The American Muslim & Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council (AMMWEC) has welcomed Saudi Arabia’s removal of certain hadith references involving Jews and Judaism from its school curriculum, calling the changes a meaningful step toward removing antisemitic and exclusionary interpretations from educational materials.

The organisation, posting from Washington, D.C., pointed to specific examples of the revisions. According to AMMWEC President Anila Ali, among the removed material is a narration about the end of times that had previously been interpreted as describing Muslims fighting and killing Jews. Another change, she said, appears in a Grade 7 Social Studies textbook, where a hadith that had been understood as implying that Jews were destined for Hell is no longer included in the latest edition.

Part of a Broader Curriculum Overhaul

AMMWEC’s statement follows a wider review of Saudi textbooks conducted by the Israeli-based curriculum monitoring organisation IMPACT-se, which found that Saudi Arabia has also removed references to Palestine from some school textbook maps and dropped language describing Israel as the “Zionist enemy.” The revisions, covering textbooks used between 2024 and 2026, additionally include the removal of a sentence declaring that “Muslims will never give up Jerusalem.”

The changes are significant because they strip away language long used to affirm the importance of Palestine and Jerusalem to Muslims, as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman continues a broader overhaul of the kingdom under his Vision 2030 programme.

Key Curriculum Changes Identified

IMPACT-se’s July 2026 review of textbooks for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 academic years found a continued trajectory of moderation in how Israel, Zionism, and related issues are presented:

• In maps appearing in social studies textbooks (including some grade 5 materials), the explicit label “Palestine” has been removed from territory within Israel’s internationally recognised borders. In some cases the area is left unnamed, while Israel itself remains unidentified on official maps.
• Hostile terminology has been dialled back. A grade 11 history textbook that previously referred to Israel as the “Zionist enemy” in a passage discussing King Salman’s humanitarian activities and Saudi support following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war now uses the phrase “Israeli occupation.”
• An exercise in a grade 11 Arabic-language textbook that included the sentence “Muslims will never give up Jerusalem” (or a close variant) in the 2023-24 edition has had the line removed entirely from editions published from the 2024-25 academic year onwards. IMPACT-se described the deletion as eliminating a “politically and religiously charged reference to Jerusalem.”

These adjustments build on earlier reforms. Previous IMPACT-se reviews had already noted the discontinuation of an entire high-school social studies textbook that defined Zionism as a “racist” European movement, the removal of claims that Zionists were responsible for the 1969 Al-Aqsa Mosque arson, and the elimination of various antisemitic passages comparing Jews and Christians to “maimed animals” or asserting collective Jewish responsibility for historical events.

Broader Context of Educational Reform

Saudi education authorities have been steadily reducing extremist, intolerant, and overtly hostile content for several years as part of Vision 2030’s social and economic modernisation drive. IMPACT-se reports that the remaining examples of antisemitic material identified in earlier reviews have now been fully removed from the latest textbooks. Content promoting religious coexistence, critical thinking, and reduced hostility toward religious minorities has expanded.

At the same time, the curriculum still does not recognise Israel on maps, continues to refer to “Israeli occupation” in some historical contexts, and omits any mention of the Holocaust in its coverage of World War II. Saudi Arabia’s official commitment to the Palestinian cause remains present, though presented in more restrained terms.

Timing and Diplomatic Backdrop

The textbook revisions arrive against a backdrop of renewed diplomatic activity aimed at advancing Saudi-Israeli normalisation. While full diplomatic relations have not been established, quiet contacts, shared strategic interests regarding Iran, and broader regional realignments have kept the possibility alive. Educational changes of this nature are widely viewed by analysts as confidence-building measures that help prepare domestic public opinion for closer ties.

Observers note that the gradual softening of language on Israel and Jerusalem represents a tangible shift from the more rejectionist framing that characterised Saudi curricula for decades. Whether these curricular adjustments accelerate formal normalisation remains to be seen, but they form part of a consistent pattern of reform under the current leadership.