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A review and verification conducted by Arabic Post of Israeli government and parliamentary reports and statements, as well as academic studies by Israeli, American, and European institutions and research centers, has uncovered a cross-border network that has monitored and scrutinized school curricula in 17 Arab countries addressing Israel, the Palestinian cause, and the conflict with the occupation over the past three decades.
The investigation shows how Israel, through official bodies and centers that present themselves as “non-governmental,” developed a methodology sustained over many years for collecting, translating, and classifying Arab educational materials. It also shows how American and European networks helped channel these reports to Western governments, parliaments, and donors in order to exert pressure on Arab countries—with a particular focus on Palestine and Israel’s neighboring states—with the aim of pushing for changes to lessons and curricula dealing with the portrayal of Jews, Israel and Zionism; the concept of jihad; maps of historic Palestine; Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque; martyrdom and resistance; and the teaching of the Holocaust.
Notably, these reports are submitted to lobbying groups and official bodies, including the U.S. Congress, the European Parliament, and Western foreign ministries. They may ultimately lead to an independent review, direct official dialogue with an Arab education ministry, or the inclusion of curriculum updates among funding and reform conditions, with the aim of pressuring governments to change or reword educational content.
The investigation identified 10 Israeli research centers and institutions that, over the past three decades, have monitored Arab curricula and educational materials and used their findings politically across 17 Arab countries. Other Israeli official bodies have also been involved, including Israel’s Ministry of Education, the so-called Israeli Civil Administration—the executive arm of the Israeli government and military in the West Bank—and special committees of the Israeli Knesset.
These bodies form part of a broader inventory of Israeli, American, and European institutions involved in examining education in these countries, including extensive textbook reviews and monitoring changes made to their curricula.
Tap any flag to see the bodies and the curricula they monitor
These Israeli centers and institutions disclose that they have received government contracts to conduct such studies, in addition to private donations from American or European entities, with American donors and Canadian charitable organizations also involved. Available disclosures do not make it possible to determine the budgets of all ten organizations precisely and in detail, although some receive support amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
IMPACT-se is one of the most prominent and longest-established Israeli institutes monitoring Palestinian and Arab educational curricula. The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education was established in 1998, shortly after the Oslo Accords and the Wadi Araba peace treaty with Israel, and was formerly known as CMIP. The institute describes itself as a “non-governmental research and policy organization” with offices in Tel Aviv and London.
Arabic Post traced the institute’s former founders and current members and found that they had worked in Israeli ministries and in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. They include:
The institute’s significance lies in the broad geographical scope of its reviews of Arab curricula and its continued comparison of different textbook editions over three decades. Its archive contains reports on curricula from Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, the UAE, Jordan, Morocco, Iraq, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen. Its stated methodology begins with collecting textbooks, reading their contents, translating passages, images, and exercises, and classifying them according to Israeli criteria relating to “peace, tolerance, and antisemitism.”
The examples show that these reviews extend beyond “anti-Jewish statements” to the way the conflict itself is narrated and named. In a study of 71 Iraqi textbooks published between 2015 and 2022 and released in March 2024, the institute objected to maps showing Palestine without the name Israel and to the definition of Zionism as a racist, colonialist, and aggressive movement. The institute thus objected to the treatment of Israel and its ideological, political, and religious narrative in these curricula.
The IMPACT-se review of Iraqi textbooks: a map from the Grade 8 social studies textbook, 2021 edition, page 46; the definition of Zionism from the Grade 9 modern and contemporary Arab history textbook, 2019 edition, page 53; and a passage on Palestine from the Grade 5 textbook.
Source: IMPACT-se, a study of 71 Iraqi textbooks published in 2015–2022, March 2024.
In its review of 136 Saudi textbooks from 2024–2026, the institute noted that the Saudi Ministry of Education had removed the sentence “Muslims will not relinquish Jerusalem” from a Grade 11 language exercise, describing this as the removal of a “politically charged reference.”
The IMPACT-se review of Saudi curricula: an exercise in the Grade 11 Arabic-language textbook.
The document compares the 2023–2024 edition, page 69, with the 2024–2025 and 2025–2026 editions, page 67. Red in the report marks deleted content, and the deleted sentence is “Muslims will not give up Jerusalem”.
