While the school materials in Gaza are being exposed that glorify terrorism and call for the murder of Jews, the textbooks in the United Arab Emirates today are 180 degrees different. Following the Abraham Accords, there was a real turnaround in the curriculum in the country – Israel is no longer called the “Zionist occupation”, Islam encourages coexistence and calls for moderation, and they even started teaching about the Holocaust. This optimistic change sheds light on how one should study in Gaza the “day after”.
From the research conducted by the IMPACT-se Institute, which researches and analyzes textbooks in the world, it appears that the Abraham Accords led to a real change in the relationship to Israel in the curriculum of the United Arab Emirates – compared to the content taught in it before. In 2020, the Emirates stopped calling Israel an “occupier” or an enemy state in the study materials. They even convey a message that supports relations with Israel and see it as a move that supports “reconciliation efforts between Israel and the Palestinians.”
The Abraham Accords led to a real change in the attitude towards Israel in the curriculum
The current textbook that 12th grade students in the United Arab Emirates are studying reads: “Jihad can only be declared by the ruler to ensure a sense of religion and worship for all.” Instead of justifying violence, the students learn that Islam is not imposed on anyone, because it “encourages coexistence and calls for tolerance.”
UAE textbook for 9th grade
In the UAE 9th grade textbook published in 2017, Israel was referred to as a “colonialist project in Palestine”. However, the change has already appeared in the textbook released in 2021. That racist sentence will be deleted and Israel is no longer presented there as such an entity.
“Anti-Israel texts were deleted because of the training of the hearts of peace”
Yoni Bate, a former intelligence officer and now an analyst, told N12 that “we see the sharp and striking difference in the textbooks of the United Arab Emirates before the Abraham Accords compared to today. This is a sharp and clear change on two levels – moderate and non-jihadist Islam, alongside the ‘training of the hearts’ of peace with Israel, following which texts that were anti-Israel were deleted.”
Texts that were anti-Israel were deleted from a textbook in the United Arab Emirates
Since the Abraham Accords, the twelfth grade in the United Arab Emirates uses the Koran and Hadith to “show the importance of diplomatic relations”, reconciliation with ‘enemies’ who also turn to peace. This text obviously alludes to the relations forged with Israel.
“Showing tolerance towards the Jews”
“Showing tolerance towards the Jews”, from a textbook in the United Arab Emirates
10th grade students in the United Arab Emirates are learning to use hadith as part of “showing tolerance towards the Jews”. Muhammad says about the Jews: “Is it not a soul” – a very mild interpretation of the religious texts.
Other hadiths that are taught in the 9th grade “emphasize tolerance and respect towards the Jews”. Among other things, we will learn that men are allowed to marry Jewish and Christian women in order to “strengthen the relationship between Muslims and the People of the Book”.
“The normalization is part of that line and a product of that line,” Bate added. “The Emirates is reflected as a country that wants a different and sane Islam, which is ready to accommodate Jews and condemns extremist groups. The normalization is a result of the trend and not the generator. This model gives hope that Islam is not only jihad and al-Qaeda, but can also be moderate, in another version.”
“The Prophet Muhammad promised the Jews freedom of faith and worship”, from the textbook
In the textbooks of the United Arab Emirates, one learns about the “Constitution of a State”, a document by Muhammad that guaranteed the right to exist in dignity to the “peoples of the book”, that is, to the Jews as well. Among other things, it is written that “the Prophet Muhammad promised them freedom of belief and worship to live their lives safely, just like the Muslims.” The continuation according to which he also massacred the Jews was omitted.
The sentence about the “Israeli occupation” was omitted
The phrase “occupying Israeli entity” was omitted from the textbooks
Before the Abraham Accords, in the 11th grade textbook it was written that houses were destroyed by the “Israeli occupation”. However, in the new edition that came out afterwards – they omitted the same sentence.
From UAE textbooks
In the old edition of the textbooks in the United Arab Emirates, an extreme, anti-Israel passage appeared: “How can the Palestinians recognize the occupying Israeli entity, when they have the right to the entire land.” In the new edition, the nationalist section was removed and a reference to the Palestinian issue remained, according to which “delaying a solution causes instability in the Middle East”.
Teachers in Gaza took an active part in the military wing of Hamas
The IDF spokesman in Arabic, Lt. Col. Avihai Adrei, revealed documents this month that indicate that teachers in the Gaza Strip are active in the Hamas military formation. In the letters, which were apparently addressed to the head of the Education Directorate in Gaza, Dr. Muhammad Hamdan, Hamas asks the Education Directorate to make it easier for the teachers so that they can free up their occupation in the military arm.
The official letters were located during an operational activity by the IDF forces in the Gaza Strip. In the first letter, Hamas asks the Gaza Directorate of Education to exempt the teachers from their educational duties so that they can work full-time for the organization. In the second letter, Hamas demands that a flexible schedule be established for the teachers due to their employment in the military arm.
Research: More than 100 Hamas terrorists who carried out terrorist attacks are UNRA graduates
UNRWA made headlines in recent days, after a number of countries decided to suspend aid to the agency – following the participation of its employees in the murderous massacre on October 7. According to a study carried out by the IMPACT-se Institute and published in N12, more than 100 of the Hamas and Jihad terrorists The Islamists who carried out terrorist attacks and murdered Israeli citizens are graduates of UNRA’s education system.
According to estimates, more than 500,000 students study in schools in the Gaza Strip, and over half of them in UNRA schools. They teach according to the Palestinian Authority’s curriculum, which is saturated with anti-Semitic content and encourages violence – along with their own inciting content that glorifies ‘martyrs’ and demonizes against Israel.
Eric Agassi, Vice President of the IMPACT-se Institute emphasized: “Emirati children have been receiving a systematic education for peace for a decade after Mohammed bin Ziad realized the power that education and textbooks have to be a barrier to extremism and a cornerstone for regional stability. Our studies show that the Emirates curriculum is a role model for the countries of the region on how to teach acceptance of the other based on Islamic and Arab values and texts that bring cultures together – instead of using violent and anti-Semitic motifs found in Palestinian education and UNRWA.
With a view to “the day after” in Gaza, he added: “As an institute that has been researching the contents of textbooks in the Middle East for a quarter of a century, it can be said that there is another way to teach about Israel and making peace as a solution to conflicts without inciting. This is also one of the reasons why the United Arab Emirates had the infrastructure the appropriate education for the continued acceptance and implementation of the Abrahamic Agreements in the long term.”
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