Fmr. British amb. to UN accuses Tony Blair of asking PA to remove 'Palestine' from textbooks

Jeremy Greenstock, Britain’s former ambassador to the United Nations, has accused Tony Blair of asking the Palestinian Authority to remove the word “Palestine” from its school curriculum.

Greenstock made the claim during an interview on the David Hearst Podcast. He said Blair had allegedly been asked by the Board of Peace to travel to Ramallah and request the change as a condition for treating the Palestinian Authority as capable of reaching an agreement with Israel to end the conflict that followed the October 7 attacks.

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is not true and a complete fabrication

Greenstock said he had received the information from a source at ministerial level. He added that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas “would do no such thing,” but questioned the principles and understanding of justice behind any demand to remove Palestine from Palestinian educational material.

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would do no such thing

A spokesperson for Blair told The Jerusalem Post that the allegation “is not true and a complete fabrication.” The spokesperson said Blair’s team had complained to Middle East Eye after informing it in advance that the claim was false.

The article also disputed other statements Greenstock made during the interview. Asked about Israel’s closure of its investigation into the killing of three British World Central Kitchen workers, he said innocent civilians had been deliberately killed. The article said there was no evidence of deliberate killing, noting that an Israeli military probe found that seven international aid workers were mistakenly killed on April 1, 2024, after surveillance officials misidentified their vehicle.

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Innocent civilians were clearly killed deliberately in that incident.