United Arab Emirates makes 'historic decision' to teach Holocaust in schools
Curriculum will be developed in collaboration with Israel's official Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem in Jerusalem
The United Arab Emirates Embassy in the United States has announced that the Holocaust will be taught in school curricula.
According to the embassy, the content of the studies on Nazi Germany's genocidal murder of six million Jews during World War II will be developed in collaboration with Israel's official Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and will be included in the curriculum of primary and secondary school students.
This initiative comes just over two years after the signing of the Abraham Accords between Israel and the UAE and following the establishment of the first and only Holocaust museum in the Arab world in Dubai.
Israel's new Foreign Minister Eli Cohen welcomed the move, and hailed "a historic decision." The Biden administration mission in charge of the fight against antisemitism also applauded Abu Dhabi's initiative, recalling that "the study of the Holocaust is necessary for humanity."
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“It is crucial to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust,” Dr. Ali Al Nuaimi, a member of the UAE Federal National Council and mediator of the Abraham Accords, said at a November event in Washington. “Public figures failed to tell the truth because a political agenda hijacked their narrative, while a tragedy of the magnitude of the Holocaust is not just aimed at Jews, but at humanity as a whole," he added.
Also reacting to the news, Combat Antisemitism Movement, a non-profit organization that monitors antisemitism, said it is "a major step in addressing the regional culture of Holocaust denial and normalizing relations with Israel."
In 2021, the region's first Holocaust memorial exhibit opened in Dubai to address widespread Nazi genocide denial in the Arab world. Seven Holocaust survivors have since intervened to discuss the reality of the Nazi genocide, in particular with young Emirati students.
The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), an Israeli-British organization that analyzes education around the world for biases and intolerance, highlighted the importance of introducing the Holocaust in the Emirati school curricula. "The United Arab Emirates has been leading the way in peace and tolerance education in the region for some years. IMPACT-se is delighted that they have taken this important step in educating about the Shoah and humbled to have partnered with the Ministry of Education," the institute's director, Marcus Scheff, said.