Tony Blair Accused of Seeking to Erase 'Palestine' from Textbooks

Former British Ambassador to the UN, Jeremy Greenstock, has accused former Prime Minister Tony Blair of attempting to have the word "Palestine" removed from Palestinian school textbooks. Greenstock, who served at the UN from 1998 to 2003, made the allegation on Wednesday during a Middle East Eye podcast, citing a high-level government source he declined to identify.

According to Greenstock, Blair, acting on behalf of the Peace Council, recently traveled to Ramallah with this request. The proposed change to the curriculum was reportedly framed as a condition for recognizing the Palestinian Authority's capacity to reach an agreement with Israel.

A spokesperson for Tony Blair vehemently denied the accusations to the Jerusalem Post, calling them "false" and "pure invention." Blair's team also stated they had informed Middle East Eye prior to publication that the account was inaccurate.

During the same interview, Greenstock also accused Israel of deliberately killing three British employees of World Central Kitchen in April 2024. Publicly available information has not established the intentionality of the strike, which killed seven individuals. The IDF investigation concluded that the security agents accompanying the humanitarian convoy were misidentified. Despite significant operational failures, the chief military prosecutor determined that the decisions made did not warrant a criminal investigation.

Additionally, the former British diplomat called for a halt to all trade with Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria, which he deems illegal under international law, a legal interpretation Israel disputes.