New Syrian government issues textbooks filled with antisemitism and praise for terrorists

Anti-Jewish passages in Syrian textbooks will remain under the new HTS-led regime, which has announced Islamist updates to the curriculum, according to an education watchdog.

Directives from Syria’s education ministry last month set the tone of classroom instruction under the new regime. According to the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (Impact-se), which has analysed the announced changes, anti-Jewish sentiment will remain in the books and an increasingly Islamist perspective will be introduced.

Education Minister al-Qadiri has stated in the media that the proposed changes are limited to inaccuracies in Islamic Education, but in their 50-page report, Impact-se has found the changes are more extensive.

Based on a list of planned alterations to school textbooks, one former reference in a book aimed at six to seven-year-olds to "those who have gone astray from the path of goodness" will be replaced with more explicit wording, referencing "the Jews and Christians”.

“This change introduces an overtly negative portrayal of Jews and Christians to young, impressionable students,” Impact-se said in their report.

Other extracts in textbooks depict Jews and Zionists with a reference to “global dominance,” according to the watchdog.

A history textbook for 15 – 16-year-olds describes Jews as adhering to the “extremist idea” that they are “God’s chosen people,” presenting Judaism as “ethnically exclusive”.

Another textbook describes Zionism as a "racist and expansionist" worldview, which “believes that all the world's resources must be employed to serve the Zionist Entity and protect it.”

Anti-Israel content is set to remain in textbooks under the new changes.

A primary level Arabic textbook will continue to portray Palestinian terrorist Dalal al-Mughrabi as a hero. Mughrabi is notorious for the 1978 Coastal Road bus attack that killed 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children.

Grade nine geography textbook front cover (Impact-se)[Missing Credit]

Multiple maps in a geography textbook for 14 – 15-year-olds present all of Israel's internationally recognised territory as Palestine. The Israel-controlled Golan Heights are presented as part of Syria, and the textbook cover features an image of the Sea of Galilee, which is located within Israeli territory, potentially suggesting that the lake, or parts of it, belong to Syria.

Some historical women have been removed, including references to Nazik al-Abid, known as the "Joan of Arc of the Arabs", Queen Zenobia and Khawla bint al-Azwar, in Islamic education and social studies textbooks for children aged eight to nine years old.

Impact-se uncovered increasingly “Islamised materials” in a range of subjects, including science and history.

Illustrations of women not wearing the hijab are being removed under the new changes.

In one book, a chapter titled “The Gift of Nature” is set to be renamed “The Gift from Allah.”

Impact-se said this suggests a “commitment to divine law, and the entrenching of religious Muslim character into Syrian society from a young age.”

The watchdog also found that some “secular scientific concepts perceived to be un-Islamic" have been removed. An entire chapter in a biology textbook for 13 – 14-year-olds on evolution has been removed.

“Martyrdom” will be reframed in the new textbooks from a national to a religious perspective. One year 10 lesson will glorify martyrdom as an exalted deed worthy of reward by Allah, by replacing the term “a person giving away his soul to defend his homeland” with “a person giving away his soul for the sake of Allah.”

In the textbook alterations, Impact-se has also traced a “shift towards Turkey while maintaining hostility toward the West.” References to the historical “Ottoman occupation” have been replaced with the “Ottoman regime”.

Negative references to the West will remain in the textbooks, such as an Arabic textbook for 16 – 17 year-olds, which depicts Western powers as violent oppressive warmongers and exploiters, feeding on the “blood of the innocent,” according to Impact-se.

In an Arabic Language textbook for grade five pupils, one girl wears military uniform and takes pride in her father who died as a martyr and "watered" the country's borders and its highlands "with blood." (Impact-se)[Missing Credit]

The directive states that lessons, images and phrases praising the “defunct” regime must be removed and the subject of nationalistic education must be discontinued.

In an example illustrating Syria’s participation in the Olympics, a chemistry textbook for children in year two will replace the Assad-era Syrian flag with that of the revolution, or the Olympics symbol.

In other changes, a reference to the Yom Kippur War in a year three textbook previously labelled the “liberation war,” has been renamed “the 1973 war.”

According to Impact-se, this change reflects the new regime’s efforts to eliminate Assad’s influence from the public sphere. They do not perceive the war as a “liberation,” as Syria remained under Assad’s rule.

Impact-se chief executive Marcus Sheff commented on the release of the report: “The textbook reforms introduced by the new regime less than a month after assuming power, demonstrate an increasing Islamisation. These textbook revisions are concerning. We will be presenting policy recommendations to the international community so they can advocate for a Syrian curriculum which embraces international standards of peace and tolerance.”

Following the overthrow of former President Bashar al-Assad, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the rebel leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was appointed Syria’s president last month for a “transitional period.” He had been the country’s de facto leader since early December.

HTS, once an offshoot of al-Qaeda, has since transformed into Syria’s most dominant Islamist force, tightening its grip on power.