Source: IMPACT-se, a review of 136 Saudi textbooks, 2024–2026, page 71.
It also noted that “the Zionist enemy” had been replaced by “the Israeli occupation” in the history textbook for the same grade, regarding this as a “softening of hostility toward Israel,” while noting that criticism of non-recognition of Israel remained.
The document compares the Grade 11 history textbook between the 2024–2025 and the 2025–2026 editions, page 167 in both.
The highlighted phrase is “the Zionist enemy” in the first and “the Israeli occupation” in the second.
Source: IMPACT-se, review of Saudi curricula.
In Qatar, the institute criticized the explanation of verses from Surat As-Saff in the Grade 8 Islamic Education textbook, 2025–2026 edition, pages 105–107. The report focused on the textbook’s presentation of “jihad through wealth and one’s life and its reward,” as well as an exercise comparing the “immediate and deferred fruits of jihad.” The institute interpreted the explanation of the verses as “encouragement of violence, fighting, and sacrifice.”
The IMPACT-se review of the Qatari curriculum: pages 105–107 of the Grade 8 Islamic education textbook, part one, 2025–2026 edition, containing an exegesis of verses from Surat al-Saff and an exercise contrasting “immediate fruits” with “deferred fruits”.
The English text at the top of the page is the institute’s assessment of it.
Source: IMPACT-se, report on the Qatari curriculum, page 33.
One of the clearest examples of how the institute operates is its submission of a report monitoring Palestinian curricula to the Israeli government, which in turn forwarded it to the British government in December 2018 in an effort to use British funding to pressure the Palestinian Authority to change the curriculum. The UK Department for International Development (DFID) said at the time that “the IMPACT-se report had raised concerns,” and that officials had raised specific examples with the Palestinian Minister of Education at a meeting on December 4, 2018.
In March 2019, Britain announced that it had pushed for an independent review of Palestinian textbooks led by the Georg Eckert Institute. This example illustrates how a report can be traced from an Israeli organization to ministerial communication and the commissioning of research, culminating in a direct British government review involving the Palestinian Authority.
Two documents: a letter from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) signed by Minister of State Alistair Burt, December 2018, reference 189776, containing an explicit reference to the IMPACT-se report on the new Palestinian curriculum; and the British government statement published on 19 March 2019 entitled “UK Government successfully pushes for review of Palestinian textbooks”.
Source: UK Department for International Development, and a statement on GOV.UK dated 19 March 2019.
Jewish settler Itamar Marcus, who is originally from the United States, founded Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) in 1996, establishing it as a platform specializing in monitoring Arabic-language Palestinian media, public discourse, and education. Marcus is considered close to Netanyahu and worked with him following the Oslo Accords. As previously noted, he also has strong ties to the settlement movement in the West Bank.
Israel uses the organization’s reports as an instrument of political and economic pressure before Western parliaments—such as the European Parliament and U.S. Congress—and donor institutions, with the aim of advocating for the suspension or restriction of financial and educational assistance to Palestinians on the grounds that their curricula and media contain “incitement.”
This role is illustrated, for example, by a February 2007 report on Grade 12 Palestinian textbooks. The report’s title characterized Palestinian education as moving “from a national struggle to a religious conflict” and criticized the treatment of concepts such as “ribat, jihad, and martyrdom,” the absence of Israel from maps, and the portrayal of Israel’s establishment as a Palestinian Nakba.
The report also criticized “the absence of the Holocaust from the narrative of World War II”; in other words, it monitored both what Palestinian textbooks said and what they did not say.
The cover of the Palestinian Media Watch report, February 2007, entitled “From National Struggle to Religious Conflict: The New Palestinian Twelfth-Grade Textbooks Present a World Without Israel”, by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook.
At the foot of the cover are two quotations: from the Grade 12 Arabic-language textbook, page 104, and from the Grade 12 Islamic education textbook, pages 86–87.
Source: Palestinian Media Watch, February 2007.
PMW regarded a lesson on ribat in the Islamic Education textbook, pages 86–87, which discusses Palestinians remaining steadfast on their land and the reward of those who perform ribat, as “transforming the conflict into an open-ended religious confrontation with Israel.”
