The Palestinian teacher who won a $1 million prize for non-violence will keep her award despite her husband taking part in a terror attack that killed six Israelis.
Hanan al-Haroub was awarded the second annual Varkey Foundation’s Global Teacher Prize for teaching a program she called “No to Violence”. She received the prize at a ceremony at the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai. Messages of congratulation were sent by Pope Francis and Prince William.
When receiving the award, al-Haroub said, “We, as teachers can build the values and morals of young minds to ensure a fair world, a more beautiful world and a more free world.”
According to the website of the Global Teacher Prize, al-Hroub “embraces the slogan ‘No to violence’ and uses a specialist approach she developed herself, detailed in her book, ‘We Play and Learn.’
In a disturbingly ironic twist, Palestinians attending the awards ceremony waved Palestinian flags and chanted with fists in the air, “With our souls, our blood, we sacrifice for you, Palestine.”
She said the inspiration for teaching the program came from seeing her husband shot in front of their children’s eyes by Israeli troops. Her husband, Omar al-Haroub served 10 years in an Israeli prison for being an accomplice in a 1980 bombing attack in Hebron. Six Jews were killed in the terror attack while walking home from Friday night prayers. Omar was a chemist who provided chemicals needed for making the bombs.
Qadura Faris, the director of a Palestinian prisoners’ association, told the AP that Omar al-Haroub, “believes in a two-state solution, is a senior Palestinian official, close to President Mahmoud Abbas and believes in his peaceful approach”.
The Palestine Chronicle described her receiving the prestigious prize for teaching peace by saying, “She stood tall and proud, like a much-loved Palestinian olive tree, whose roots are deep in the soil of the homeland, soaked with the blood of its martyrs.”
The Varkey Foundation responded to this recent revelation by stating, “As a point of principle, we only look at the qualities, achievements and conduct of the candidates themselves.”
“As Hanan al-Hroub has said herself, she has spent her whole life dealing with the effects of violence on children at close hand and every day she works toward a world where children, wherever they come from, can grow up peacefully,” it added. “She has spent her entire career teaching the principle of nonviolence. She believes in nonviolence in all its forms and in all circumstances.”
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Source: Israel in the News
