French publisher Hachette has recalled a middle-school dictionary that described the Israeli victims of the 7 October 2023 attacks as "Jewish settlers" after an antisemitism watchdog raised concerns, promising to review all its textbooks and educational materials.
The Larousse dictionary for 11- to 15-year-old students is the latest publication to come under scrutiny after an anti-racism group flagged other Hachette schoolbooks for similar references earlier this week.
The dictionary was found to contain the same phrase as three revision manuals for high schoolers that have already been recalled, the company told French news agency AFP on Friday.
In French, the entry reads: "In October 2023, following the death of more than 1,200 Jewish settlers in a series of Hamas attacks, Israel decided to tighten its economic blockade and invade a large part of the Gaza Strip, triggering a major humanitarian crisis in the region."
The worst attack in Israeli history saw militants from the Palestinian Islamist group kill around 1,200 people in settlements close to the Gaza Strip and at a music festival.
"Jewish settlers" is a term used to describe Israelis living on illegally occupied Palestinian land.
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'Revisionism'
Licra, the International League against Racism and Antisemitism, drew attention to the wording in a post on X on Wednesday, calling it "confusing and negationist".
President Emmanuel Macron joined the condemnation, saying it was "intolerable" that the revision books for the baccalaureat – the French school leavers' exam – "falsify the facts" about the "terrorist and antisemitic attacks by Hamas".
"Revisionism has no place in the Republic," he wrote on X.
Education Minister Edouard Geffray also denounced what he described as "a distortion of the facts and an affront to the dignity of victims of terrorism", saying schoolbooks should be free of bias.
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Hachette apologised for the "incorrect content". The books concerned were immediately withdrawn from sale and will be destroyed, the publisher said, promising a "thorough review of its textbooks, educational materials and dictionaries".
In a statement, the company said it had begun an internal inquiry "to determine how such an error was made". It promised to put in place "a new, strengthened verification process for all its future publications" in these series.
Hachette, France's leading publishing group, came under the control of ultra-conservative Catholic billionaire Vincent Bolloré at the end of 2023. The tycoon also owns several French broadcasters, newspapers and magazines, and has been accused of using his media empire to advance the far right.
(with newswires)
