The UN's scandalous hypocrisy

''Security measures alone will not stop the violence. They cannot address the profound sense of alienation and despair driving some Palestinians - especially young people. The full force of the law must be brought to bear on all those committing crimes, with a system of justice applied equally for Israelis and Palestinians alike. Palestinian frustration is growing under the weight of a half-century of occupation and the paralysis of the peace process. As oppressed peoples have demonstrated throughout the ages, it is human nature to react to occupation, which often serves as a potent incubator of hate and extremism.''

This is the kind of racist diet fed daily to Palestinians

It is true that the UN secretary-general reserved a few harsh words for continuing rocket attacks launched from Gaza against the Jewish state. And he condemned knife and vehicle assaults against Israeli civilians. But, in his expert view, the major cause of instability and human suffering in the Middle East was Israel's unwillingness to make concessions (by which he meant primarily territorial concessions) to the Palestinians. Attacks against Israeli civilians were unfortunate. But these attacks could be explained as nothing more than "human nature" - a natural and predictable reaction to a "half-century of occupation."

As I read this speech, my attention was drawn to a report published a few days previously by the Israel Resource News Agency and compiled by Dr Arnon Groiss, a Princeton and Harvard-educated Arabic-language journalist.

The report is entitled, Israel and the Jews in the newest Palestinian Authority schoolbooks, and consists of a painstaking examination of statements and assertions made in these books.

These statements include the following: Israel's establishment in 1948 constitutes an occupation of Palestinian land. The whole of Palestine is "Arab and Muslim".

The legitimate occupants of Palestine include Israel's Arab population but not its Jews. Jews and Israelis are described as "invading snakes". According to the prophet Muhammad, the killing of Jews and "the removal of their corruption" is a precondition for "the End of Days".

Asserting the "right of return" is preferable to peace. "Martyrs" are to be celebrated rather than mourned.

This is the violent, racist diet that is fed daily to children attending schools in the Palestinian territories. Is it any wonder, therefore, that Palestinian youngsters think it the height of fashion to take knives and stick them into unsuspecting Jews?

Or that Palestinian adults have convinced themselves that any territorial compromise is nothing short of treason?

But what is truly scandalous is that the textbooks are approved for use by the UN's Relief & Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), for the activities of which the UN's own secretary-general is ultimately responsible. And that is why Ban Ki-moon's January 26 remarks were not merely ill-judged; they were hypocritical in the extreme.