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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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North London Synagogue, Nursery Targeted in Eighth Local Antisemitic Incident in Just Over a Week
Demonstrators against antisemitism in London on Sept. 8, 2025. Photo: Campaign Against Antisemitism
A synagogue and its nursery school in the Golders Green area of north London were targeted in an antisemitic attack on Thursday morning — the eighth such incident locally in just over a week amid a shocking surge of anti-Jewish hate crimes in the area.
The synagogue and Jewish nursery were smeared with excrement in an antisemitic outrage echoing a series of recent incidents targeting the local Jewish community.
“The desecration of another local synagogue and a children’s nursery with excrement is a vile, deliberate, and premeditated act of antisemitism,” Shomrim North West London, a Jewish organization that monitors antisemitism and also serves as a neighborhood watch group, said in a statement.
“This marks the eighth antisemitic incident locally in just over a week, to directly target the local Jewish community,” the statement read. “These repeated attacks have left our community anxious, hurt, and increasingly worried.”
Local law enforcement confirmed they are reviewing CCTV footage and collecting evidence to identify the suspect and bring them to justice.
This latest anti-Jewish hate crime came just days after tens of thousands of people marched through London in a demonstration against antisemitism, amid rising levels of antisemitic incidents across the United Kingdom since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
In just over a week, seven Jewish premises in Barnet, the borough in which Golders Green is located, have been targeted in separate antisemitic incidents.
According to the Metropolitan Police, an investigation has been launched into the targeted attacks, all of which involved the use of bodily fluids.
During the incidents, a substance was smeared on four synagogues and a private residence, while a liquid was thrown at a school and over a car in two other attacks.
As the investigation continues, local police said they believe the same suspect is likely responsible for all seven offenses, which are being treated as religiously motivated criminal damage.
No arrests have been made so far, but law enforcement said it is actively engaging with the local Jewish community to provide reassurance and support.
The Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit charity that advises Britain’s Jewish community on security matters, condemned the recent wave of attacks and called on authorities to take immediate action.
“The extreme defilement of several Jewish locations in and around Golders Green is utterly abhorrent and deeply distressing,” CST said in a statement.
“CST is working closely with police and communal partners to support victims and help identify and apprehend the perpetrator,” it continued.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) also denounced the attacks, calling for urgent measures to protect the Jewish community.
“These repeated incidents are leaving British Jews anxious and vulnerable in their own neighborhoods, not to mention disgusted,” CAA said in a statement.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, the United Kingdom has experienced a surge in antisemitic crimes and anti-Israel sentiment.
Last month, CST published a report showing there were 1,521 antisemitic incidents in the UK from January to June of this year. It marks the second-highest total of incidents ever recorded by CST in the first six months of any year, following the first half of 2024 in which 2,019 antisemitic incidents were recorded.
In total last year, CST recorded 3,528 antisemitic incidents for 2024, the country’s second worst year for antisemitism despite being an 18 percent drop from 2023’s record of 4,296.
In previous years, the numbers were significantly lower, with 1,662 incidents in 2022 and 2,261 hate crimes in 2021.
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Germany to Hold Off on Recognizing Palestinian State but Will Back UN Resolution for Two-State Solution
German national flag flutters on top of the Reichstag building, that seats the Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, March 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
Germany will support a United Nations resolution for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but does not believe the time has come to recognize a Palestinian state, a government spokesman told Reuters on Thursday.
“Germany will support such a resolution which simply describes the status quo in international law,” the spokesman said, adding that Berlin “has always advocated a two-state solution and is asking for that all the time.”
“The chancellor just mentioned two days ago again that Germany does not see that the time has come for the recognition of the Palestinian state,” the spokesman added.
Britain, France, Canada, Australia, and Belgium have all said they will recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly later this month, although London said it could hold back if Israel were to take steps to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and commit to a long-term peace process.
The United States strongly opposes any move by its European allies to recognize Palestinian independence.
Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US has told other countries that recognition of a Palestinian state will cause more problems.
Those who see recognition as a largely symbolic gesture point to the negligible presence on the ground and limited influence in the conflict of countries such as China, India, Russia, and many Arab states that have recognized Palestinian independence for decades.
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UN Security Council, With US Support, Condemns Strikes on Qatar
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani attends an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, at UN headquarters in New York City, US, Sept. 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
The United Nations Security Council on Thursday condemned recent strikes on Qatar’s capital Doha, but did not mention Israel in the statement agreed to by all 15 members, including Israel‘s ally the United States.
Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with the attack on Tuesday, escalating its military action in what the United States described as a unilateral attack that does not advance US and Israeli interests.
The United States traditionally shields its ally Israel at the United Nations. US backing for the Security Council statement, which could only be approved by consensus, reflects President Donald Trump’s unhappiness with the attack ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Council members underscored the importance of de-escalation and expressed their solidarity with Qatar. They underlined their support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar,” read the statement, drafted by Britain and France.
The Doha operation was especially sensitive because Qatar has been hosting and mediating negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire in the Gaza war.
“Council members underscored that releasing the hostages, including those killed by Hamas, and ending the war and suffering in Gaza must remain our top priority,” the Security Council statement read.
The Security Council will meet later on Thursday to discuss the Israeli attack at a meeting due to be attended by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani.