United Arab Emirates to include Holocaust education in school curricula

Flags of the United Arab Emirates and Israel fly during the Israel National Day celebrations during Expo 2020 Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, January 31, 2022.REUTERS/Christopher Pike

Two years after normalizing relations with Israel through the Abraham Accords, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will include Holocaust education in its school curricula, the country’s embassy confirmed on Thursday.

“The memory of the victims of the Holocaust is of paramount importance,” Dr. Ali Al Nuaimi, member of the UAE Federal National Council and mediator of the Abraham Accords, said at an event in Washington, D.C., in November that was first organized by Times of Israel. “Public figures fail to tell the truth because their narratives are hijacked by political agendas, but a tragedy on the scale of the Holocaust is not just for Jews, but for humanity as a whole.”

Nuaimi added, “Public figures and scholars should be encouraged to discuss the Holocaust, protecting shared human values ​​while leaving behind political divisions.”

“For many years, the United Arab Emirates has been a leader in peace and tolerance education in the region,” Impact-se CEO said on Thursday. “Impact-se is delighted that they have taken this important step in educating about the Holocaust and honored to be partnering with the Department of Education.”

Also responding to the news, the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, a nonprofit that monitors anti-Semitism, Say“This is an important step in combating the regional culture of Holocaust denial and normalizing relations with Israel.”

UAE has Steadily improve Coexistence and active engagement with Jews and Christians in recent years has created what Israel’s education watchdog Impact-se describes as “the most tolerant and peaceful national curriculum for an Arab or Muslim majority”.

In one instance assessed by Impact-se, Emirati students were told that the Prophet Muhammad visited a sick Jewish child, while in another, Omar bin Khattab, the second Rashidun caliph, Al-Khattab ruled in favor of a Jew in a civil case.

The 2020 Abraham Accords are discussed in materials for students in Years 6, 8 and 12 and are endorsed by major Islamic UAE organisations. The material also describes the Abraham Accords as “aiding Arab and Islamic causes, stemming from Islam aimed at curbing extremism and enhancing a global climate of tolerance and cooperation,” Impact-se’s report said. Radical Islamism is strongly discouraged as the “main threat” to prosperity, and the Palestinian cause is no longer described as the key to solving all the region’s challenges.

However, parts of the Emirati curriculum remain “hostile” to Jews, including a grade 11 lesson that described Muhammad’s stuffing “[Jews] Frightened “because they violated their pledge to support Muhammad,” the report said. In a lesson drawn from a passage from the hadith — a traditional collection containing quotations from the Prophet Muhammad — students are told not to “be like the Jews.”