It's "Teach Palestine" week! Are these extreme materials from Teaching While Muslim and NY Educators for Palestine turning up in your kid's school?

May 12 - 16 is "Teach Palestine" week. TeachingWhileMuslim and NYC Educators for Palestine share resources for teachers to incorporate in their classes - for Kindergarten to High School.

New Jersey-based Teaching While Muslim and NYC Educators for Palestine have teamed up once more for their “Teach Palestine” week. According to them, May 15th marks the “Nakba” or “catastrophe” of Israel’s founding. To discuss the Nakba with students, it is important to incorporate Palestine into classes for the entire week.

“This week, we encourage teachers to take time out of the school day to discuss what is happening in Palestine….May 15th marks the commemoration of the Nakba, and while it is imperative in the context of a genocide that we dedicate time during our school day to discuss the events of the Nakba, it is crucial that we do not begin conversation about Palestinian history from a place of conflict…we have designed a series of activities (not full lessons) that can be integrated into more autonomous moments of the school day (such as an “advisory” or “elective” period). The intention is to find ways to integrate teaching of Palestinian history and culture in some form this week.

“We teach in oppressive contexts; therefore, it is our obligation to make choices every day which rebuke systematic repression and dehumanization. Failing to do so only perpetuates the societal apathy and ignorance which allows the arbiters of settler-colonial imperialism to continue their bidding.”

MTA Rank and File are getting in on the action too

So what to TeachingWhileMuslim and NYC Educators for Palestine recommend for “Teach Palestine” week?

On Day 1, for elementary school students, teachers will show the short cartoon “I am from Palestine” - in the story, Saamidah is in a classroom filled with blonde-haired, blue-eyed children. The teacher struggles to pronounce Saamidah’s name. The students are all called upon to show on the world map where their ancestors are from. When Saamidah goes up, she sees Israel on the map and is confused. When she goes home, her father tells her that one day they will return to Palestine. The next day, Saamidah returns to the class with a new map showing Palestine in place of Israel.

“Extension” activities include reading the short story “Let’s go to Palestine”

Tell your elementary school students that “Palestine is currently under a burtal [sic] occupation by Israel” and that Palestinians are indigenous but colonized.

Then have your students color in a map of Israel…sorry, Palestine.

Or you can show your elementary school students this - in which Laith the Lion goes to Palestine and gets given a Keffiyah.

On day 2, for elementary students, they recommend that students reach one of the short stories listed below and then to review the following slides with the class

Day 3 for the elementary school kids “Resistance to Oppression” - focusing on Palestinian children’s “resistance.”

On Day 4, elementary school students will learn about the Nakba.

And finally on the last day

And what about for middle and high schoolers? On day 1, using the very unbiased sources of Qatari outlets Middle East Eye and Al-Jazeera, “post various pictures of Palestinian life prior to zionist colonization.”

Day 2, uses the same slide deck used for elementary school children but with some additions that ramp up the anti-Zionist rhetoric and romanticizing of “resistance.”

“despite the Israeli Regime’s constant efforts to erase Palestine’s existence.”

For activities on Day 4, “Nakba Day”, students are asked what “they believe or “know” about how what many people call “Israel” today became a state?”

“Some people believe that the area many now call Israel, like the United States and Canada, is an example of colonization. What is “colonization”? What is “settler colonialism”?

Then the teacher will show either of these two videos : The first talks about “Zionist militias” and the Nakba as a planned and on-going process of ethnic cleansing. It goes on to define Zionism as racist, settler colonialism.

Or the Qatari youth channel, AJ+’s video

Then, students will discuss the “scholasticide” that Israel is supposedly carrying out in Gaza. They will watch this video, entitled “‘Scholasticide’: How Israel is systematically destroying Palestinian education in Gaza” and consider why Israel is targeting schools specifically (I’m willing to bet the farm the word “Hamas” will not be uttered in the explanation)

On Day 5, “Planting Seeds in Solidarity” - well, we don’t know what they have in store for the middle and high schoolers on that one…I guess we’ll just have to keep our eyes peeled…

Make no mistake about it - this is dangerous indoctrination, and cleverly designed to be incorporated in lessons with little to no oversight. This is being pushed by activist teachers and shared between activist school union members. Be vigilant about what is happening in your child’s classroom.