Publisher apologizes after labeling massacre victims “Jewish settlers” and not mentioning Hamas atrocities.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
France’s leading textbook publisher recalled several high school matriculation review books Wednesday following an uproar over what critics called falsified and misleading descriptions of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas invasion and massacre in southern Israel.
“Hachette Livre announces today, with immediate effect, the recall of three supplementary revision books entitled Objectif Bac Terminal which contain erroneous content on the events of October 7,” the publisher said in a statement, saying it “understands the emotion aroused.”
“I personally wish to apologize to all those rightly offended by this publication,” CEO Arnaud Lagardère added, pledging that Hachette would introduce stricter editorial oversight to prevent similar incidents.
The disputed passage in the history-geography text stated: “In October 2023, following the death of more than 1,200 Jewish settlers during a series of Hamas attacks, Israel decided to strengthen its economic blockade and invade a large part of the Gaza Strip, triggering a large-scale humanitarian crisis in the region.”
Critics objected both to the use of the term “Jewish settlers” and to the omission of key facts.
The victims of the Hamas-led invasion were residents of Gaza-envelope kibbutzim, moshavim and towns, and soldiers protecting the border, while the term “settlers” is regularly used in the West as a pejorative term for those who reside in territories liberated by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War – Judea, Samaria, eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
Israel’s enemies call all Israelis “settlers.”
The passage also failed to mention any of the documented war crimes committed during the attack, including mass rape and torture of victims, and the abduction of 251 men, women and children into Gaza.
LICRA, the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism, which revealed Tuesday the problematic wording that has been part of these review books since 2024, was livid in its condemnation.
“Hamas clearly has its proxies at @Hachette_France,” it wrote. “Is it too much to ask of a renowned publisher to prevent this kind of confusing and denialist excesses?”
Yonathan Arfi, president of CRIF (the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France), echoed the criticism.
“This narrative constitutes a falsification of history and an unacceptable form of legitimizing Hamas terrorism,” he wrote on X, and “specifically fails” to describe Hamas as a terrorist organization.
President Emmanuel Macron stressed that the books were not published by the French Ministry of Education, but strongly condemned the “distorted perspective” they presented.
Labeling the victims as Jewish settlers was a “falsification of the facts” and “a serious and unacceptable act,” Macron said.
“That’s intolerable,” he added in a post on X, “as is any relativism regarding the Hamas terrorist and anti-Semitic attacks of October 7th. Revisionism has no place in the Republic.”
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