PMW submitted this report to the U.S. administration, and Hillary Clinton—then a senator—participated in its launch at the U.S. Senate building on February 8, 2007. This episode—one among many—documents how a study by an Israeli organization examining Palestinian curricula reached the U.S. Congress, which then confronted the Palestinian government with its findings.
A page on the Palestinian Media Watch website publishing the full text of Senator Hillary Clinton’s speech launching the organization’s report on Palestinian textbooks.
The date printed on the page is 8 February 2008.
Source: Palestinian Media Watch.
In terms of funding, PMW receives U.S. funding in the form of grants and donations. It also receives funding for specific studies from Israel’s Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs and Diaspora Affairs, and has previously received government exemptions and support for publication and distribution.
The donations page on the Palestinian Media Watch website, showing two tax-exempt donation channels in the United States: the Central Fund of Israel (CFI) and PEF-Israel Endowment Funds, and noting that the organization’s registered name in Israel is “Media Research Center”, amuta no. 580399400.
Source: The Palestinian Media Watch website.
The Center for Near East Policy Research (CNEPR) was established by settler David Bedein, who founded the Israel Resource News Agency (IRNA) in 1987 and became president of the center in 2005, according to his published biography.
Today, the organization is known as the Nahum Bedein Center and is headquartered in occupied Jerusalem. Among the most prominent researchers associated with it is Arnon Groiss, who previously reviewed curricula for CMIP/IMPACT-se, and Roni Shaked, who previously served in Israel’s internal security service, Shin Bet, from 1969 to 1982, eventually heading the Jerusalem and Ramallah districts, according to U.S. court records.
Over the years, the center has accumulated extensive work on Palestinian Authority curricula, which are also used in UNRWA schools, focusing on issues such as the right of return, martyrdom, and Jerusalem. CNEPR provides a clear example of how several Israeli and Western organizations can overlap in the production of a single study.
The introduction to a 2017 study of Palestinian textbooks states that it was commissioned by CNEPR with contributions from the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the U.S.-based Middle East Forum. The study covered 201 textbooks for Grades 1–12 and was published through BESA, after which the Meir Amit Center presented its findings as part of its activities. These organizations thus represented different stages of commissioning, funding, researching, and publishing a collaborative project.
Among many other issues, the study focused on the absence of Israel’s name from maps and what it regarded as denial of the historical and national rights of Jews. Significantly, the study called on “funding countries to demand that the content be corrected.” This constituted an explicit recommendation that textbook assessments be transformed into a responsibility for donors to use their leverage against UNRWA and the Palestinian Authority.
Reports show, however, that CNEPR’s work is not confined to Palestinian textbooks but also covers curricula in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and elsewhere. In December 2015, the center listed among its reports a study titled “What Do Syrians Learn in Their Schools?” evaluating Syrian school textbooks in relation to Jews and Israel. The material was published through David Bedein’s Israel Behind the News platform and stated that Arnon Groiss had translated the textbooks on which the report was based.
A passage from the CNEPR report on Syrian textbooks, stating that Arnon Groiss carried out the translation of the textbooks on which the report relied.
Source: CNEPR, “What Do Syrians Learn in Their Schools?”, December 2015.
The report focused on how Syrian textbooks portrayed Jews, Zionism, and Israel. Citing a Grade 10 National Education textbook, it criticized its treatment of Jews in Europe, including claims about their failure to integrate into societies, their domination of financial sectors, and their betrayal of Germany. It also criticized the characterization of Zionism as a racist and colonialist movement, the portrayal of Israel as an alien entity threatening the Arab world, the absence of Israel’s name from maps, and the linking of martyrdom and liberation to the conflict.
The center says its activities are funded exclusively through private and institutional grants and accepts donations through the Israel Independence Fund inside Israel and Middle East Research Center Ltd. Its published record of briefings demonstrates the pressure mechanism it employs: it presented findings and material concerning UNRWA curricula at the Swedish Parliament in 2018 with the participation of Knesset member Sharren Haskel, and recorded a briefing at the U.S. Congress in March 2019. In 2015, it also published recommendations concerning amendments it said were necessary to bring textbooks into line with policies declared by the United States and the European Union.
