Saudi Arabia textbooks remove anti-Israel lines like ‘Muslims will never give up Jerusalem’

From dropping anti-Israel phrasing to adding tolerance lessons, Riyadh updates its schoolbooks toward moderation.

Representational image of a Saudi classroom | X

New Delhi: Palestine is disappearing from maps in schools across Saudi Arabia. So is some of the language once used to describe Israel and zionism. The controversial phrase telling Saudi schoolchildren “the Muslims will never give up Jerusalem” has also been removed from the kingdom’s textbooks, as Riyadh revises how its curriculum addresses Islam, Palestine, Israel and zionism.

The changes were highlighted in a July 2026 review of the curriculum by IMPACT-se, an Israel-based research organisation that has been reviewing the Saudi school syllabus since the early 2000s. The report examined 136 textbooks used during the 2024–25 and 2025–26 academic years, comparing them with earlier editions. 

The latest review found that the revised curriculum continued a broader movement toward “moderation and openness through the introduction of material promoting tolerance, coexistence, critical thinking, respect for diversity, opposition to extremism, and constructive engagement with other cultures and faiths”. 

IMPACT-se also said that “all instances of antisemitism”, which were found in earlier reports, had been removed, however, they continued to omit discussion of the Holocaust and its impact on the Jewish community.

“The gradual moderation of anti-Israel content continues. Building on revisions identified in previous IMPACT-se reports, additional maps have been revised to remove the label ‘Palestine,’ while Israel remains unidentified. Further hostile terminology has also been removed, including the replacement of ‘the zionist enemy’ with ‘the Israeli occupation’ and the removal of the statement, ‘The Muslims will never give up Jerusalem.’ Israel’s nonrecognition and characterisation as an occupying power, however, remain significant features of the curriculum,” the report read.

An alternative education 

The infamous phrase regarding Muslims and the holy city of Jerusalem appeared in a Grade 11 Arabic Language textbook in an earlier edition. IMPACT-se said that the wording implied that Muslim control or presence in Jerusalem was under threat and could frame the city as a continuing struggle between Muslims and other groups, particularly the Israeli state. 

However, the changes extend beyond references to Jerusalem and Palestine. IMPACT-se described the removal of passages from the Quran and Hadith, as well as recorded sayings and teachings of Prophet Muhammad, as a “positive development”. 

Saudi textbooks previously dropped a Hadith about Muhammad visiting a sick Jewish boy who later accepted Islam. According to the report, this removal occurred in an earlier revision and represented an improvement in the treatment of religious minorities.

The revised textbooks have also shortened Quranic passages dealing with disbelief and sin. However, the study criticised the continued teaching that Islam is humanity’s natural religion, saying similar claims are made in the religious traditions of other communities.

The review also studied maps and terminology relating to Israel and Palestine in the Saudi curriculum. It found that some maps that had previously labelled the entire region as Palestine had been revised. At the same time, Israel remains absent. No map explicitly recognising the Israeli state was found. Some textbooks continued to describe the country as an occupying force. 

A Grade 11 history textbook has also replaced the phrase “the zionist enemy” with “the Israeli Occupation”. IMPACT-se said the new wording reduced hostility but remained problematic because it appeared to describe Israel as an occupation.

The report also criticised other references to zionism. It objected to descriptions of zionists as “cunning and devious”. One textbook recounts how Chaim Weizmann, a zionist leader who later became Israel’s first president, tried to persuade Saudi founder King Abdulaziz to “abandon the issue of Palestine” and not become a major obstacle to the Zionist movement’s ambitions. 

The textbook describes Ibn Saud’s response as a rejection of what it calls Weizmann’s “criminal audacity”. IMPACT-se said that the account presents zionists in a conspiratorial way and encourages students to view the movement negatively as a whole.

The account is linked to a 1940 US State Department memorandum that recorded Weizmann discussing the possibility of raising £ three to four million in exchange for Saudi Arabia’s support for the transfer of Palestinians to Transjordan and Iraq.

IMPACT-se further added that the latest revisions represented progress but maintained that Saudi still needed to recognise Israel explicitly in its educational material. The organisation’s assessment has also drawn criticism because it campaigns for changes in Arab and Palestinian textbooks while promoting an Israeli interpretation of the region’s history.

(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)