King Abdullah II of Jordan attends an official welcoming ceremony at the Monument to the Unknown Soldier in Sofia, Bulgaria, on April 3, 2025. Photo: STR/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect

Jordan’s textbooks in schools continue to promote antisemitic ideas and justify violence against Israel, including the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, according to a new report.

The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), an international research group which analyzes schoolbooks and curricula around the world, released a new study this week revealing the extent to which hateful beliefs against Jews and other groups have penetrated the Jordanian educational system.

Applying the analytic standards of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), IMPACT-se reviewed 294 textbooks used in Jordan during the 2023-2025 school years spanning such subjects as Islamic education, Arabic, social studies, civics, history, and geography.

“The Jordanian curriculum continues to fall short of UNESCO-derived standards of peace and tolerance in education,” the report states. “While some content promotes general concepts of tolerance and moderation often citing the Amman Message (a statement calling for tolerance and unity in the Muslim world) and highlighting Christian-Muslim harmony — the curriculum continues to proliferate anti-Jewish narratives and justify violence against Israel.”

The report’s findings are “disappointing” given Jordan’s role as a Western ally that has maintained a peace treaty with Israel since 1994, according to IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff.

“It is therefore particularly disappointing and concerning that Jordan’s curriculum includes some of the oldest antisemitic tropes, glorifies martyrdom, and portrays Israel with such hostility,” Sheff said in a statement to multiple news outlets. “Oct. 7 was the most brutal attack against Jews since the Holocaust, yet it is described in textbooks as legitimate resistance.”

The report describes one textbook for students as downplaying the Oct. 7 onslaught, in which Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages during their invasion of southern Israel, and labeling those taken captive as “settlers” living in “Israeli colonies which surround the Gaza Strip,” thus offering justification for their captivity, torture, and murders.

While the Jordanian curriculum emphasizes religious moderation, tolerance and peacemaking, “these values are generally not applied to Jews or Israel, either historically or in the present day,” according to Impact-se. Instead, the textbooks generally cast Jews in a negative light, “particularly in the context of early Islamic history, using antisemitic messages that depict lying, treachery, deceitfulness, and hostility as ‘natural qualities’ and inherent ‘traits of the Jews.’”

Antisemitic ideas about Jewish involvement in the economy also predominate. The report notes that textbooks accuse Jews of “exploitation” and usury, and the religious curriculum accuses Jews of acting on behalf of Satan and fomenting conflicts between Muslims. The books also deny Jewish connections to Israel and dispute the facts underlying Jewish religious beliefs.

The textbooks embrace silence when it comes to the Holocaust. A lesson on World War II reportedly “ignores the Holocaust and other Nazi atrocities, and excuses actions of Nazi Germany.”

This animosity toward Jews juxtaposes with more positive depictions of Christians who are characterized as “an integral part of the Jordanian social fabric” while “other religious groups are rarely represented.”

Israel’s history comes in for demonization and distortion in Jordanian schools. The texts analyzed characterize the Jewish state as illegitimate, racist, colonialist, and expansionist while Arab peace deals with Israel are cast as begrudging concessions rather than genuine bridgebuilding. Poetry taught in the classroom celebrates violence and expelling Israelis. Interpretations of the Islamic doctrine of Jihad emphasize violent interpretations and martyrdom.

The curriculum also casts LGBTQ individuals as threats, according to Impact-se’s report. One book describes homosexuality and “homosexual propaganda” as a threat to humanity while another condemns those who “imitate” the other gender. Women generally receive respectful portrayals, though some religious textbooks contain stereotypes of wives submitting to their husbands and deferring to their decisions.

“The Jordanian curriculum persistently falls short of UNESCO-derived standards of peace and tolerance in education. While certain content promotes broad principles of tolerance and moderation, it continues to reinforce anti-Jewish narratives and legitimize violence against Israel,” the report states in its main findings. “Recent textbook revisions have not only failed to rectify these issues but, in some cases, have exacerbated them by incorporating even more extreme antisemitic tropes, homophobic rhetoric, and a heightened hostility toward the peace treaty with Israel.”