The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) was established in 2001 within the Israeli Intelligence Heritage and Commemoration Center and now operates under the name Amit Institute for Terrorism and Intelligence Research (ATIRI). It was headed by Israeli military intelligence reserve colonel Reuven Erlich until his death in January 2021, after which Shlomo Mofaz assumed its leadership — a retired colonel in the Israeli army and an expert researcher in intelligence and counter-terrorism affairs, and a brother of Shaul Mofaz, the former Israeli chief of staff and defence minister.
The institute incorporates the collection, translation, and analysis of Arabic-language curricula and sources into a broader mission of “assessing threats facing Israel.” Its documented curriculum-related work focuses primarily on Palestine and textbooks used in UNRWA schools. Its list of studies includes a review of Grade 5 and Grade 10 textbooks published in 2006. It subsequently published, in cooperation with CNEPR between 2017 and 2019, a series based on approximately 400 textbooks and more than 100 teachers’ guides. In a 2020 update, it examined 133 textbooks whose editions were published in 2019 in order to determine how their content had changed from one edition to another.
One example from the 2019 update was the institute’s criticism of the expanded lesson about Dalal Mughrabi in the Grade 5 Arabic Language textbook, Part Two, page 52, and the way she was presented to students as a “heroine and martyr.” It also objected to the addition of a lesson in the Grade 9 Islamic Education textbook, Part One, page 57, concerning an understanding of “the importance of jihad in spreading the Islamic call.”
From the Meir Amit Center’s 2019 update: the picture of Dalal Mughrabi in the Grade 5 Arabic-language textbook, part two, 2017 edition, page 51, beside her picture in the 2019 edition on the same page.
In the same paragraph the report records the change of the name “Israel” to “the Zionist occupation”, and of the adjective “Israeli” to “Zionist”.
Source: The Meir Amit Center (ITIC), 2019 update.
In Lebanon, the center examined textbooks and coloring books in 2006 that it said had been seized by the Israeli military during the Second Lebanon War. It regarded them as instilling in children an image of Hezbollah as the “protector of Lebanon,” glorifying the “resistance,” encouraging hostility toward Israel and Jews, and fostering solidarity with Palestinians. In 2019, it expanded its examination to Hezbollah’s “educational mobilization” apparatus and the networks of schools and activities targeting students in private and public institutions, saying they promoted loyalty to Hezbollah and Iran and conflict with Israel.
This monitoring of educational content in Lebanon does not constitute an official review of the entire Lebanese curriculum, but rather scrutiny of a parallel partisan educational system operating within Lebanon’s educational environment.
From the Meir Amit Center’s examination of educational materials in Lebanon: the cover of a coloring book entitled “With My Weapon I Protect My Homeland”, and the centre’s explanation of the cover’s elements.
Source: The Meir Amit Center (ITIC).
At the same time, the center maintains a direct research relationship with the Israeli state. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs procurement records show a contract worth 500,000 shekels covering September 2025 through December 2026 for the preparation of studies, analyses, and professional reviews concerning armed organizations and regional developments, for use and publication.
During the investigation into the activities of Israeli institutions, it became clear that monitoring Arab curricula did not remain confined to Israel. Instead, it expanded into a cross-border network spanning the United States and Europe. Some participants scrutinized textbooks themselves, while others conveyed reports and recommendations to governments, parliaments, and donors.
The broader inventory compiled by the investigation includes 27 organizations and research projects, of which 20 are classified under the American side and seven under the European side, with some branches and projects counted separately. The data show successive activity from the late 1990s through 2026, repeatedly focusing on the portrayal of Jews and Israel, Palestine and maps, jihad and martyrdom, and religious tolerance in Arab curricula.
Four examples illustrate the variety of channels through which influence is exerted:
Seventeen Arab countries out of twenty-two, plus UNRWA. Coloured are those for which the investigation has an entry in its table; the rest carry the map's own colour.
To zoom: use the two buttons, or double-tap the map, then drag it.
Tap any country on the map, or its name in the strip below.
In addition to what has already been discussed in this investigation, IMPACT-se’s reviews of Palestinian curricula extended to Palestinian Authority textbooks and teachers’ guides prescribed in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, including textbooks used in UNRWA schools. The examination focused on maps of Palestine, portrayals of Jews, martyrdom and resistance, and the presence of the conflict in subjects not classified as political, such as science and mathematics.
