Saudi Arabia has removed a long-standing textbook passage declaring that “Muslims will never give up Jerusalem” from its state school curriculum, according to a report published by Middle East Eye. The deletion is the latest in a series of edits Riyadh has made to educational materials in recent years as it recalibrates its public stance on Israel and the Palestinian cause.
The outlet, which reviewed current Saudi textbooks, reported that the phrase — long used to frame Jerusalem’s status as a non-negotiable religious and political red line — no longer appears in updated editions distributed to Saudi students. The change follows earlier revisions that stripped references to jihad against Israel, removed antisemitic tropes, and softened language describing the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Part of a Broader Curriculum Overhaul
Saudi Arabia has been quietly rewriting its textbooks since roughly 2020, when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman began pushing sweeping social and educational reforms under his Vision 2030 agenda. Independent monitors, including the Israel-based watchdog group IMPACT-se, have tracked the changes for several years, documenting the gradual removal of material that cast Jews and Israel in explicitly hostile terms.
Earlier rounds of edits reportedly removed passages praising violent resistance, deleted citations glorifying so-called martyrdom operations, and toned down descriptions of Jerusalem’s religious significance to Islam in the context of territorial claims. The latest deletion, according to Middle East Eye, goes a step further by excising language that framed the city’s status as an unshakeable, permanent demand.
Saudi officials have not issued a formal public statement addressing the specific textbook change. The kingdom’s Ministry of Education has previously described its curriculum revisions in general terms as part of modernizing the education system and removing extremist content, without directly linking the edits to the country’s diplomatic posture toward Israel.
Why It Matters
Jerusalem’s status remains one of the most sensitive issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians and much of the Muslim world claim East Jerusalem, home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Saudi Arabia, as custodian of Islam’s two holiest sites in Mecca and Medina, has historically positioned itself as a leading voice defending Muslim claims to the city.
Textbook language is often read as a signal of a government’s political priorities, particularly in a country where the education system is state-controlled and curriculum decisions require top-level approval. Critics of the changes argue that softening or removing such language could be read as Riyadh preparing its population for eventual normalization with Israel. Supporters of the reforms counter that removing inflammatory material from schoolbooks is a legitimate step toward curbing extremism, regardless of its diplomatic implications.
Normalization Talks in the Background
The textbook revision comes as Saudi Arabia continues to weigh whether to join the Abraham Accords framework, which has already normalized relations between Israel and countries including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco. Riyadh has repeatedly said publicly that any normalization deal with Israel must include a credible, irreversible pathway to Palestinian statehood — a position it has held even as talks with Washington over a broader security and defense package have continued intermittently.
The war in Gaza and its aftermath have complicated those discussions. Saudi officials have said the devastation in Gaza and the stalled prospects for a two-state solution make it politically difficult for the kingdom to move forward with normalization absent tangible progress for Palestinians. At the same time, the United States has continued to press Gulf allies to expand the Abraham Accords framework as part of its broader regional strategy, a push that has coincided with other shifts in US posture in the region, including a review of American troop levels in the Gulf following the Iran war.
Analysts who track Gulf education policy note that curriculum changes of this kind typically move well ahead of formal diplomatic announcements, serving as an early indicator of a government’s evolving position rather than a direct consequence of any specific negotiation.
What Comes Next
It remains unclear whether additional Jerusalem-related content will be revised in future textbook editions, or whether Saudi Arabia will address the changes publicly. Independent monitoring groups are expected to continue reviewing new curriculum materials as they are released each academic year.
The development adds to a growing body of evidence that Saudi Arabia’s education system is being reshaped in tandem with the kingdom’s broader diplomatic and economic transformation under Vision 2030. Whether that trajectory ultimately leads to formal normalization with Israel will likely depend on developments in Gaza, the status of Palestinian statehood talks, and the outcome of ongoing US-Saudi security discussions.
Middle East Eye’s report can be read in full at middleeasteye.net.