On April 23, Jordan banned the Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood and confiscated its assets, a response to the arrest of 16 members after determining its involvement in a foiled terrorist plot linked to Iran. The banning makes it a criminal offense to promote the Brotherhood’s Islamist imperialist ideology or to publish its books. Political analyst Mohammed Khair Rawashdeh described the move as “a final divorce between the state and the Brotherhood after decades of fluctuating between co-opting them and merely tolerating their presence.”

In August 2024, a “high-ranking” Jordanian source told Israel’s Channel 12 that the Hashemite Kingdom had agreed to allow the Jewish state the use of its airspace to repel attacks from the Islamic regime in Iran.

The post Jordanian School Textbooks Still Promote Antisemitism Even as State Maintains Peace With Israel, Study Finds first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, attends a side event during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

The US Department of Justice has called on the United Nations to remove Francesca Albanese from her role as special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, lambasting her repeated “defamatory” actions against Israel and alleged acceptance of thousands of dollars from pro-Hamas groups.

Leo Terrell — head of the Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, a newly formed unit within the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division — sent a letter on Monday to Albanese, lambasting the UN official for spearheading “an alarming campaign of letters targeting institutions that support or invest in the state of Israel.” The Justice Department repudiated Albanese for reportedly informing private organizations that they are “criminally liable” for assisting Israel in carrying out a so-called “genocide” in Gaza. 

“Your suggestion that these organizations may be criminally liable for aiding and abetting genocide or war crimes is not only legally groundless. Your actions are defamatory, dangerous, and a flagrant abuse of your office,” Terrell wrote. 

The letter then described Israel’s military operations in Gaza as a legitimate form of self-defense and rebuked Albanese for downplaying the “gang rapes, the burning of children, and other unspeakable acts of violence” perpetrated against Israelis by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, when the Palestinian terrorist group invaded southern Israel, murdered 1,200 people, and kidnapped 251 hostages. Terrell also cited the murders of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, who were murdered in captivity in Gaza.

Terrell chastised Albanese as being “a special rapporteur who consistently minimizes or excuses terrorism when it targets Jews forfeits all authority to speak on human rights.”

In addition, the letter also accused Albanese of “taking money from Hamas-linked groups while accusing Israel of genocide,” arguing such conduct “is not merely hypocritical” but also “a profound betrayal of the very principles you claim to defend.”

The United Nations launched a probe into Albanese last summer for allegedly accepting a trip to Australia funded by pro-Hamas organizations that cost over $20,000. UN Watch, a Geneva-based NGO that monitors the UN, released a new report this week claiming that the UN and Albanese “engaged in a deliberate cover-up” to conceal her funding by pro-Hamas lobby groups.

“Your conduct has discredited your position and disgraced the institution you represent,” Terrell wrote to Albanese. “We call on the United Nations to immediately remove you from your role and restore the integrity of the special rapporteur mandate.”

Albanese, an Italian lawyer and academic, has held the position of UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories since 2022. The position authorizes her to monitor and report on alleged “human rights violations” that Israel supposedly commits against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. 

Critics of Albanese have long accused her of exhibiting an excessive anti-Israel bias, calling into question her fairness and neutrality.

Albanese has an extensive history of using her role at the UN to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s attacks on the Jewish state.

In the months following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, atrocities across southern Israel, Albanese accused the Jewish state of enacting a “genocide” against the Palestinian people in revenge for the attacks and circulated a widely derided and heavily disputed report alleging that 186,000 people had been killed in the Gaza war as a result of Israeli actions. 

She has also celebrated the anti-Israel protesters rampaging across US college campuses, saying they represent a “revolution” and give her “hope.”

Last month, the UN Human Rights Council renewed the mandate of Albanese, despite widespread calls from several countries and NGOs urging UN members to oppose her reappointment due to her controversial remarks and alleged pro-Hamas stance.

The post US Justice Department Calls for UN to Remove Anti-Israel Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Palestinians protest to demand an end to war, chanting anti-Hamas slogans, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, March 26, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer

Anti-Hamas protests erupted in the Gaza Strip for a third straight day on Wednesday, after indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group in Qatar failed to yield any breakthroughs.

Since Monday, hundreds of protesters in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis have taken to the streets to rally against Hamas, which has ruled the war-torn Palestinian enclave for nearly two decades, and to call for an end to the war with Israel, as captured in footage shared by local news outlets and widely circulated on social media.

