King Mohammed VI of Morocco has ordered to incorporate Holocaust studies into the country’s education system, Moroccan news website Le Desk reported on Wednesday.
The reports, which quickly went viral, said that the decision was made while the monarch was attending the 73rd U.N. General Assembly in New York last week, adding that Mohammed sent word to Education Minister Said Amzazi, saying Holocaust studies must be included in the country’s high school curriculum.
“Education has the power to fight against discrimination and racism, as well as the ugly phenomenon of anti-Semitism,” he said.
UNESCO director Audrey Azoulay, the daughter of one of Mohammed’s chief advisers, Andre Azoulay, welcomed the move.
“To address anti-Semitism, it is to defend the equal dignity for all human beings,” Azoulay tweeted. “Education is the best tool to prevent all forms of discrimination.””
It is unclear at this time what form Holocaust studies would take in Morocco, and what language the country’s textbooks would opt for.
Jerusalem and Rabat established diplomatic ties in 1994. King Mohammed VI’s regime is known as sympathetic to Jews.