Classroom criticism of Israel isn’t antisemitic
Iasked Brandon, a Filipino student, “In the past decade the Philippine government has carried out thousands of extrajudicial executions, and I condemn this — does this mean that I am prejudiced against Filipinos? Am I creating a hostile classroom for you as a Filipino?”
My students immediately understood the absurdity of this, that racial prejudice and criticism of a particular government’s policies are two very different things. Why is it that 17-year-olds can understand something that some modern critics of public education apparently cannot?
Jews are among the most persecuted groups in human history, culminating in the Holocaust, and charges of antisemitism carry great weight. However, Parents Defending Education, Moms for Liberty, and other opponents of public education and teachers unions are branding legitimate criticisms of Israeli government policies “antisemitic.” Jewish educators have a special responsibility to combat these pernicious allegations, and to lead the fight to defend teachers’ academic freedom.
Led by the PDE, dozens of groups claiming to represent the parents of America’s K-12 students recently wrote to United States Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona warning of “a crisis in our schools” over a “raging antisemitism…pervasive…and baked into teacher training programs. Teachers’ unions…have become beholden to this toxic ideology. K-12 school districts ... teach appalling material ...”
What PDE and its allies condemn as “antisemitism” are some characterizations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict included in public school K-12 curricula. Yet the characterizations they cite are also being made by organizations and journalists in Israel and around the world, and are of Israeli policies, not of Jews.
For example, the PDE and its allies object to a lesson from the Jefferson Union High School District near San Francisco which speaks of “Palestinian dispossession of lands/identity/culture through Zionist settler colonialism.”
However, for decades Zionists themselves used the word “colonization” to refer to their attempts to create a Jewish state in Palestine, and it is apt. In 1922, Muslims represented 78% of Palestine’s population, and Jews only 11%. In the ensuing 25 years — while the U.S. and others largely refused to take in those fleeing the Holocaust — the Jewish population grew 750%. By 1948, Jewish settlers were in control of Palestine.
In fairness to Israel, it is also true that, unlike settler colonies such as the U.S., Canada, and others, many Israelis were refugees who had little choice but to become settlers.
PDE’s letter also cites Palestinian-American journalist Dr. Ramzy Baroud’s work as an example of antisemitism, taking issue in particular with his accusations of Israeli “ethnic cleansing” included in readings from ethnic studies courses in the Santa Ana Unified School District in Southern California. Baroud also likens Israeli policies to “those imposed on black South Africa during the Apartheid regime era.”
One can debate these characterizations, but Israel has been accused of “ethnic cleansing” by both Amnesty International and the United Nations.
Israeli journalist and author Gideon Levy recently wrote in the Israeli publication Haaretz “ethnic cleansing is happening ... it’s a policy ... One can no longer ignore it or remain silent. It looks like ethnic cleansing, acts [like] ethnic cleansing and that’s what it is.” Israeli historian Ilan Pappé authored a book supporting the allegation called “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.” Israeli lawmaker Ofer Cassif condemns Israeli “ethnic cleansing being carried out in the West Bank.”
The degree to which the “apartheid” analogy is apt is also debatable, but this accusation has been made by the Israeli human rights groups B’tselem and Yesh Din, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and others.
Our students are asking us about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and are looking for information and answers — what legitimacy can teachers have if we only offer students a prettified, artificial view of Israel, or if we refuse to discuss these issues at all? How can an American educator be branded “antisemitic” if, during these discussions, a teacher shares views which are also being espoused by prominent Israeli authorities?
Growing up Jewish in the U.S., neither in Hebrew school and temple nor in public school did we learn the truth about how Israel, both in its founding and in later decades, mistreated the indigenous Palestinians.
Jews are a small percentage of the American population, but make up a considerable percentage of America’s four million K-12 teachers, particularly in New York City and Los Angeles, America’s two largest school districts. America’s Jewish teachers, like me and others, must take the lead in asserting educators’ right to question Israeli policy — and the hundreds of billions of dollars the U.S. has given to support it — without being accused of bigotry.
Sacks teaches high school social studies in the Los Angeles Unified School District. His columns on education and politics have been published in dozens of America’s largest publications.
have claimed they face inhumane conditions. In Chinatown, the city plans to close down apartments, Chinese food shops and places of prayer to build a 15-floor jail taking up much of Chinatown’s living space. This idea has not only led to a decrease of income in Chinatown due to fewer visitors, but is also a danger due to the jail’s being nearly the size of the Empire State Building with a lack of good funding for construction, which can be a safety hazard. Why is the government turning a cultural enclave where people live into a prison? This is ridiculous.
Charles Allen Villasi
Bygone era
Punta Gorda, Fla.: I just picked up the Daily News for the first time since I moved out of NYC. The happy New York where I lived and worked for 50 years is long gone. Why you encourage people who want to destroy what’s left is so sad. The happy days were truly happy.
Edward Farrell
A lot on the line
Fort Worth, Texas: The only thing worse than electing a man in 2024 who believes that global warming is a hoax after just witnessing the hottest worldwide temperatures in history would be electing a man who gave the one-armed Nazi salute at a rally in 2016, who claimed that Adolf Hitler “did a lot of good things” and is promising to round up all his political enemies and those immigrant vermin from s–thole countries who are poisoning the blood of white Americans and deport them or put them in concentration camps. But even more depressing is how many Americans believe that the 2024 election is simply a choice between President Biden and Donald Trump, when in actuality it’s a choice between continuing our democracy or electing an orange dictator for life.
Sharon Austry
Believe the numbers
Hillsdale, N.Y.: To Voicer Robert Rundbaken: The only people who are gullible and being led by their noses are those who believe that only one person is responsible for doing all those wonderful accomplishments you stated. As for calling me a gullible xenophobe, you know nothing about me, but you are entitled to your opinion, as I am to mine. When I used the term mismanagement, I was referring to open borders letting in illegal immigrants (and who knows who else) by the thousands when we can’t even care for our own citizens, including our veterans. Have you noticed what is occurring throughout the country recently? I suggest you put down the pipe before you pick up the pen. Phil Antico
Prescient post
Goodyear, Ariz.: My letter to the editor published on Nov. 29, 2020, was as follows: “The incoming Homeland Security secretary promises to push for free citizenship for 10 million illegal immigrants. As the caravans hit the southern border, that number will grow by another million each year as he and his group give free welfare to them for four years while they try to figure out who is good and who is bad. Next, he’ll open offices in 100 countries offering free passage to America if they agree to register as Democrats. This man, by himself, will set us back 10 years as to deficits and rule of law.” I forgot to include Biden because I did not realize at the time that he was senile. Also, the time to determine good or bad is now seven years for the nearest Immigration and Customs Enforcement review!
Peter Provenzale
Gaza’s misery is ours
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Cite the source
Port Richey, Fla.: I notice that you always report that Israel bombed here and there. Why not tell your readers about the rockets from Gaza that are still being fired at Israel? Anti-Jewish, perhaps? Denise Goldsmith
Protect life
Bronx: While reflecting on the lives that have been destroyed in 2023, I am reflecting on the hope of the new year. Life is a precious gift given to everyone, and needs to be nurtured and preserved. When I speak of life, I speak of the innocent who have been killed, whether in war, due to the environment, during immigration, from mental illness or before they could taste their first breath of air. We need to craft laws that guarantee that life is supreme. Any law that doesn’t preserve life needs to be modified. Let’s make 2024 and beyond the years of life.
Mark Walter