According to local reports, protests spread across multiple neighborhoods in Khan Younis, with many demonstrators demanding that Hamas give up control of Gaza.

Anti-Hamas protests in Gaza continue for the third day in a row, and their chants remain unchanged: “All Hamas out, out.”

Stand with these brave people. Don’t abandon them. Be their voices—the voices the world needs to hear. pic.twitter.com/fRFw40t1YD

— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) May 21, 2025

Protesters had similarly gathered in Khan Younis, a long-time Hamas stronghold, on Monday and Tuesday demanding, “All of Hamas, out!”

INCREDIBLE: For the second day in a row, massive anti-Hamas protests continue in Khan Yunis, Gaza.

Preparations are underway in Gaza for what is expected to be the largest anti-Hamas protest across the entire Strip.

DOWN WITH HAMAS! pic.twitter.com/oUfNit2HjO

— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) May 20, 2025

This week’s protests against the terrorist group in Gaza are the first in several weeks, coming after a series of demonstrations in northern parts of the Strip in March and April.

During the first wave of protests in the early spring, thousands of Palestinians across the enclave took to the streets to protest against Hamas, calling for an end to the war and condemning the terrorist group’s rule.

Hamas, an internationally designated terrorist group and offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, violently eliminated its Palestinian opposition in a brief conflict in 2007, taking full control of Gaza after winning legislative elections the prior year.

In footage circulated on social media, demonstrators were seen in the first round of demonstrations chanting slogans such as “Down with Hamas, we’ve had enough,” “For God’s sake, Hamas out,” “We want an end to the war,” and “Hamas terrorists.”

BREAKING: Anti-Hamas protests have erupted again today in Khan Yunis, Gaza, with crowds chanting “We want to live” in rejection of Hamas’ strategy to sacrifice them all. pic.twitter.com/WGmNuGlBoQ

— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) May 20, 2025

At the time, several prominent activists and social media influencers had gone missing, with local reports indicating that some were being tortured and killed.

The Palestinian terrorist group accused Israel of inciting the demonstrations and warned of punishment for those involved.

According to local reports, Hamas had been persecuting Palestinians who participated in such protests, executing six individuals and publicly beating others.

The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) released a poll earlier this month showing that nearly half of Gazans support the anti-Hamas protests.

The terrorist group has a history of violently attacking those it considers to be “collaborators” with Israel. Earlier this year, the terrorist group executed 11 people for allegedly doing so in what its aligned media termed a “punishment of bullets.”

مسيرات ضخمة تخرج الان في كافة مناطق وشوارع خانيونس جنوب قطاع غزة تطالب بايقاف الحرب بشكل فوري وباي ثمن #اوقفوا_الحرب pic.twitter.com/sWWCuXWh9l

— زاهر ابو حسين (@ZAHERABUHUSIEN) May 19, 2025

While Hamas is trying to silence dissent and crack down on the demonstrations, the group is also confronting Israel’s renewed operations as the Israeli military targets terrorist operatives in the territory.

Earlier this week, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued a wide evacuation order for all of Khan Younis, declaring the area a “combat zone” ahead of what it called an “unprecedented attack” aimed at dismantling terrorist infrastructure and pressuring Hamas to release the remaining Israeli hostages still being held by the Islamist group.

As part of its ongoing ground offensive dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots,” Israel’s military has struck over 670 Hamas targets in Gaza over the past week.

Tensions on the ground intensified after ceasefire negotiations between the Jewish state and the Palestinian terrorist group in Qatar stalled without yielding any progress.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the recent talks in Doha covered a potential truce and hostage exchange, along with a proposal to end the war in exchange for the exile of Hamas terrorists and the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip — terms that Hamas has previously rejected.

The latest PCPSR poll from earlier this month found that the perception that Hamas would win the war has dropped precipitously since it began. Just 23 percent of Gazans said they think Hamas will win the current war, while 29 percent responded they think Israel will win, and 46 percent put neither side will win. In contrast, 50 percent of Gazans thought Hamas would win back in December 2023, while 31 percent thought Israel would win.

The post ‘All Hamas, Out!’ New Round of Palestinian Protests Erupt in Gaza Against Ruling Terror Group first appeared on Algemeiner.com.