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Jordanian School Textbooks Still Promote Antisemitism Even as State Maintains Peace With Israel, Study Finds
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.
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Israel’s Supreme Court Orders Improved Food for Security Prisoners
Israel’s Supreme Court. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
i24 News – Israel’s Supreme Court on Sunday instructed the Prison Service (Shabas) to guarantee adequate food supplies for security prisoners, ruling that current conditions fall short of minimum legal standards. The decision followed an appeal filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.
In a 2–1 ruling, the court found that the food situation posed “a risk of non-compliance with legal standards.” Justice Dafna Barak-Erez stressed that the matter concerned “basic conditions necessary for survival, as required by law,” not comfort or privilege. Justice Ofer Grosskopf agreed, noting the state had not shown the policy was consistently applied to all inmates.
Justice David Mintz dissented, maintaining that the existing policy already met legal requirements.
The court underscored that Israel’s legal obligations remain binding, even in light of the ongoing hostage crisis in Gaza and the fact that many of the prisoners include Hamas members involved in the October 7, 2023 attack.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir condemned the ruling, arguing that while hostages in Gaza lack protection, “terrorist murderers, kidnappers, and rapists in prison” benefit from the Court’s intervention. He added that prisoners would continue receiving only the minimum conditions required by law.
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Ukrainian Government Building Set Ablaze in Record Russian Airstrike
Illustrative. More damage caused by the Russian drone that hit the Perlina school in Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 30, 2024. Photo: Jewish community JCC in Kyiv, Kyiv municipality, and Yan Dobronosov
i24 News – The Ukrainian government’s main building in Kyiv was hit overnight Saturday by Russian airstrikes for the first time since the war, igniting a fire in the building, authorities said. Firefighters are working to put out the flames.
“The government building was damaged by an enemy attack — the roof and upper floors,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko said. The blaze is is burning in the area of the office of the prime minister.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched a total of 805 drones and 13 missiles overnight on Ukraine — a record number since the start of the war.
Also as a result of the strike, a baby and a young woman were killed after a nine-story residential building was hit in the Svyatoshynsky district, also in Kyiv. Rescuers are still looking for a third body, authorities said. A woman was also reported killed in the strike in Novopavlivka village.
“The world must respond to this destruction not only with words, but also with actions. We need to increase sanctions pressure – primarily against Russian oil and gas. We need new restrictions that will hit the Kremlin’s military machine. And most importantly, Ukraine needs weapons. Something that will stop the terror and prevent Russia from trying to kill Ukrainians every day,” wrote Sviridenko after the attack.
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‘Trump’s Legacy Crumbles’: Israelis Call on US President to End Gaza War
Israeli protestors take part in a rally demanding the immediate release of the hostages kidnapped during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, and the end of war in Gaza, in Jerusalem September 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Thousands of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, issuing direct appeals to US President Donald Trump to force an end to the Gaza war and secure the release of the hostages.
Protesters packed a public square outside the military headquarters, waving Israeli flags and holding placards with images of the hostages. Some carried signs, including one that read: ‘Trump’s legacy crumbles as the Gaza war persists.’
Another said: “PRESIDENT TRUMP, SAVE THE HOSTAGES NOW!”
“We think that Trump is the only man in the world who has authority over Bibi, that can force Bibi to do this,” said Tel Aviv resident Boaz, 40, referring to the Israeli prime minister.
There is growing despair among many Israelis at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has ordered the military to capture a major urban center where hostages may be held.
Families of the hostages and their supporters fear the assault on Gaza City could endanger their loved ones, a concern the military leadership shares, according to Israeli officials.
Orna Neutra, the mother of an Israeli soldier who was killed on October 7, 2023 and whose body is being held in Gaza by militants, accused the government of abandoning its citizens.
“We truly hope that the United States will push both sides to finally reach a comprehensive deal that will bring them home,” she told the rally. Her son, Omer, is also American.
Tel Aviv has witnessed weekly demonstrations that have grown in size, with protesters demanding that the government secure a ceasefire with Hamas to obtain the release of hostages. Organizers said Saturday night’s rally was attended by tens of thousands. A large demonstration was also held in Jerusalem.
There are 48 hostages held in Gaza. Israeli officials believe that around 20 are still alive. Palestinian terrorists abducted 251 people from Israel on October 7, 2023, when Hamas led its attack. Most of the hostages who have been released were freed after indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
NO PURPOSE
Trump had pledged a swift end to the war in Gaza during his presidential campaign, but nearly eight months into his second term, a resolution has remained elusive. On Friday, he said that Washington was engaged in “very deep” negotiations with Hamas.
Israeli forces have carried out heavy strikes on the suburbs of Gaza City, where, according to a global hunger monitor, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are facing famine. Israeli officials acknowledge that hunger exists in Gaza but deny that the territory is facing famine. On Saturday, the military warned civilians in Gaza City to leave and move to southern Gaza.
There are hundreds of thousands of Palestinians sheltering in the city that was home to around a million before the war.
A video released by Hamas on Friday featured Israeli hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal, 24, saying that he was being held in Gaza City and feared being killed by the military’s assault on the city. Rights groups have condemned such videos of hostages as inhumane. Israel says that it is psychological warfare.
The war has become unpopular among some segments of Israeli society, and opinion polls show that most Israelis want Netanyahu’s right-wing government to negotiate a permanent ceasefire with Hamas that secures the release of the hostages.
“The war has no purpose at all, except for violence and death,” said Boaz from Tel Aviv. Adam, 48, said it had become obvious that soldiers were being sent to war for “nothing.”
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since it launched its retaliatory war after Hamas fighters attacked Israel from Gaza in October 2023. Around 1,200 people were killed in that attack on southern Israel.
The terrorist group, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades but today controls only parts of the enclave, on Saturday once again said that it would release all hostages if Israel agreed to end the war and withdraw its forces from Gaza.
Netanyahu is pushing for an all-or-nothing deal that would see all of the hostages released at once and Hamas surrendering.
The prime minister has said Gaza City is a Hamas stronghold and capturing it is necessary to defeat the Palestinian militant group, whose October 2023 attack on Israel led to the war.
Hamas has acknowledged it would no longer govern Gaza once the war ends but has refused to discuss laying down its weapons.