DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates will begin training on the Holocaust in history categories in the country’s primary and secondary schools, the country’s U. S. Embassy announced.
The embassy provided some important points about the program and educational governance of the Emirates, a federation of seven emirates, acknowledged the announcement on Monday.
However, the announcement comes after the UAE normalized with Israel in 2020 as part of a deal negotiated through President Donald Trump’s administration.
“As a result of Abraham’s historic (hashtag) agreements, (the UAE) will now include the Holocaust in the curriculum of primary and secondary schools,” the embassy said in a tweet, referring to the normalization agreement that Bahrain also saw and in the end Morocco also recognizes Israel.
Ambassador Deborah E. Lipstadt, U. S. Special EnvoyTo monitor and combat anti-Semitism, he welcomed the announcement in his own tweet.
“Holocaust education is an imperative for humanity and too many countries, for too long, continue to downplay the Holocaust for political reasons,” wrote Lipstadt, a Hebrew word for the Holocaust. “I congratulate the UAE on this step and hope others will join. “coming soon. “
The announcement comes as an assembly of the implementation groups of the Negev Forum, born of normalization, began on Monday in Abu Dhabi. Officials from Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and the United States are expected to attend. Egypt has diplomatically identified Israel for decades.
In the Holocaust, Nazi Germany systematically murdered 6 million European Jews during World War II. Israel, founded in 1948 as a safe haven for Jews after the Holocaust, automatically grants citizenship to any descendant of Jews.
Other Arab nations have refused to diplomatically recognize Israel for its decades-long profession of land that Palestinians need for their long-term state.
The UAE’s announcement also comes after the federation and other Arab countries condemned an Israeli ultranationalist minister for visiting a holy site in Jerusalem last week, for the first time since the new far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office.
TheArray, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, is Judaism’s holiest site, home to ancient biblical temples. Today it houses the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest in Islam. Jews have been allowed to pass there but not to pray there.
___
Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www. twitter. com/jongambrellAP.