By Kate Anderson
Daily Caller News Foundation
A Palestinian school backed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) held a ceremony celebrating the deaths of seven Israelis killed at a Jerusalem synagogue in January, according to the school’s Facebook post.
Omariya Secondary School for Girls in Qalqilya, Palestine, was established in 2009 via funding from USAID, according to the school’s Facebook profile, and has a “computer center,” “fashion design studio,” “scientific laboratory” and 29 teachers. The school held a ceremony on Jan. 30 commemorating the “hero Khairy Alqum” who killed seven Israelis in a terror attack on Jan. 27, according to a Facebook post.
“A distinguished view of the students of the Cultural Club, a stand in solidarity with our people in Jenin camp, and a lamentation for our martyrs and hero Khairy Alqum,” the post reading, according to a Facebook translation.
In pictures taken of the event, the students and teachers could be seen outside the school with a USAID placard on one of the school walls, according to the post.
USAID sponsored initiatives at the school under the Local Government and Structural program (LGI), according to a USAID report from 2013 to 2014, and sponsored more initiatives from 2014 to 2015 under the “Let’s Change It” project. The school participated in the Female Role Models Initiative that aimed to promote “leadership skills, and worked on projects promoting women’s leadership and potential in their communities,” according to the report.
USAID did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s multiple requests for comment.
Khairy Alqum, a Palestinian from Eastern Jerusalem, opened fire in a Jewish synagogue on Jan. 27, killing 7 people. Alqum was killed after Israeli police arrived on scene and chased him down.
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The event was not the first time the school celebrated terrorists; in December 2022, students and teachers alike cheered for the release of Karim Younes, a Palestinian terrorist that killed an IDF soldier in 1980. Earlier that year, the school showed pictures of terrorist Ibrahim Al Nabulsi, who carried out multiple attacks against Jews and Israelis and was later killed by the Israel Defense Forces, during a graduation ceremony, according to posts from the school’s social media.
The initial post was first reported by Israeli journalist Ishay Fridman on Twitter, who has extensively covered Palestinian schools that celebrate the acts of terrorists and even the terrorists themselves.
“Last week we published about the brainwashing that is carried out in Palestinian educational institutions where students and teachers praise the terrorist from the Neve Ya’akov attack,” Fridman wrote on Twitter. “This week we will publish that part of this activity is done under the auspices of American funding.”
בשבוע שעבר פרסמנו על שטיפת המוח שמתבצעת במוסדות חינוך פלסטיניים בהם תלמידים ומורים מהללים את המחבל מהפיגוע בנווה יעקב. השבוע נפרסם שחלק מהפעילות הזו נעשית בחסות מימון אמריקאי. בתמונה: חלק מטקס בו מהללים את המחבל חירי עלקם בבי”ס של הרש”פ הזוכה לתמיכה אמריקאית> pic.twitter.com/Ff1G5Fpbbw
— ישי פרידמן (@IshayFridman) February 9, 2023
NGO Monitor, a watchdog aiming to hold nongovernmental organizations accountable, published a report in 2021 documenting American funding that was allegedly being used to support and promote Palestinian terrorism. The report titled “USAID-funded Palestinian NGOs: Introducing Children to Convicted Terrorists” found that from 2015-2019, three different NGOs involved in educational programs supporting Palestinian terrorists were given millions of dollars by USAID.
Many of these programs, according to the report, introduced children to terrorism.
“In practice, as shown below, a number of USAID sub-grantees ran programs that introduced children to convicted terrorists, presented convicted terrorists as role models, and publicly demonstrated support for terrorists and terrorist organizations,” the report read.
The report criticized USAID’s process of vetting NGOs who requested funding and found that the agency did not have “mandatory language about anti-terror requirements” or ways to verify that “sub-grantees had procedures in place to meet these requirements.” Additionally, even when sub-grantees were vetted it was often “incomplete or conducted” after the money had been approved.
A spokesperson for the White House directed the DCNF to the State Department and USAID when asked for comment.
The State Department did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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