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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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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
The post Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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