A leading publisher has pulled a school history textbook where children are asked to “reflect” on how Israel caused 9/11.

Hachette UK, which owns the brand Hodder Education, published the book titled Understanding History: Britain in the Wider World, Roman Times – Present for secondary school students aged 11-14.

The publisher said it has now removed the book from sale following accusations that it was “peddling anti-Semitic conspiracy theories” that Israel and the Jews are to blame for the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in 2001.

In a section of the book titled “What caused the 9/11 attacks?” there is a passage of text which explains about the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

The textbook says that following Israel’s war of independence, “most Muslim nations have supported the Palestinians and accused the West of favouring Israel”.

Students are then asked to “reflect” on “how it could be argued that the creation of Israel was a long-term cause of the 9/11 attacks”.

The Zionist Federation (ZF), a British charity, wrote to the book’s publisher saying that the suggestion that Israel’s creation is “somehow linked” to the terrorist atrocities of 9/11 is “entirely baseless, inappropriate and unacceptable".

Joshua Forman, the ZF’s executive director, said in the letter: “Giving the book’s author the benefit of the doubt, we would like to bring your attention that anti-Israel activists, who rally for the destruction of Israel through the demonisation of Israel and Jews regularly peddle the conspiracy theory that Israel was behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks which in turn has encouraged and continues to encourage anti-Semitism".

Mr Forman also complained about the description textbook gave about Israel’s war of independence in which it says the country “took even more land”. He said that “partisan political views” have no place in the classroom, adding that they risk encouraging anti-Semitism.

Earlier this year, The UK’s biggest education company pulled a GCSE textbook after claims that it had “whitewashed” Jewish history.

Pearson, which owns the exam board Edexcel, published the book titled The Middle East: Conflict, Crisis and Change 1917-2012 for students taking Edexcel's re-vamped international GCSE in History.

The education company withdrew the textbook from circulation following accusations that the book was “full of errors, lies and distortions” about the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Jonathan Hoffman, a former vice-Chair of the ZF, said he believes these two recent cases are “just the tip of the iceberg”, adding: “The question it raises is how many of these books does no body spot?

“The Education Act says that schools are meant to be politically neutral, but they are just riding a coach and horses through it.”

A spokesman for Hachette UK, which owns the brand Hodder Education, said: “We have taken onboard the comments we have received regarding a section within our Understanding History book and have removed the textbook from sale.

“We plan to review and revise the content before reissuing the textbook. We have engaged with a number of groups, charities and academics to work with us to review the material in preparation for a new edition.

“We are grateful to the experts who have reached out to us to offer their reviews and will be talking with them in the coming days. We will be liaising with schools when they return from half-term.”