The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will teach the Nazi genocide of Jews "Holocaust" in primary and secondary school history classes, the UAE embassy in the United States said.
The embassy did not provide specifics on the curriculum, and education authorities in the UAE declined to comment on the embassy's announcement on Jan. 9.
The UAE, a coalition of seven emirate states including Abu Dhabi and Dubai, normalized diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020 with active mediation by then-U.S. President Donald Trump. Judaic Israel had formal diplomatic relations with Egypt in the Muslim Middle East.
"In the spirit of the historic Abram Accords, which led to the normalization of diplomatic relations with Israel, the Holocaust curriculum will be included in primary and secondary schools," the U.S. Embassy tweeted. Following the UAE with the Abram agreement, Bahrain and Morocco normalized diplomatic relations with Israel.
Of the descendants of Abram in the Old Testament book of Genesis, the Jewish temple, the Semites become the ancestors of Israel, and the Hams become the Arab and Muslim ancestors.
Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. special envoy for countering anti-Semitism, praised the announcement in a tweet. "Holocaust education is essential for humanity, and too many countries have ignored the 'Shoah' for political reasons for far too long." Shoah is the Hebrew word for the Holocaust.
This week, in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi, officials from Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Morocco and the UAE will meet with the working group of the Negev Forum.
The Holocaust refers to Nazi Germany's systematic murder of six million Jews living in Europe during World War II. When Israel was founded in 1948, it automatically granted citizenship to descendants of Jews.
Statements denying the historical facts of the Holocaust have been circulating in Europe since before the "neo-Nazi" movement, and many countries, including France, have criminally punished such denial statements.
Arab states rejected Israel's recognition of the state after Israel expelled the Palestinians during its founding and occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza in the 1967 Middle East war, which Palestinians consider future state territory. In 1978, when Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula, which had been lost in the Middle East war, Egypt established diplomatic relations with Israel. [Newsis]
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