For example, a European parliamentary question dated April 9, 2025, shows how a classroom example became a subject of political scrutiny. MEP Moritz Körner objected to the use of an image of Palestinians using slingshots to throw stones toward Israeli soldiers in an explanation of Newton’s Second Law of Motion and asked the European Commission whether the material had been removed.
European Parliament question E-001465/25, submitted by MEP Moritz Körner on 9 April 2025, on school textbooks.
The highlighted item is the objection to the use of an image of Palestinians throwing stones with slingshots at Israeli soldiers to explain Newton’s second law of motion.
Highlighted text: A maths textbook illustrated Newton’s second law of motion using a picture of Palestinians hitting Israeli soldiers with slingshots;
Source: European Parliament, question for written answer E-001465/25, 9 April 2025. europarl.europa.eu
In East Jerusalem, which is currently facing a campaign to change curricula and forcibly impose the Israeli curriculum, there has been direct Israeli intervention in textbook content. Researcher Samira Alayan, through an analysis of 28 social studies textbooks and interviews, documented the removal of references to Palestinian history, heritage, and the national narrative from Israeli-modified editions.
The page of the study by researcher Samira Alayan entitled “Textbooks as Instruments of Power: Israeli Censorship and the Palestinian Curriculum in East Jerusalem”.
The abstract describes a thematic analysis of 28 social studies textbooks for Grades 3 to 10, and interviews.
Source: A study by Samira Alayan, peer-reviewed.
Jordan is one of the countries whose curricula, after Palestine, have been subjected most extensively to scrutiny and monitoring by Israeli and Western centers, particularly since the peace treaty with Israel in the mid-1990s and continuing to the present day.
In its latest report, published in August 2026, IMPACT-se claimed that “Jordanian school curricula still fall short of meeting standards of peace and tolerance, particularly with regard to Jews.”
In its 2024/2025 report, the center said that Jordan had undertaken a comprehensive curriculum renewal process in recent years, introducing 88 new textbooks. It noted that approximately two-thirds of the Arabic, Social Studies, and National and Civic Education textbooks for the specified grades had been rewritten, and that Islamic Education textbooks for Grades 3, 6, 9, and 12 were rewritten in 2023–2024, completing the comprehensive renewal of this subject that had begun during the preceding two years.
From the IMPACT-se report on Jordanian curricula: the introduction of new textbooks for Grades 1, 4, 7 and 10 in 2023–2024, and for Grades 2, 5, 8 and 11 in 2024–2025, and the rewriting of the Islamic education textbooks for Grades 3, 6, 9 and 12 in 2023–2024.
Source: IMPACT-se, report on Jordanian curricula.
“Key findings” in the IMPACT-se report on the Jordanian curriculum, 2024–2025.
The highlighted paragraph is the one the article quotes.
Source: IMPACT-se, report on the Jordanian curriculum, 2024–2025.
According to the report, Jordanian textbooks now appear to continue promoting the general principles of peace, tolerance, religious moderation, and equality, but these values are not appropriately applied in certain contexts, in the report’s assessment. The institute claimed, in particular, that “Jews and Israel are repeatedly excluded from these frameworks, with both targeted by hateful messages without any representation of their perspectives.”
The report cites an example from the Grade 12 vocational-track textbook History of Jordan, 2025 edition, pages 37–38, where the signing of the 1994 Wadi Araba Treaty is presented as part of efforts to consolidate borders, recover rights to land and water, and curb Israeli ambitions. The institute criticized this treatment because, in its reading, it presents peace as a defensive necessity rather than a step toward reconciliation. Nevertheless, the lesson does not conceal the treaty and asks students to identify its advantages and disadvantages; the disagreement therefore concerns how peace is framed, rather than whether it is mentioned at all.
From the IMPACT-se report: the Grade 12 “History of Jordan” textbook, vocational track, part one, 2025 edition, pages 37–38, matched in the previous edition by the Grade 11 textbook, academic track, part two, 2024 edition, on the same pages.
Source: IMPACT-se, page 94.
