The Open University in the UK has agreed to remove the term “ancient Palestine" from its teaching materials following concerns that the wording is historically inaccurate and risks marginalizing Jewish history, as reported by the Jewish News.
The decision comes after a complaint supported by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), which argued that references to the Virgin Mary as having been born in “ancient Palestine" were anachronistic and could contribute to a hostile academic environment for Jewish and Israeli students. The issue was first reported by The Telegraph.
The terminology appeared in *Discovering the Arts and Humanities*, an introductory Open University module covering mythology, religion and cultural history. Course materials referred to Mary’s birthplace as “ancient Palestine," described Aramaic as “a language widely spoken in ancient Palestine," and included a map bearing the same label.
UKLFI maintained that the term “Palestine" was not used to describe the region of Judea, Samaria and the Galilee during the period in which Mary lived. According to the group, the name was only applied after the Bar Kokhba revolt in the second century CE, when the Roman emperor Hadrian renamed the province Syria Palaestina-more than a century after Mary’s lifetime. 1 .They added that the issue is particularly sensitive in the current climate following the Hamas-led massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023.
Mary is widely believed to have been born in the late first century BCE in the Galilee, a predominantly Jewish area under Roman rule, with Nazareth commonly identified as her home village.
In a letter to UKLFI, the Open University confirmed it would no longer use the term in future materials and would add clarifying context to existing content. Faculty head Adrienne Scullion said the wording was drawn from academic sources and was not intended as a political statement, but acknowledged it had become problematic.
UKLFI director Caroline Turner welcomed the move, stressing that historical accuracy is essential and warning against the use of modern political terminology in ancient contexts.
The complaint was raised by Open University student Tommy Merchan, who said the wording troubled him as a Jewish student and contributed to what he described as the erosion of Jewish history, I decided to raise it is because I’m Jewish and because of the impact that these types of inaccuracies could potentially have on Jews in Britain," he said.
It just feeds into the false narrative that Israel - the only Jewish state - doesn’t have a right to exist. This is an example, perhaps unintentionally on the OU’s part, of the erosion of Jewish history. I was also shocked that a well-known institution such as the OU would put on a history degree course and use inaccurate information when the course subject is so reliant on accurate historical facts."