Truth, Justice and the American Way

Charles Johnson pointed out this story about USAID funding the rennovation of a palestinian high school that was named after a terrorist.

Well, Aaron Lerner at IMRA brought the matter to the attention of the right people, and it seems something is being done about it.

A letter from Jamal Al Aref, the Acting Middle East Representative of ANERA [American Near East Refugee Aid] gives some background and a summary of the corrective actions that are being taken:

The school's original name was Hajj Issa Al Mashni Secondary Girls school. This is how ANERA reported the name of the school in its proposal to USAID and this is how the name of the school appears on ANERA's grant agreement with the Shuyyukh town council.

Several months ago, the ministry of education decided to change the name of the school to Dalal Al Moghrabi school simply because they wanted to give a woman's name to the girls school [OK, we'll just let that slide, for now]. Actually the original name was chosen because Hajj Issa has been the donor who started the school building......

The present situtation: ANERA started immediately, this morning, through its director in the Halhoul office, a discussion about the issue raised and how this can be resolved with the least damages possible. ANERA was successful in obtaining the Ministry of Education's commitment in writing that they are reverting, immediately, to the old name for the school which glorifies the person who contributed to the construction of the initial classrooms for the girls school. The letter is in Arabic and ANERA Jerusalem office is keeping a copy for further reference. The Shuyyukh town council called ANERA and expressed their intention to change the plaque at the school to reflect the original name of the school.

ANERA's future steps: ANERA will carry out all the necessary steps in the future to make sure that such incidents do not occur. We all understand that we live in a highly sensitive environment that could damage a lot of the good-intended works.

Also ANERA will adjust all internal records to reflect the original name of the school (i.e. on the contracts documents, the construction plaque on site, .) as was mentioned in the proposal. Moreover, when the time comes and the contract is signed with a specific contractor, ANERA will make sure that this event gets maximum publicity in all the local newspaper with an emphasis that the true and correct name of the school is mentioned.

A good result.