Regarding changes to Jordanian curricula cited by the Israeli institute, IMPACT-se’s 2025–2026 report, page 103, places two images from the Grade 5 Social Studies textbook side by side: the 2024 edition and the 2025 edition. It says that maps in the earlier edition labeled the entire area west of Jordan as “Palestine,” whereas in the 2025 edition they were replaced by maps that do not name any state in that area at all. In other words, the name “Palestine” was removed, but “Israel” was not added. On the following page, it presents another map that appeared in 2024 but was removed in 2025.
IMPACT-se’s comparison between two editions of the Grade 5 “Social Studies” textbook, part two: the 2024 edition, pages 51, 54 and 55, and the 2025 edition, pages 51 and 55.
The report says two maps that had carried the name “Palestine” were replaced by maps bearing no state name, and that a third map was deleted.
Source: IMPACT-se, 2025–2026 report.
In Washington, the Israeli institute’s criticism of Jordanian curricula made its way into discourse directed at the Jordanian leadership. In an article published on the website of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations on September 27, 2025, Elliott Abrams—a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs—cited an earlier IMPACT-se review and linked what he described as the teaching of hatred to the persistence of a “cold peace” with Israel. He concluded by calling on King Abdullah II to begin addressing the problem in Jordanian schools rather than merely criticizing Israel.
A paragraph from Elliott Abrams’s article; the highlighted part is the demand that King Abdullah II begin addressing the problem in Jordanian schools rather than by criticizing Israel.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations, 27 September 2025.
Israeli curriculum-review reports on Egypt focus primarily on disparities between textbooks covered by reform efforts and older courses, as well as portrayals of Jews, Christians, Zionism, war, and peace. In a report covering 271 textbooks published between 2018 and 2023, IMPACT-se acknowledged improvements in the early primary grades and changes to lessons that it had previously considered problematic, but criticized the continued presence of certain materials in higher grades.
One example is a passage in the Grade 12 textbook Modern and Contemporary History of Egypt and the Arabs, 2022–2023 edition, page 122, which links the Jewish Agency’s dissemination of news about Nazi crimes to efforts to justify immigration to Palestine and presents the number of victims in terms of a claim. The institute regarded this as diminishing the Holocaust, even though the text describes Nazi crimes as “atrocious.” The report also criticizes lessons for Grade 5 pupils in “Religion” that teach students about what is described as the “disgraceful history of the Jews” and warn them about the “treacherous nature of the Jews,” while comparing the actions of Jews “now and then.” It also notes that students are asked to research examples of “Jewish treachery,” discuss the “characteristics of Jews,” and write an essay entitled “The Jews of Yesterday Are the Jews of Today.”
From the review of Egyptian curricula: a description of the Grade 5 religion syllabus, containing what the report translated as “the vile history of the Jews”, “the treacherous nature of the Jews” and “the deeds of the Jews now and then”, with a reference to page 11 of the textbook.
Source: IMPACT-se, a review of 271 Egyptian textbooks published in 2018–2023.
The documented American track emerged through the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Its delegations met Egyptian officials, including Education Minister Tarek Shawki, during visits in March 2018 and January 2019. According to its annual report, officials showed the delegations new primary school textbooks as evidence that “exclusionary language” had been removed. The commission then issued an independent review in August 2022 comparing selected curricula from older and newer editions and criticized many of the changes as merely cosmetic.
Monitoring of Egyptian curricula was not limited to IMPACT-se. In a 2016 study by Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), titled “Peace with Israel in Egyptian School Textbooks: What Has Changed Between the Mubarak and Sisi Eras?”, Israeli researcher Ofir Winter examined the Egyptian Grade 9 textbook Geography of the Arab World and Modern History of Egypt for the second semester of 2015–2016, specifically the lessons concerning “Egypt and the Palestinian Cause,” the “October 1973 War,” and peace with Israel. The researcher noted that the textbook continued to portray Palestine during the Mandate period as Arab land taken from its inhabitants and described Zionism as a threatening colonialist movement. At the same time, he considered the new edition under Sisi a positive shift from the Israeli perspective because it presented Israel as a partner in “friendly” peace relations, included an image of Menachem Begin alongside Anwar Sadat, and reduced the space devoted to wars with Israel and the Palestinian cause compared with earlier textbooks.
From the study by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) on Egyptian textbooks: a comparison between the Grade 9 textbook and the textbook “History for Secondary-Stage Students”, 2002 edition.
