Jordanian textbooks fail the test of tolerance, peace and coexistence with Jews and Israel

Peloni

In a recent IMPACT-se report, following the review of 294 Jordanian text books, Jordan has been seen to once again have fallen well short of UNESCO’s standards of peace and tolerance in education.  This comes following reforms in the Jordanian education system which oversaw the replacement and revisions of existing texts due to their content.  Notably this most recent report includes evidence of deterioration despite the reported reforms.  Here are just some of the findings described in the INPACT-se report:

• Jordanian curriculum development officials assured the public that “jihad remains in the curriculum, citing lessons on martyrdom, Zionist aggression, and Jewish corruption.”
• Justification of October 7 Attack was found in a textbook, where it was “downplayed, while being presented as a response to Israeli oppression, ignoring the
  murder of over 1,100 Israelis, most of them civilians. Israeli civilians who were taken hostage are referred to as “settlers” living in “Israeli colonies which surround the Gaza Strip” implying that they are legitimate targets for violence, implicitly justifying their murder and kidnapping. While some reports suggested that this passage was removed, it still appears on the official curriculum website.”
• Jews are described “using antisemitic messages that depict lying, treachery, deceitfulness, and hostility as “natural qualities” and inherent “traits of the Jews”.  Antisemitic tropes and depictions of Jews acting on Satan’s behalf are also included in the texts.  Religious practices of Jews and their ties to the Holy Land are also denied as being false.
• Peace with Israel is described as being a concession to blunt Israeli expansionist activities, and while any mention of the Holocaust is omitted, the libel of Israel having caused the 1969 Al Aqsa Mosque arson are included.
• Violent interpretations of the concept of Jihad are taught with Jihad and martyrdom being celebrated in connection to the wars with Israel.

Many see the Jordanian monarchy as being a fixture of peace in the region due to the treaty of peace which was signed in 1994 between Jordan and Israel, but the truth of repeated and egregious violations of that peace, this recent report being easily not worst example, portray something quite different.  Notably, beginning just three days prior to the October 7 attack, Queen Rania began her most recent campaign of delegitimization against Israel, with the king joining in on this diplomatic assault in the days following October 7.  These diplomatic assaults continue to this day and include the King’s support for the recent declaration of another Arab Palestinian state, while ignoring the glaring fact that Jordan was the original Arab Palestinian state, and this was yet another glaring violation of the Jordanian peace treaty.

Notably, the most egregious violation of the peace accord between Israel and Jordan came in the months prior to October 7, when an associate of the king used his diplomatic position to attempt to smuggle gold and guns to the Jihadi terrorists who were slaughtering Jews on the streets of Israel.

An important example of what might be expected following such revelations as the textbooks rife with antisemitism would be to emulate what took place following the 1997 Peace Island attack when then King Hussein visited the families of the victims.  In the recent attack by a Jordanian national on an Israeli bus stop earlier this month, King Abdullah failed to even offer the slightest comment of condolence.