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Pointing to Normalization, Saudi Arabia Quietly Scrubs Antisemitism, Anti-Israel Rhetoric From Curriculum
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends a virtual cabinet meeting from his office in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, May 28, 2024. Photo: Saudi Press Agency/Handout via REUTERS
Saudi Arabia has been quietly revising its school textbooks, scrubbing negative depictions of Jews, Christians, and homosexuals, and toning down rhetoric against Israel, according to a new report that suggests the Gulf kingdom may be laying the groundwork for normalizing relations with the Jewish state.
The report from the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) found that the latest Saudi textbooks have removed “almost all examples portraying Christians and Jews in a negative manner.”
The curriculum no longer teaches that Zionism is a “racist” European movement, nor denies the historical Jewish millenia-old presence in the region, the report said.
“Antisemitism has pretty much been eradicated, and there was a great deal of it before — it was pretty much a feature of the Saudi curriculum,” IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff told The Algemeiner. In the past, Jews were referred to in Saudi textbooks as “devil-worshiping monkeys and pigs.”
“We’ve seen an elimination of violent jihadi ideas and homophobia and an increase in critical thinking and teaching,” he added.
Passages that previously implied “Jews and Christians are the enemies of Islam” or criticized them for allegedly “destroying and distorting” the Torah and Gospel have been removed, as have references to homosexuality as a “monstrous atrocity” that is a “deviation from normality.”
When it comes to mentions of Israel, the changes reveal a more nuanced shift. While references to the “Israeli enemy” or “Zionist enemy” and even “Palestine” in lieu of Israel have been removed or diluted, the new textbooks use milder terminology like “the Israeli occupation” or “the Israeli occupation army.” However, they stop short of acknowledging Israel’s existence. The report also notes that Israel continues to be omitted from maps in some cases.
Other significant revisions include removing a poem opposing “the Jewish settlement of Palestine,” cutting an entire chapter on the allegedly positive impacts of the violent Palestinian uprising against Israel during the First Intifada, and no longer describing the uprising’s “positive results” in a high school social studies text.
The gradual sanitization of language related to Jews, Christians, and Israel comes as Saudi textbooks have also started criticizing terrorist groups like Hezbollah, ISIS, al-Qaeda, and the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is an offshoot — part of the kingdom’s broader effort to combat extremism in the years following 9/11 after it emerged that the overwhelming majority of perpetrators were Saudi nationals.
Despite a recent surge in reports of a renewed US-brokered attempt to normalize ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia — an effort which, according to many analysts, was intentionally torpedoed by Iran with the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on the Jewish state — the Saudis have still issued harsh criticism of Israel’s prosecution of its war against the terror group in Gaza. The Palestinian cause also remains a highly popular one among the Saudi public. But according to Sheff, the curriculum overhaul was less about near-term policies and part of a much longer-term societal shift in attitudes and norms.
“You have to separate current events and curriculum creation,” he said. “The curriculum is an expression of the identities and the vision that the leadership wants to pass down to future generations. Clearly what we’re seeing here is an understanding, in this iteration, that demonization of Israel is not part of that vision.”
Saudi Arabia is an “extraordinarily important country” and its leaders are being “thoughtful about what kind of society they want in the future and they understand that hatreds, historical inaccuracies, and prejudices should not be part of their national teaching program,” Sheff added.
Analysts see the textbook revisions as an incremental step that could lay the groundwork for Saudi Arabia warming relations with Israel, especially under Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s push to de-emphasize religion and promote a more secular Saudi nationalism.
The post Pointing to Normalization, Saudi Arabia Quietly Scrubs Antisemitism, Anti-Israel Rhetoric From Curriculum first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.