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The King and the Jedi
Yoda makes a cameo in a Saudi Arabian high school textbook.
Is the Force with Saudi Arabia? Saudi high school students might have thought so recently after opening their social studies textbook. Inside was a historic photo of Prince Faisal (later King Faisal)signing the United Nations charter in 1945—with none other than Yoda, the 2-foot-tall Jedi master from the Star Wars films, standing next to him. How the Photoshopped image ended up in a textbook is anyone’s guess, but it was seen in classrooms all over the conservative Middle Eastern country in September before officials hastily withdrew the textbook. Saudi artist Abdullah Al Shehri originally created the image in 2013 as part of a series that mixed pop culture icons into historic photographs. He says he settled on Yoda because of similarities between King Faisal (1964-75), who took steps to modernize Saudi Arabia before his assassination, and the wisdom-spouting Jedi. “He was wise and was always strong in his speeches,” Shehri says of Faisal. “So I found that Yoda was the closest character to the king.” No word yet on whether Faisal will have a cameo in the new Star Wars film, The Last Jedi, out this month.