‘Target on my back,’ Fear grips Jewish students as hundreds protest Columbia suspending Palestinian groups
Jewish students at Columbia University said they feel unsafe as hundreds of faculty and students protest the suspension of two pro-Palestinian groups from campus.
Teachers in Oakland, California, held a pro-Palestinian "teach in," on Wednesday, which asked elementary school-age children to draw what they think a Zionist leader looks like and define a massacre.
Oakland Unified School District's superintendent, Kyla Johnson-Trammell, issued a warning to teachers planning to hold the unsanctioned event, stating the curriculum did not align with district educational protocol. Despite the warning, about 100 educators took part in teaching the unauthorized material to students ages 4 to 18, the East Bay Times reported.
The "teach-in" materials were listed as "lessons for Kindergartners to 12th graders, art lessons, math lessons, films you can screen and ways to highlight Palestinian joy," according to a review of the curriculum by Fox News Digital.
OUSD teacher, Judy Greenspan, who served as an organizer for the teach-in, told Fox News Digital that OEA for Palestine "absolutely" plans to hold future events, adding that Superintendent Johnson-Trammell should change her position and "get on the right side of history."
A piece of material slated to be used for a planned teach-in by some teachers in Oakland, California. (Oakland Education Association)
"I think that I think that we're sanctioned by humanity and morality and that if we can't get the superintendent's blessing, and she wants to be on the wrong side of history, so be it," she said. "I think it's a shame. I think it goes against everything that Oakland has ever stood for. Oakland has always been there for the most oppressed."
Throughout the curriculum, the material indicates that Israel is responsible for massacres and that Zionists are colonizing oppressors, citing "75+ years of Palestinian land theft."
In addition, the learning materials don't mention the Holocaust by name and instead declared that "During World War II, many Jewish people were killed and mistreated. The world wanted to make sure that never happened again. Unfortunately, the Zionists used it to justify displacing and killing Palestinians."
Johnson-Trammell criticized the teach-in lessons in advance of Wednesday, saying in a statement to parents that "our schools are sanctuaries for learning, and I am deeply disappointed by the harmful and divisive materials being circulated and promoted as factual."
"I want to again make clear that our expectation is that all educators, in every classroom across the District, take seriously their responsibility to adhere to principles of education, and to keep their personal beliefs out of the classroom," she added.
The teach-in began with a video call that teachers who participated streamed from their classrooms, which included a speaker who discussed how, as a Jewish person, they rejected "Zionism’s attempt to say the only place and way Jewish people can be safe is through a militarized state," the East Bay Times reported.
"To say that Oakland should teach Zionism is like saying, should Oakland teach racism?" Greenspan said. "Should we allow Klu Klux Klan members in our classroom because they have freedom of speech? As far as I'm concerned, Zionism is racism."
"This webinar was not meant to force any point of view down any student's throat, although we feel like the lack of information and the bogarting of the information and not allowing students to see the side that most of the world is supporting right now in terms of the survival of the Palestinian people has been the greatest disservice to students," Greenspan added.
A coloring book called Handala’s Return was used as part of the teaching material that detailed a cartoon character’s expulsion from Palestine in 1948.
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"A group of bullies called Zionists wanted our land, so they stole it by force and hurt many people," the coloring book read. "Zionists have never let us go back to Palestine, even though we still have the key to our home."
"From the river to the sea and I firmly believe that as a Jewish teacher," Greenspan told Fox News Digital, adding that there is a "Holocaust" against the Palestinian people.
Nathaniel Landry, an OUSD parent, who is not a member of OEA, but has been working with organizers of the teach-in, spoke with Fox News Digital about why he believes such an action was necessary. He described the "teach-in" "as a corrective to the gaps left by the resources that the district provided."
"I think that what we're seeing in the district is an attempt really to chill participation and silence any kind of solidarity with Palestine with those people in Gaza undergoing intense, unthinkable bombardment and displacement at this moment in time," Landry said.
