by Jules Gomes, Middle East Forum
Rife with Antisemitic Tropes, the Books Omit References to Hamas’s Slaughter of Israelis, the Holocaust, and Jordan’s Peace Treaty with Israel
An investigation into Jordan’s school curriculum has uncovered textbooks for the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 school years that legitimize Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, celebrate jihad,demonize Jews, and advocate the ethnic cleansing of Israelis, all while omitting any mention of the Holocaust.
A review by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) found that Jordan’s National Center for Curriculum Development introduced a new Grade 10 National and Civic Education textbook that frames Hamas’s October 7 attack as a response to Israeli oppression.
The textbook, introduced three months after Hamas’s attack, blames Israel for ignoring United Nations resolutions and “committing massacres.” It omits Hamas’s slaughter of more than 1,100 Israelis and undermines Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel by calling Isarel “the Enemy.”
According to the textbook:
“Israel ignored the repeated UN Security Council resolutions, refused to withdraw from the occupied Arab lands, and continued to oppress the Arab Palestinian people, commit massacres against them day after day, and attack Al-Aqsa Mosque. This led the Palestinian resistance movement in Gaza to invade the Israeli colonies which surround the Gaza Strip on October 7th, 2023, and to take captive numerous Israeli settlers and soldiers.”
The textbook presents Israel as responding with “mass destruction on the Gaza Strip, which resulted in tens of thousands of martyrs and wounded, and the destruction of infrastructure, including schools, mosques, churches, hospitals, and civilian homes.”