"The Zionist enemy" is out: The change taking place in Saudi textbooks
A new report by IMPACT-se points to a continued softening of attitudes toward Israel in Saudi textbooks: hostile expressions have been removed, phrasing has been changed, and maps have been updated, but Israel is still presented in some content as an occupying force and the lack of recognition of it is still evident.
Saudi Arabia continues to soften the way Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are presented in its textbooks. A new report by the research institute IMPACT-se, which examined Saudi curricula for the years 2024 to 2026, points to the removal of hostile expressions and changes in content regarding Israel, Jews, and Jerusalem, as part of the reform trend promoted by the royal house under "Vision 2030".
One of the most prominent changes is found in the Arabic language textbook for the 11th grade. In an exercise that appeared in the 2023–2024 edition, the sentence "Muslims will never give up on Jerusalem" was included. In editions from the 2024–2025 school year and onwards, the sentence was completely removed. IMPACT-se noted that the sentence presented Muslim control or presence in Jerusalem as being under threat, and that its removal eliminates a politically and religiously charged reference to the city.
Another change was recorded in an 11th-grade history textbook. In the 2024–2025 edition, Israel was described as "the Zionist enemy" in a passage dealing with King Salman's humanitarian activities and the aid he provided to Egypt and Syria after the 1973 war. In the 2025–2026 edition, the phrase was replaced with "the Israeli occupation".
According to the authors of the study, this is a reduction in the level of hostility toward Israel, although the new term still reflects a lack of recognition of Israel, especially when it is used in relation to the state as a whole and not just the territories occupied in 1967.
The report also points to a change in maps. In some of the textbooks, the label "Palestine" was removed from areas located within Israel's recognized borders, and in some of the maps, the area was left without a name.
The changes are part of a trend that has been continuing for several years in the Saudi education system. According to IMPACT-se, the new curricula emphasize coexistence, tolerance, and dialogue more, and at the same time, antisemitic content found in previous editions has been removed. However, the report emphasizes that there is still content in the books that presents Israel as an occupying state and expresses the Palestinian narrative in the conflict.
