Teachers began bombarding children Wednesday with leftist propaganda denigrating Israel and promoting the Palestinian “intifada” as part of a “teach-in” in Oakland, California.
The local teachers’ union, the Oakland Education Association, endorsed the teach-in despite Oakland Unified School District superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell warning that the curriculum, including the anti-Semitic materials therein, was “unsanctioned,”
reported KTVU-TV.
Johnson-Trammell
stressed in a Dec. 4 letter to parents, “The District does not authorize this action. Furthermore I want to make clear that the instructional materials developed and shared by the teach-in organizers are not aligned with the materials and guidance previously provided by our Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Sondra Aguilera.”
The superintendent acknowledged that the materials “circulated and promoted as factual” by the leftist teachers were both “harmful and divisive.”
The Oakland Education Association for Palestine group has provided teachers with
propaganda materials targeting children from junior kindergarten through high school.
One among the recommended
presentations details the “Goals of Colonialism,” noting the process by which Israel and the United States allegedly steal land, destroy local cultures, dominate, then normalize their behavior.
Another
presentation, painting Zionism as genocidal, poses the question to children: “Since Jews experienced centuries of violence and ethnic cleansing, why are Jews in Israel doing the same thing to Palestinians today?”
An
art activity originally crafted for American schoolchildren by the activist group Teaching While Muslim has as its stated goal an understanding and celebration of “Palestinian culture and resistance throughout history and in the present, with a focus on Palestinian children’s resistance.”
The activity for students in pre-K through second grade is to “connect histories of settler colonialism from Palestine to the United States.”
As part of this activity, children are to be given this prompt: “75 years ago, a lot of decision makers around the world decided to take away Palestinian land to make a country called Israel. Israel would be a country where rules were mostly fair for Jewish people with White skin. Do you know about any unfair rules where we live?”
A
coloring book for children included among the curricular materials states, “Children like me keep having their homes taken by the Zionist bullies. They are always scaring them and arresting them.”
“I will never forget that I am Palestinian or give up on my right to return,” says a cartoon in the coloring book, designed by the Palestinian Feminist Collective. “I will always try to find a way to help other Palestinians and Free Palestine.”
Exercises in the book underscore Palestinians “right” to return to land belonging to the Jewish state.
The New York Times noted that
another book recommended by the OEA for Palestine is entitled, “P is for Palestine,” which informs young children, “I is for Intifada, Intifada is Arabic for rising up for what is right, if you are a kid or a grown-up!”
In addition to being
asked to draw “Zionist leaders of Israel,” students are also prompted to make signs that say, “Palestine will be free,” “Free Palestine,” and “Let Gaza live.”
Teachers were also
provided with hundreds of Palestinian “resistance” posters to share with their students as well as a link to a Turkish state media video denouncing Israel for “apartheid.”
KTVU reported that the unauthorized curriculum omits any mention of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel, which amounted to the biggest attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
Despite the materials all advancing an anti-Israeli, pro-Palestinian agenda, the OEA for Palestine stated atop its collection of curricular resources, “Our work is not to win our students over to a particular side nor indoctrinate them with our own political perspective on Israel-Palestine.”
Local Council on American-Islamic Relations president Zahara Billoo told KPIX-TV, “This is important, this is necessary to teach kids about current events.”
Billoo called “Zionist synagogues” and various Jewish groups “enemies” in 2021, reported the Jerusalem Post.
“Oppose the polite Zionists,” said Billoo. “They are not your friends.”
Billoo indicated the news of the teach-in left her feeling “excited.”
Nate Landry, 40, a parent in the district who has spoken on behalf of the organizers of the teach-in, claimed the Palestinian propaganda served as a “corrective” to the approved curriculum,
reported the New York Times.
According to Landry, at least 100 teachers were expected to participate.
Jacob Fowler, a teacher at Lincoln Elementary, appears to be one of them, having
called on other teachers to participate in a Nov. 26 YouTube video. Fowler claimed that teachers are “fortunate enough to play a small role in helping shape the next generation” and should wield their power accordingly.
After the first series of classes Wednesday, Judy Greenspan, a teacher in the district and teach-in organizer, indicated that “interest is growing by the hour,” reported the San Francisco Chronicle.
Shira Avoth, an Israeli-American and mother of a seventh-grader in the district, indicated her son would “show up and represent himself” in defiance of what she deemed “misinformation.”
Avoth noted that this is hardly the first time teachers in the district have confronted her son and other children with anti-Israeli propaganda in recent weeks. According to the mother, her son’s English teacher exhibited a post with the caption, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” signaling a desire for Israel’s ruin.
Rabbi Dovid Labkowski of Chabad Oakland told KPIX, “It’s devastating to Oakland families, especially Jewish families.”
“Education is about teaching right from wrong, morals and values. When you decide you don’t like something happening in the world and you decide to put together a curriculum that’s going to teach about hating other people, that’s what this is about, this is about hating Jews,” said Labkowski.
Josh Diamant, a teacher in the district, told KTVU, “My biggest concern is that we’re raising a generation of anti-Semites.”
KTVU indicated it remains unclear if teachers participating in the teach-in will face any repercussions.
As of 2022, there were over 34,000 students in the district and 1,861 teachers.
According to the Public School Review, public schools in the district have an average math proficiency score of 21% and a reading proficiency score of 56%.
Oakland union endorses pro-Palestine teach-in, says they won’t be intimidatedyoutu.be
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