So Much for Canada to Admire in the Palestinian Authority

"Despite acute fiscal and operational constraints, the Palestinian Authority continues to advance elements of a reform agenda focused on social protection, education sector adjustments, and improvements to transparency and service delivery."

"The prime minister [Mark Carney] welcomed the measures taken by the Palestinian Authority including efforts to reform social welfare, developing new education materials, drafting an interim constitution, and its intent to hold general and presidential elections." 

Jason Kung, Global Affairs Canada 

 

"With effort and great, almost impossible difficulty, we continue to provide this 60 percent rate of [PA] public employee salaries."

"We have not abandoned any Palestinian resident, whether they are prisoners or families of martyrs and wounded."

"This is a clear fundamental issue."

PA Finance Minister Estephen Salameh 

Hamas forces carried out a brutal campaign of abductions, torture and unlawful killings against Palestinians accused of “collaborating” with Israel and others during Israel’s military offensive against Gaza in July and August 2014, according to a new report by Amnesty International.

 

"Resistance [is a Palestinian right and weapons an inseparable part of that -- Hamas political bureau member Basem Naim --] resistance."

"Earlier the spokesman for Hamas' military wing claimed that the demand to disarm was 'a scandalous attempt by the occupation to achieve through negotiations what it could not achieve on the battlefield'."

Meir Ben Shabbat, former Israeli national security adviser 

 

"These cases involved [Hamas] executions, kneecapping, bone-breaking with metal pipes or cement bricks and beatings and were framed by the perpetrators as punishments for alleged collaboration with Israel, looting humanitarian aid, theft, drug-related offences or affiliations with internal [Hamas] rivals." 

United Nations report

Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, March 20, 2026. ABDEL KAREEM HANA/AP

 

When Canada's prime minister Mark Carney, along with France, Spain and Ireland declared within the United Nations almost a year ago, their nations' formal recognition of a 'Palestinian' state, Mr. Carney accompanied his recognition with an urging caution to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that the recognition would be  contingent on greater steps toward democracy; calling an election for one thing, since the last one took place in 2005 and Mr. Abbas's presidency has never since been challenged at the ballot box.

 

That recognition by Mr. Carney came in the wake of the October 7, 2023 attack by thousands of Palestinian terrorists and ordinary civilians led by the governing order of Gaza, Hamas, followed by Fatah (PA), Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. All of these groups terror proxies for the Islamic Republic of Iran. Since that time, following the Israeli invasion of Gaza to fumigate the territory of terrorists and the peace agreement that followed, Hamas has been busy regrouping, rearming, recruiting.

 

As for the Palestinian Authority which had solemnly pledged to put a halt to 'Pay for Slay' where Palestinians who committed themselves to 'resisting the occupation' by committing acts of martyrdom through the murder of Israelis were guaranteed handsome financial rewards, has instead initially sought to alter the payment protocol to make it more opaque. While in fact continuing the rewards given to terrorists. As for the education curricula in the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority and in the Gaza Strip under discredited UNRWA, it still reeks of the lionization of martyrdom.

 

 

A 2026 report from the U.S. Sate Department points out that despite the PA's Mahmoud Abbas promising the end of pay-for-slay, those dedicated payments continue, where the PA paid out $156 million the year before to Palestinian terrorists and their families. Generously funded by the international community for the welfare of the Palestinian population. In the report, the PA's finance minister was quoted having stated that the martyrs' fund remained operative. What was altered was "the mechanism" where funds were funnelled out.

 

In other words those former prisoners in Israeli jails who were released in exchange for freeing the 7 October hostages in the usual 100-to-one exchange were in line for massive payouts. As an example, two murderers and a bombmaker each accumulated PA payments of $354,000 since 2023, on top of which they receive a monthly additional $2,541, according to the State Department report. 

 

The 'Teach Palestine' curriculum ... Political Indoctrination Disguised as Education  StandWithUs

 

As for the reformed educational textbooks which Abbas pledged "modernization of the education sector, including the development of a curriculum that is free from incitement according to the UNESCO standards" in a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron, on closer examination is far from having been undertaken. The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), an NGO monitoring educational materials globally for hate and incitement to violence reported:

"The review finds that the 2025-2026 Palestinian Authority curriculum continues to systematically violate UNESCO principles and educational standards."

"Published in September 2025, the curriculum incites antisemitism and violence, promotes jihad and martyrdom, glorifies terrorism, rejects peacemaking and the two-state solution, and erases Israel from maps."

"It has not been substantively modified since the 2020-21 school year, maintaining the same ideological framework first established in the 2016 reform cycle." 

As for Gaza demilitarization, part of the framework of the U.S.-backed Gaza ceasefire, Hamas has responded time and again by stating it has no intention of surrendering its weapons, and the reality is, it is busily rearming. According to Nathan Brown, professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, Hamas not only refuses to disarm, the ceasefire has emboldened it.

"It now appears more able to operate above ground than it did before the plan", he wrote for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank, in an analysis.

 

A United Nations report documented executions by Hamas in Gaza, as well as mass killings and severe beating punishments. As for organizing presidential and general elections, the world is still waiting for the 2005 election to be repeated. 

 

The PA has failed to implement curriculum revisions amid donor demands, including changes affecting national identity content. (Photos: Wikimedia Commons. Design: PC)