Following the signing of the Abraham Accords between the UAE and Israel which normalised relations between the two countries, UAE will soon include Holocaust education in school curriculum.
The move is part of the Gulf nation’s efforts to position itself as a regional peacemaker. In 2021, the UAE also set up the region’s first Holocaust memorial exhibition opened in Dubai.
Since then, seven Holocaust survivors have been brought to the country to speak on the horrors of the Nazi genocide, including UK-based Eve Kugler, 91, a German-born survivor who spoke earlier this month on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the November 9, 1938, pogrom in Germany, a report by The Times of Israel reported.
The UAE’s Education Ministry is reportedly developing the new curricula, which will be taught to children in both primary and secondary schools.
Meanwhile, the Tel Aviv- and London-based Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) has been “advising on educational standards, including assessing course content,” the report said.
The UAE’s curricula were already “head and shoulders” above those of other regional countries in that they show “no evidence of hate at all,” nor antisemitism, and “recognise Judaism’s historic place in the Arab World”, the report added citing a speech by IMPACT-se’s chief executive officer Marcus Sheff.
Source: Arabian Business