Protesters and counter-protesters face off at an anti-Israel protest. Similar demonstrations have been seen across the country. (Fox News Digital)
Jeremy Russell, the director of marketing and communications for the Jewish Community Relations Council in the Bay Area, told Fox News Digital that the "teach-in" was inflammatory and prejudicial against Jews.
"Oakland Unified School District Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell sent a clear message that the materials were not appropriate, and that was reassuring, but there remains legitimate fear in the community that the result will be incitement of antisemitism," he said. "There are reports of some Jewish parents considering leaving the district."
The material also defines Zionism as "a political goal of creating a country only for Jewish people," but the term is often used as a way to describe the movement that advocates for the development and protection of a Jewish nation, which is independent of Palestinian statehood.
"Palestine is a country located between Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon in the Middle East," the curriculum states. Although the United Nations granted the State of Palestine observer status in 2012, it is not recognized as a state by the United States and dozens of other nations.
"I just, I fail to see how any of this is controversial or somehow inaccurate," Landry told Fox News Digital in response. "I think that that description of Zionism is true and is not contradicted by the counter definition that you offered. The early political leaders and founders of political Zionism understood the project as being explicitly predicated on the displacement of indigenous residents of what was then Palestine, is no longer Palestine."
"How do I square fighting racism and demanding Black Lives Matter in a country where the president doesn't believe that defunding police will save lives?" Greenspan said. "You have to speak truth to power as a teacher and as a student and as someone in this country who believes in justice. There are many positions that the US government does not hold, which students need to become critical thinkers and be involved."
Alternatively, Jonathan Butcher, Heritage Foundation senior research fellow in education policy, told Fox News Digital that children at the elementary school age "are far too young really to be able to distinguish the differences that are laid out between the United Nations and the way that we understand Israel as a nation today."
"This is definitely not an effort to help students understand a complex situation," he added. "It's an effort to indoctrinate them."
Marc Levine, Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Central Pacific office headquartered in San Francisco, issued a strong rebuke of the "teach-in" material.
"The ‘teach-in’ planned for Oakland schools is replete with biased, antisemitic and anti-Israel propaganda that will sow division in the schools and alienate the Jewish students, families, faculty and staff," Levine said. "There is no place for antisemitism in our schools and efforts such as the Oakland Unified School District teach-in must be called out. Jewish students, families, teachers and staff deserve to feel safe and welcomed on every school campus."
"ADL applauds OUSD Superintendent Dr. Kyla Johnson-Trammell for her decisive and strong statement emphasizing that the unsanctioned indoctrination session framed as a ‘teach-in’ planned by ‘outside organizing’ in OUSD schools is unauthorized and not supported nor sponsored by the District," he added. "This content does not belong in Oakland schools."
An anti-Israel sign with the phrase "from the river to the sea Palestine will be free," which has been criticized as calling for the destruction of Israel. (Credit: Ryan Zamos)
A press release from Oakland Education Association for Palestine reviewed by Fox News Digital said the teach-in "answers the call by Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) administration ‘to support our students in learning about the human tragedy in Gaza and Israel’ and to ensure that students have access to ‘diverse perspectives,'" but blamed the district for "now attempting to intimidate teachers planning to participate in the teach-in."
"Some of the resources that OUSD shared have links to pro-Israel lobbying groups that have biased goals of erasing Palestinian perspectives from K-12 curriculum at state and national levels," the press release issued by OEA for Palestine said, citing a statement by Chief Academic Officer Sondra Aguilera that said students should have "access to factual information and empower[s] them to think critically."
"It's unfortunate that, at times, students are directed how to think about political issues by adults at their schools," Aguilera's statement said.
Butcher said students across the country, but specifically in California, haven't been given information that is "emblematic of what freedom and liberty and independence really mean."
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"California's is doing a very poor job of this, and not just in this example, but take the ethnic studies model curriculum that California has and is pushing across districts right now," Butcher said.
"That model curriculum, I mean, it has everything from land acknowledgment statements to assigned readings by Howard Zinn, all sorts of lessons about how America is not the land of the free, home of the brave, but is rather a place that has been a colonizer and a place that has been an enemy to freedom," he added. "So this Oakland situation, it's consistent with what's happening across the state and that's very concerning."