Saudi Arabia’s education system is witnessing a change which at one point of time was unimaginable. This is evident from the fact that in the past five years the country has got its curriculum changed in a massive way.
London-based Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) has found that nearly all antisemitic content had been removed from Saudi textbooks.
IMPACT-se has been tracking anti-Israel and antisemitic content in Saudi textbooks for several years.
n December 2020, the group announced a significant shift in how Israel and Jewish people were represented in textbooks when compared to previous years.
“Examining the trend-line of our 2002, 2008 and even 2019 reports of the Saudi curriculum, it is clear that these new 2020 textbooks represent an institutional effort to modernize the Kingdom’s curriculum,” Marcus Sheff, CEO of IMPACT-se said at that time.
The sudden change was welcomed by the group.
In 2022, IMPACT-se announced further “improvements” in the Saudi curriculum, with Sheff calling it a “continuation of the clear trajectory of improvement.”
According to the new report that analyzes the 2022 Saudi textbooks, only two major problems remained: The absence of Israel on regional maps and the use of “Israeli occupation” to identify Israelis at very few instances.
In addition, many instances of the term “the Zionists” had been replaced with “the Israelis.”
The study also found that textbooks have shifted from sections praising “jihad” to sections now critical of radical religious groups known for terrorism, such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda, believed to be brainchildren of Saudi’s “Salafism”.
The study also found that “Quranic surahs, hadith, and religious interpretations that incite against non-Muslims,” “textbooks [which] commonly promulgated antisemitic tropes,” and “a strong emphasis on jihad war and the virtue of martyrdom,” had been removed.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been praised for his apparent role in this massive change.
Biden has had tense relations with MBS since the beginning of his administration, although he has claimed to be working towards normalization between the Saudi Kingdom and Israel.
Kristin Diwan, senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, said the changes are more about the Saudi government seeking legitimacy.
“This is consistent with efforts to ease religious intolerance of Jews, incrementally preparing the way should a political decision be made on Israel normalization,” she said.