and other items of supply that the people here need," Ging said.

Israel's refusal to allow many items into Gaza feeds the anger of Palestinians in the territory, he said.

"We are relying on the political level in Israel to change the policies," he said.

UNRWA ran out of plastic on Monday and had to go to the local market to buy some, which is very expensive.

"We have to somehow keep going until sense prevails and they allow us to bring in the plastic pallets to make the plastic bags," he said.