Attack of 7th October: Hachette Livre recalls three baccalaureate revision manuals that described the victims as Jewish settlers

Emmanuel Macron denounced, on Wednesday, January 14, a supplementary school revision manual, which “distorts the facts” about the “terrorist and anti-Semitic attacks by Hamas on October 7” [2023] in Israel. “Revisionism has no place in the Republic. I have asked the government to take measures,” the President wrote on X. Hachette publishing house recognized an “erroneous content” and recalled the related books.

The International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra) had alerted, on Tuesday evening, about this revision manual for the baccalaureate examination in which it is written: “In October 2023, following the death of more than 1,200 Jewish settlers in a series of Hamas attacks, Israel decided to strengthen its economic blockade and invade a large part of Gaza, leading to a major humanitarian crisis in the region.”

“This narrative constitutes a falsification of history and an unacceptable form of legitimizing Hamas terrorism, which this work precisely omits to qualify as a terrorist organization,” denounced the President of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF), Yonathan Arfi, in a message on X.

The Minister of Education, Edouard Geffray, described as “serious and unacceptable” the fact of “qualifying the victims of the October 7, 2023, attack as ‘Jewish settlers’.” This constitutes “a falsification of facts and an affront to the dignity of terrorism victims,” he said. “The fight against anti-Semitism is an ongoing battle,” responded the Minister Delegate for Combating Discrimination, Aurore Bergé.

“Hachette Livre understands the emotion stirred.”

On October 7, 2023, commandos from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas launched an unprecedented attack in Israel that resulted in the death of over 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.

In response to the October 7 attack, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza, resulting in over 70,900 deaths in two years, according to figures from the Gaza Health Ministry, under the authority of Hamas, figures deemed reliable by the UN. A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October.

“Hachette Livre announces today, with immediate effect, the recall of three supplementary revision books titled ‘Objective terminal bac’ that contain erroneous content about the events of October 7. Hachette Livre understands the emotion stirred and wishes to apologize for this erroneous content present on a page of these books,” the publishing house said in a statement. About 2,000 books were being recalled from distributors as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the publishing group.

Under the control of Vincent Bolloré

“I personally want to apologize to all those who may have felt rightfully offended,” added CEO Arnaud Lagardère, as quoted in the statement. He spoke with Yonathan Arfi on Wednesday morning.

France’s number one publishing house, under the control of billionaire Vincent Bolloré since the end of 2023, stated that an internal investigation had been opened “to determine the reasons that led to such an error.”

Taking note of this investigation, the interministerial delegation for combating racism, anti-Semitism, and anti-LGBT hatred (Dilcrah) emphasized that, “in a context of alarming resurgence of anti-Semitism, increased collective vigilance is essential to ensure faithful transmission of facts.”

The implicated books were published in 2024 and 2025 in the “Objective bac” collection, which allows acquisition of all the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in high school years and the baccalaureate exams, according to the publisher’s website. These supplementary school books are not manuals whose content is supervised by the Ministry of Education.

In the statement, Hachette recalled “its constant and unwavering commitment to producing school and supplementary books strictly respectful of the requirements of the national education system.”