Thirty-two years after Israel and Jordan made peace, Jordanian school textbooks still include antisemitic content, which is both deeply hostile to the State of Israel and encourages violent interpretations of Jihad, a study released Tuesday found.
The disturbing report by the London-based IMPACT-se educational watchdog on the newest textbooks in the neighboring Arab country that made peace with Israel over three decades ago and is a regional U.S. ally finds that general messages of tolerance continue to be mixed with persistent antisemitism, antagonism towards Israel, and justification of violence.
The examination of 125 textbooks being used for the current 2025-2026 school year, a quarter of which are new, uncovered a continuing negative portrayal of Jews through stereotypes and antisemitic tropes alongside a conspicuous lack of Holocaust education.
A 9th-grade textbook cited in the study teaches that “treachery and violation of agreements are some of the traits of the Jews and their natural qualities,” while instructing students to “think about the reasons for the Jews’ efforts to annihilate the Muslims.”
Tellingly, Israel is erased from maps in the textbooks, with all the territory labeled as “Palestine” while Israeli actions are portrayed in hostile and conspiratorial terms as a “settler colonial movement” in the new textbooks, the study finds.
Even the Israel-Jordanian peace agreement, signed on Oct. 26, 1994, is viewed as a “begrudging concession,” the research institute said.
The Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the single greatest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust is “continually justified in textbooks as a response to Israeli oppression, and is portrayed primarily as a militarily-focused operation,” the report says.
“Jordan remains a key Western ally and one of Israel’s longest-standing peace partners, making the persistence of antisemitic narratives, glorification of martyrdom, and hostility toward Israel in newly introduced textbooks especially alarming,” said Marcus Sheff, IMPACT-se’s CEO.
He noted that the concerns that were raised with the Jordanians over last year’s curriculum, at a time when public opinion in the region has been highly critical of Israel, have clearly fallen on deaf ears.
“Despite the publication of new material for the current school year, far too many of the same problematic themes remain unchanged, standing in direct contradiction to the moderation and coexistence Jordan promotes to the world,” he said.
