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 UAE Embassy in the United States said Monday.
The embassy did not provide major details about the program and the school government of the United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven emirates, did not acknowledge the announcement on Monday.
The announcement comes after the UAE normalized with Israel in 2020 as part of a deal negotiated through the administration of former US President Donald Trump.
“As a result of the historic Abraham Accords, [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 Bahrain also saw and at the end. Morocco also recognizes Israel.
Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, U. S. Special Envoy A U. S. government to monitor and combat anti-Semitism, welcomed the announcement in its 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 ahead of a planned assembly of the Negev Forum athletics teams in Abu Dhabi this week, which grew out of the normalization agreements. The assembly will bring together combined officials from Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. Egypt has diplomatically identified Israel for decades.
The Holocaust saw Nazi Germany systematically murder six million Jews during World War II. Israel, founded in 1948 as a safe haven for Jews after the Holocaust, automatically grants citizenship to anyone of Jewish descent.
Other Arab nations have refused to diplomatically recognize Israel for its decades-long military rule on the land the Palestinians need for a long-term state.
The UAE’s announcement also comes after it and other Arab countries condemned far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir for visiting the Holy Temple Mount in Jerusalem last week, following the inauguration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new right-wing government.
The conviction is believed to be the reason Netanyahu’s planned stopover in the United Arab Emirates, his first official stopover, which was scheduled for this month but postponed until February, was delayed.
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