The researcher records that the 2002 textbook devoted 32 pages to the wars and three pages to peace with Israel, while the 2015 textbook devoted twelve pages to the history of the conflict and four to peace.
Source: Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), 2016.
In Saudi Arabia, scrutiny extended to textbooks on monotheism, hadith, and Quranic exegesis, rather than being limited to history and geography. In its review of 2020–2021 editions, IMPACT-se tracked how non-Muslims, concepts of jihad, Zionism, and hostility toward Jews were presented. One of its most prominent examples was a passage about fighting Jews in the secondary-level Tawhid (2) textbook for the humanities track, 2019 edition, page 86, based on a hadith concerning an end-times confrontation in which Jews hide behind stones and trees. The institute classified its inclusion in a school textbook as incitement and listed it among the materials removed from the 2020–2021 editions.
From the IMPACT-se appendices entitled “The Saudi Curriculum: Examples Removed in 2020–2021”: the textbook “Tawhid (2)” for Grades 10 to 12, humanities track, 2019 edition, page 86, and the lesson “Fighting the Jews”.
Source: IMPACT-se, appendices to the review of the Saudi curriculum.
This was not the first time Saudi curricula had been reviewed. The text of the Saudi Educational Transparency and Reform Act introduced in the U.S. Senate in 2019 states that Washington and Riyadh negotiated an undertaking in 2006—following the September 11 attacks—to review textbooks within one or two years in order to remove material promoting religious hatred. The bill, introduced by Marco Rubio—currently U.S. Secretary of State—Ron Wyden, and Edward Markey, proposed requiring the State Department to issue annual reports on Saudi textbooks for ten years, including their use outside the Kingdom and their revision.
From the text of the “Saudi Educational Transparency and Reform” bill submitted to the U.S. Senate: the undertaking to review textbooks within one or two years to remove material inciting religious hatred, and what the U.S. State Department’s International Religious Freedom report of August 2017 said about material remaining in circulation.
Source: U.S. Senate, 2019.
In its review of 136 Saudi textbooks from 2024–2026, IMPACT-se says Saudi Arabia changed numerous lessons, including examples previously cited in this investigation, such as the lesson stating, “Muslims will not relinquish Jerusalem,” among others.
In Syria, after the fall of the Assad regime, scrutiny came to focus not only on what remained in textbooks but also on what the new authorities proposed adding or removing. An IMPACT-se report issued in February 2025 examined amendments to Syrian curricula, focusing on the redefinition of martyrdom, portrayals of Jews and Christians, national identity, and references to Israel and Zionism, as well as the need, in its view, to demand that Damascus reform and amend these materials.
From the IMPACT-se report on the amendment of Syrian curricula: the textbook “Historical Issues”, Grade 12 literary track, 2023–2024 edition, page 152; the lesson “The Standing of the Martyr”, page 16; and two maps from page 37 with the location of Palestine marked in red.
Source: IMPACT-se, February 2025.
On the Western side, American diplomat Elliott Abrams drew on this review in an article published by the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations on July 10, 2025. He warned that optimism regarding engagement with Syria’s new authorities under Ahmed al-Sharaa should be tested against the content of Syrian school textbooks. He called for monitoring future editions to determine whether promises of moderation would be reflected in their content, while relaying the institute’s demands concerning portrayals of religions, jihad, and identity. In this way, curricula entered the American debate over how to assess Syria’s political transition.
Documented scrutiny of Lebanese curricula included a 2020 report by the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which examined materials concerning portrayals of Jews, mobilization, and martyrdom, including two published textbooks used in private schools such as Al-Mustafa Schools. In the unit “We and History,” Part Four for Grade 6, 2015 edition, the ADL highlighted a passage attributing the rejection of Jews to collective traits including injustice, arrogance, greed, and monopolistic behavior. It regarded this as an example of hostility toward Jews as a religious group rather than merely criticism of the Israeli state.
From the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) report on Lebanese curricula: a passage from a history textbook that defines Judaism as “a religion confined to the Jews, the masters of the world and the emperors of the universe”, and attributes the rejection of Jews to injustice, pride, greed and monopoly.
Source: Anti-Defamation League (ADL), 2020 report.
