Irish school textbooks contain troubling patterns of Holocaust minimization, Jewish stereotypes, and one-sided views of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, non-profit organization IMPACT-se found in a report published on Monday.
IMPACT-se, which stands for the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, carried out research on the Irish national curriculum, specifically on the way Jews and Israel are represented in Irish school textbooks.
It is the first report carried out by IMPACT-se on European national curricula, having mainly focused on Middle Eastern textbooks in the past.
Representation of the Holocaust
One troubling aspect of IMPACT-se's findings was the way in which the Holocaust is trivialized in the national textbooks.
For example, in one History textbook, the death camp Auschwitz is referred to as a "prisoner of war camp," which IMPACT-se writes "minimized the unique and horrific nature of the Holocaust and the systematic extermination carried out there."
Furthermore, the same textbook refers to the Holocaust as "the systematic destruction of the Jewish race," which IMPACT-se says perpetuates the false Nazi belief that Jews are a race, instead of an ethnoreligious group.
The idea of Jews being a race was used to inform the eugenic practices and ideologies of the Nazis, and therefore the perpetuation of this notion in the textbook "is reductive, inaccurate and offensive," according to IMPACT-se.
Presentations of Jews
IMPACT-se did not only find problematic discourse in the educational material surrounding the Holocaust; the report also presents findings on the presentations of Jews and Judaism within a Christian religious and historical context.
For example, in a textbook for younger children on the story of Jesus appears a comic strip with the words "Some people did not like Jesus."
The people depicted in the comic are visibly Jewish, wearing religious clothing such as a tallit and a kippah.
This depiction, IMPACT-se writes, has both historical inaccuracies and ethical considerations.
Historically, the portrayal "aligns with antisemitic stereotypes that have wrongly blamed Jews collectively for the death of Jesus," the report says. IMPACT-se adds that younger children are more impressionable, so presenting the Jews as 'bad' creates subconscious associations between Jewish people and wrongdoing.
Ethically, the singling out of a specific religious group in the graphic goes against the educational principles of tolerance and empathy by othering the Jewish figures, the report asserts.
IMPACT-se also writes that for Jewish students, seeing their cultural items being depicted in a negative way is "alienating and stigmatizing."
In a chapter on religion and violence in a Religious Education textbook, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam are all presented as peaceful and non-violent.
While Islam "is in favor of peace and against violence," Judaism "believes that violence and war are sometimes necessary to promote justice," according to the textbook.
The textbook makes no mention of Jewish laws around the pursuit of peace [derech shalom] or the concept of Tikkun Olam.
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
In terms of educational material regarding the Israel-Palestinian conflict, many of the materials were found to present a one-sided narrative in favor of Palestinians.
One textbook presents a case study without sufficient background information, the report found, with a narrative that suggests "a clear-cut scenario of wrongdoing by Israel."
"The article depicts Israeli soldiers as aggressors," IMPACT-se added, which could lead to lasting misconceptions about Israel's role and actions.
IMPACT-se also explored the way in which textbooks referred to historical Israel as "Palestine" before the word was, in fact, created.
One textbook says, "When Jesus was alive, [the land] was called Palestine."
As IMPACT-se notes, the word Palestine was not widely used until after the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE and would have been referred to as Judea during Jesus's life.
"Misrepresentations of historical facts can perpetuate narratives that challenge Israel's legitimacy and foster political agendas against the state of Israel," writes IMPACT-se.
IMPACT-se proposes several measures that the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment could take in order to address the issues.
These include making sure that references to Jesus's life accurately reflect historical context, seeking advice from official figures in respective religious communities before including information on non-Christian religions, and not teaching the life of Jesus through the prism of only Christianity.
Antisemitism in Irish society
The report notes that antisemitism has significantly increased in Ireland since October 2023 despite having existed for a long time.
The President of Ireland has been criticized by figures such as Irish Chief Rabbi Yoni Wieder for his dismissal of the seriousness of antisemitism in the country.
Rabbi Weider also noted the "strong anti-Israel bias of the Irish media, and that of the government and opposition parties," something which has not only "proliferated a hatred towards Israel, but also a hatred directed towards Jews."
Ireland is a traditionally Catholic country, which has historically been very critical of Israel. In March 2024, Ireland announced it would support South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the ICJ. In May, it recognized Palestinian statehood.
In September, Irish President Michael D. Higgins accused Israel’s embassy in Dublin of leaking a letter he sent to Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. In the missive, Higgins said that Iran plays a “crucial role” in achieving peace in the Middle East.
In 2014, the Anti-Defamation League found that 20% of Irish respondents expressed antisemitic attitudes.