by Jackson Richman , Sean Savage , JNS , Israel Hayom Staff
Curriculim omits "any mention of Jewish Americans or anti-Semitism" and includes "blatant anti-Israel bias and praise of BDS," warns Tammi-Rossman-Benjamin, head of the AMCHA Initiative.
 |
| The California state capitol buillding | Photo: Wikimedia Commons |
A new ethnic-studies curriculum under proposal by the California Department of Education is being widely condemned by pro-Israel and Jewish groups, California lawmakers and activists for its “blatant bias against Israel.”
California lawmakers have begun to raise alarms over the proposed curriculum, the result of a 2016 law calling for the creation of a model ethnic-studies curriculum by the state’s board of education.
The proposed curriculum is currently going through public comment and is expected to go through revisions, followed by being approved next year by the board.
Jewish groups, including in California, have also been monitoring the curriculum proposal with concern.
“We have concerns that include the curriculum’s omission both of Jews as an ethnic group and of anti-Semitism as a concept. The curriculum should reflect the true diversity of California’s population,” Jeremy Russell, director of marketing and communications at the Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco, told JNS.
"We are also concerned by the curriculum’s inclusion of the divisive BDS movement, which is inconsistent with the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Guidelines to ‘create space for all students regardless of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality or citizenship, to learn different perspectives.’ ”
Russell said that the JCRC, as part of a coalition headed by the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, has “communicated these and other serious concerns to the Instructional Quality Commission of the Department of Education of California.”
From anti-Israel rhetoric to provocative songs to troubling legislation
The proposed curriculum section on “Arab American Studies Course Outline” contains a number of passages concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, such as “Direct Action Front for Palestine and Black Lives Matter,” “Call to Boycott, Divest, and Sanction Israel” and “Comparative Border Studies: Palestine and Mexico.” It also includes studying national figures such as Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the late Columbia University professor Edward Said, Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour, the late radio personality Casey Kasem, actress Alia Shawkat and the late White House correspondent Helen Thomas – all of whom are associated with anti-Semitic and anti-Israel rhetoric, and in the case of the congresswomen, a push to enact legislation punishing Israel.
According to the sample course models, students also are introduced to concepts like the Nakba, defined from Arabic as “the catastrophe,” which is used to describe the establishment of the state of Israel in May 1948 and the displacement of Arabs that occurred.
The curriculum also includes songs and poems containing questionable lyrics in relation to the Middle East.
One is a rap son by Iraqi-Canadian rapper Narcy: “The Real Arab Money.” Lyrics include, “In Palestine, kids can’t shop at these malls. … My nation on my back, look how proud we are. … America bustin’ nuts on Saudi Riyals.”
Another song, by Shadia Mansour, reads: “Get out Yankees from Latin America, French, English and Dutch, I love you, Free Palestine.”
The course goes over Arab stereotypes, including one that views Palestinians as “terrorists” who “blow up airlines,” try to “destroy Israel” and attempt to “drive the Jews into the sea.” It also has a song with the lyrics, “I love you, Free Palestine,” and “As the saying goes, ‘The situation must be threatened, but in reality, the situation must stop’; For every free political prisoner, an Israeli colony is expanded.”
The song also implicitly refers to Jews in saying that Israelis, most of whom are Jews, “use the press so they can manufacture,” a classic anti-Semitic trope that Jews control the media.
Currently, the curriculum is in a public comment period until Aug. 15, where residents can voice concerns.
'A disaster for all Jews in California’
“This is nothing more than an attempt by fringe activists to hijack the model ethnic-studies curriculum for California high schools in the service of radical political goals,” Seth Brysk, the Anti-Defamation League’s central pacific regional director.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center told JNS that if this curriculum is left unchallenged, it would “be a disaster for all Jews in California.”
“BDS is the tipping point of a global campaign to demonize, weaken and ultimately do away with the Jewish state. Its fundamental anti-Semitism has been called out by the German Bundestag. It is opposed by the vast majority of Democrats and Republicans,” he said.
While Cooper said his organization is not opposed to a curriculum about ethnic groups, he is concerned about the imbalance with the specific Palestinian narrative in this case.
“There much more than Palestinian talking points, whose leaders have institutionalized victimhood as their core identity. All this comes at a time when many Arabs from the Gulf are beginning to normalize their interaction with the Jewish world, including Israelis. Any curriculum should focus on all Arab nations and celebrate those that have religious tolerance as a norm, like Bahrain – not, unfortunately, the Palestinian Authority.”
“I hope,” said Cooper, “that the very diverse Jewish community here in California will oppose any state-mandated curriculum that validates or promotes anti-Semitism.”
Similarly, StandWithUs CEO Roz Rothstein said that the Jewish people should also be included in any ethnic-studies curriculum as a historically oppressed people.
“It is outrageous that an effort to teach students about marginalized communities is being used to promote a campaign of hate against Israel,” she told JNS.
In a statement, the American Jewish Committee remarked that the curriculum excludes Jews and others, in addition to being historically inaccurate.
“The proposed mandatory ethnic-studies curriculum inexplicably snubs Jews and other ethnic groups as it falls woefully short on inclusiveness of California’s diverse population,” AJC Los Angeles chief of staff Dganit Abramoff and AJC Northern California Rabbi Serena Eisenberg told JNS.
“It mischaracterizes Jewish history and identity, especially Mizrahi Jews, who comprise a significant portion of the state’s Jewish population; neglects the history and scope of anti-Semitism; and demonizes the State of Israel.”
“We are now witnessing the result of decades of complacency and passiveness in our society when it comes to discrimination against the Jewish community,” she continued. “This is not a Jewish issue; this should be a concern for every American. We must act before anti-Semitism becomes institutionalized in our public schools.”
Club Z launched a Change.org petition think week, calling on the California state legislature and Governor Gavin Newsom to not adopt the proposed curriculum. At press time, it had 182 signatures.
Reprinted from JNS.org.
Jackson Richman , Sean Savage , JNS , Israel Hayom Staff
Source: https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/08/04/california-anti-israel-ethnic-studies-proposal-puts-jewish-community-on-alert/
Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment