From the Liveblog of
Saturday, January 17, 2026
French publisher recalls school dictionary that describes Oct. 7 victims as ‘Jewish settlers’
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French publisher Hachette says it has recalled a dictionary that described the Israeli victims of the October 7, 2023 attacks as “Jewish settlers” and promises to review all its textbooks and educational materials.
The Larousse dictionary for 11- to 15-year-old students contained the same phrase as that discovered by an anti-racism body in three revision books, the company tells AFP.
The entry in French 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 Palestinian terrorists kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
The four books, which were immediately withdrawn from sale, are subject to a recall procedure and will be destroyed, Hachette says, promising a “thorough review of its textbooks, educational materials and dictionaries.”
President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said that it was “intolerable” that the revision books for the French school leavers’ exam, the baccalaureat, “falsify the facts” about the “terrorist and antisemitic attacks by Hamas.”
“Revisionism has no place in the Republic,” he wrote on X.
The Times of Israel Community.