Palestine Math Classes and Pro-Hamas Webinars: Welcome to the Oakland Education Association Palestine Caucus
Parents Defending Education showOEA Palestine Caucus teachers promoted an extreme pro-Hamas webinar, shared resources for gaza teach-ins and encourage bringing Palestine into every class subject
Parents Defending Education report that in December 2023 the Oakland Education Association Palestine Caucus offered teachers in the Oakland Unified School District an opportunity to have their students take part in a Zoom webinar on the Gaza. The webinar was titled: “From Gaza to Oakland: An Overview of What’s Happening in Israel & Palestine.”
The webinar included members of Palestinian Youth Movement, Black Alliance for Peace and Jewish Voice for Peace. Palestinian Youth Movement is an extremist organization which has frequently expressed support for terrorism and which has partnered with Samidoun - another organization with links to terror groups.
PYM, BAP and JVP all posted the following on October 6 and 7th 2024.
With such participants, one can imagine how extreme the webinar the Oakland students were subjected to was.
As Parents Defending Education quote:
A guest speaker for a webinar for staff and students claimed that Israel is a “project to completely replace the indigenous population with a settler one. It’s an attempt to exterminate the Palestinians, carried out through a collusion between Israel, the U.S., the European Union, and other Western powers.”
If you have the stomach for it - click the link to watch the full webinar.
Parents Defending Education provide the agenda for the webinar lesson for students. The webinar was geared towards students in grades 6 - 12.
The webinar was accompanied by a slide presentation shared by Parents Defending Education.
Before the webinar - students were encouraged to watch this video from Vox : Gaza, Explained
During the webinar, students watched this video produced by JVP:
Students were encouraged to take notes during the webinar - from the prompts, it is clear that student activism is encouraged:
As Parents Defending Education report, this webinar is only one example of the OEA Palestine Caucus pushing teachers to include Palestine in their classes and providing materials and resources to do so.
Parents Defending Education show emails which reveal that caucus encouraged teachers to hold “Gaza Teach-ins” with their students.
On April 30, 2024, an email revealed staff sharing resources for a “mini teach-in about Gaza.” The staff member also stated: “Hope these materials might help anyone wanting to give students a May 1st update about Gaza.”
A follow up email was sent on April 30th:
“as middle school suspended SBAC testing tomorrow, I’m sharing this link to the resources from the last teach in on Palestine to support the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People!” The email included a link to a document created by the Oakland Education Association titled Educational Resources on Palestine.
The resources include materials from TeachingWhileMuslim (extensively covered in this substack); Nora Lester Murad (who has also made an appearance in this substack), the Qatari-funded Al Jazeera, the extreme Teach Palestine project as well as Rethinking Schools and the Zinn Education Project.
The introduction to the resources guide says the following:
“The liberation of the Palestinian people is a complex topic, just as all history is complex, and we encourage educators to educate themselves before teaching these materials in the classroom. Oakland educators have worked to find resources, by reputable organizations or individuals, that are relevant to the current events in Gaza and highlight perspectives on Palestinian resistance and liberation not found in resources provided by OUSD.
We do hold true that we are living in a world where the forces of imperialism and capitalism shape the decisions of global leaders and enact oppressive conditions upon various ethnic groups and often turn oppressed groups against each other.”
You’ll notice that these lessons expand to many different subjects. For example, “Olives and Ordering Decimals”, a class for the lower elementary level, is designed to be taught in Math class. The class was designed by TeachingWhileMuslim. The goal is to bring Palestine into every class, in every subject and at every level of schooling.
You’ll note the question at the end of the lesson: “what is something we could do to support Palestinian olive farmers?” Somehow the math lesson has become a call to activism.
For the full report and access to all the materials visit Parents Defending Education: https://defendinged.org/incidents/oakland-unified-school-district-emails-reveal-teach-in-for-gaza-materials-featured-pro-hamas-anti-israel-content/