Brussels: Belgium has announced it will no longer cooperate with the Palestinian National Authority while Palestinian schools bear the names of what it called “terrorists”.
The Brussels Times reported on Friday that funds Belgium had allocated for the construction of schools will be suspended but that the country will continue to provide funds for other activities in Palestine such as those undertaken by United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
The Belgian education ministry said in a statement: “As long as school names are used to glorify terrorism, Belgium can no longer cooperate with the Palestinian Education Ministry and will not give out budgets for the construction of schools.”
Last year, the name of a school whose construction was financed by Belgium was changed to that of Dalal Mughrabi, a Palestinian who allegedly participated in 1978 in a hostage-taking operation in a bus that claimed the lives of 38 Israelis.
The Belgian government reportedly attempted to get the PNA to cancel the name-change at the time, but was unsuccessful.