The institute’s recommendations went beyond calling for textual revisions. It said that merely urging these institutions to conduct reviews would not be sufficient and called on the United States and other governments, including European governments, to assess the Lebanese educational institutions involved that might be linked to Hezbollah and impose sanctions on them.
Israeli documents reveal that the focus on Arab curricula extends beyond objections to a particular phrase or lesson to concern about the image of Israel inherited by successive generations. A paper by the Knesset Research and Information Center dated February 27, 2025, describes educational materials as a tool for shaping the consciousness of future generations and transmitting the historical, cultural, and political narrative embraced by society.
From the paper of the Knesset Research and Information Center: the description of educational materials as a central instrument in raising children and young people and in transmitting the historical, cultural and political narrative, and the note that the content of Palestinian educational materials was addressed explicitly in the Oslo II Accord of 1995 and the Wye Agreement of 1998.
Source: The Knesset Research and Information Center, 27 February 2025.
The paper outlines Israeli concerns about glorifying perpetrators of attacks and incitement against Jews and Israelis, alongside objections to denial of the historical connection of Jews to the land and Jerusalem. This perspective therefore combines a security concern with a political one: that rejection of Israel might remain part of national socialization rather than being a temporary position altered by agreements between governments.
The dimension concerning legitimacy appears clearly in a study published by Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies on July 8, 2024, authored by IMPACT-se researchers Yonatan Negev and Eldad Pardo. It argues that portraying Israel as a colonial state entrenches its image as a pariah state and fuels challenges to its legitimacy. The Knesset document likewise identifies Israel’s absence from maps and the presentation of Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine among the content targeted by criticism.
From the study by the Institute for National Security Studies under the subheading “Regional factors to be taken into account”: dividing the region’s curricula between a rejectionist bloc and a moderate bloc, and treating Turkey, Qatar and Jordan as special cases.
Source: Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), 8 July 2024.
The broader objective is stated explicitly in another study by Pardo and Negev published in the August 2024 issue of the institute’s journal Strategic Assessment. It proposes a regional education model based on shared Abrahamic heritage, with the aim of establishing the State of Israel as an authentic and accepted part of the region and moving beyond a cold peace.
From the study by Eldad Pardo and Yonatan Negev entitled “The Middle East and North Africa: An Inclusive Abrahamic Vision”, proposing “an inclusive regional Abrahamic charter that grants the Jewish state the original, familial standing it needs and deserves”.
Source: The journal “Strategic Assessment”, Institute for National Security Studies, August 2024.
In parallel with this vision, a joint paper by IMPACT-se, NGO Monitor, and the German-Israeli Society, published in June 2024, proposes making German funding for Palestinian education conditional on curriculum reform and monitoring the implementation of amendments. The conclusion linking these texts is that the objective is not merely to improve Israel’s image in school curricula, but to transform acceptance of its existence from a decision taken by governments into a conception internalized by Arab societies: recognition of Israel would become part of the consciousness of Arab generations rather than an obligation confined to agreements between Arab states and regimes and Israel.
From the recommendations of the joint paper: “conditioning German funding for Palestinian education on curriculum reform”, a demand for independent and transparent monitoring of the implementation of the amendments, and that contributions not be transferred directly to the budget of the Palestinian ministry of education.
Source: NGO Monitor, the IMPACT-se Institute and the German-Israeli Society, June 2024.
Ultimately, this investigation demonstrates that over the course of three decades, the network monitoring Arab curricula has evolved into an organized process that begins with collecting, translating, and classifying textbooks within Israeli institutions, extends through American and European centers and lobbying groups, and ultimately reaches parliaments, governments, and donor organizations.
The examples we traced show that the impact of this network does not end with the publication of reports. In some cases, observations were translated into official reviews, direct dialogue with Arab education ministries, and conditions attached to Western aid and funding. The scope of Israeli objections has also gone beyond allegations of “hate speech” or “antisemitism” to include objections to the way the history of the conflict is narrated, maps, the history of Jerusalem, resistance, Zionism, and even religious concepts, including Quranic verses and the noble Prophetic hadiths.
The struggle over curricula has therefore become part of a broader Israeli struggle over memory, identity, and legitimacy. It is not merely about how Arab governments view Israel, but about how future generations will come to know it and which narrative of Palestine and the conflict will remain present in their collective consciousness.