Palestine's Name Disappears from Saudi Textbooks
Saudi Arabia, a Muslim-majority country in the Middle East, has made significant changes to its textbooks. An Israeli NGO and monitoring organization called IMPACT-se has reported these changes. The organization researched the modifications made to Saudi textbooks over the past five years.
IMPACT-se reviewed 371 textbooks published from 2019 to 2024, identifying what has been removed, altered, and retained. Their research shows a gradual removal of content hostile to Israel. Additionally, Palestine's name has been erased from most maps in the textbooks.
The report states that a 12th-grade social studies book, which previously described the Zionist movement as racist, has been discontinued since 2023. Another book, still in use, has had content related to the Palestinian movement removed.
The study also found that maps in 5th and 9th-grade social studies books do not mention Israel or Palestine, as these countries do not border Saudi Arabia. However, in 2022, maps in these grades only included Palestine's name. In 2021, Saudi textbooks referred to Israel as a "Zionist or Jewish state," but this was removed in 2022.
The organization also noted that a high school social studies book previously labeled Israel as the "Zionist enemy," but this was changed to "Israeli occupation army." Similarly, "Israeli enemy" was changed to "Israeli occupier," and "Zionist" was changed to "Israeli."
