Hamas on Wednesday reiterated its strong opposition to teaching the Holocaust in UNRWA-run schools in the Gaza Strip.
The Refugees Affairs Department of Hamas said that teaching the Holocaust was a "crime against the issue of the refugees that is aimed at cancelling their right of return."
The Hamas response came in response to unconfirmed reports in a number of Arab media outlets to the effect that UNRWA was planning to re-introduce the Holocaust into its school curriculum.
UNRWA teachers in Jordan also announced this week their strong opposition to teaching the Holocaust in their schools.
Hamas called on UNRWA to stop "passing suspicious projects in the context of services it provides to Palestinian refugees."
The children at UNRWA schools don't need material about the Holocaust, Hamas said. "Rather, they need to be re-tought the history and geography of Palestine as a basic subject. The children are entitled to learn about the massacres perpetrated by the Zionist enemy against the Palestinians since the Nakba [disaster]."
Hamas appealed to all political forces, civil societies and UNRWA teachers in the Gaza Strip to "confront these suspicious projects and reject them."