Saudi Arabia removing antisemitic teachings from educational textbooks

It looks like some progress and improvement's been made in how Saudi Arabia approaches the subject of Israel/Jews, although there's still serious shortcomings:

A study of Saudi school textbooks has found increased progress on the kingdom’s portrayal of Israel and Zionism, in continuation of a positive trend that has emerged in recent years.

Textbooks for the 2023-2024 school year no longer teach that Zionism is a “racist” European movement, and no longer deny the historical Jewish presence in the region, according to the study, published last week by the nonprofit IMPACT-se, which monitors educational curricula in Middle Eastern and North African countries.

“It’s a small step that shows a change of narrative towards Israel, and showcases more tolerance and openness,” said Nimrod Goren, who heads Mitvim – The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, to The Times of Israel.

Unfortunately, there's still a ways to go, as the following makes clear:

Designations of Israel as an “enemy state” have been expunged, but references to the “Israeli occupation” can still be found, and the curriculum still underscores Saudi Arabia’s commitment to the Palestinian cause.

The name “Israel” still does not appear on maps, but the name “Palestine,” which previously covered the entirety of Israeli territory, has now been removed, the report highlights.

Well that's definitely something they have to improve upon, and there's also something in the following to ponder:

The study on Saudi textbooks found that antisemitism has been practically eradicated from the kingdom’s curriculum. In past years, Saudi students had been exposed to egregious examples of hate and incitement in textbooks, the report noted. “Examples which have since been removed included the characterization of Jews as treacherous individuals, and Qur’anic verses teaching that Jews turned into monkeys.”

Problematic content promoting violent jihad and martyrdom has also been removed in recent years, the report noted. Instead, a nonviolent interpretation of jihad is promoted as an individual struggle for personal betterment as opposed to armed struggle against non-Muslims.

It sounds here like they're using a PC view of the word "jihad" that was employed over a decade ago in an attempt to pretend it doesn't mean "holy/religious war". Sorry, but that's no more acceptable than when apologists in the west use it. If anything, it's a form of taqqiya (deception), and here, Saudi students are being indoctrinated with it.

So while these first steps in expunging antisemitism from Saudi publications is the right way to go, they still have much more to accomplish, and if they won't abandon the Religion of Peace, nothing will be improved upon.