Rethinking School's "Teaching Palestine" Book Launch features Macklemore who was "awakened" by October 7th to "support Palestine" and Jesse Hagopian claims Israel is worse than Jim Crow South
Bill Bigelow "one of the throughlines is "the Zionist movement's contempt for Palestinian life"
Here is the book launch in full:
This book is filled with “lessons” which are currently being used in classes across the country.
Here’s Macklemore talking about how October 7th changed his “life forever” it was an “awakening” for him:
What kind of person watches October 7th unfold and is “awakened” to support “Palestine?”
…moving on to Jesse Hagopian, editor at Rethinking Schools
“Israel is trying to annihilate the past, the present and the future of people.”
“The goal is to conflate liberation movements with terrorism. The goal is to conflate student protests against genocide with antisemitism…this also endangers Jewish people…they entwine the global Jewish diaspora with war crimes of a state.”
“Our solidarity with Palestine is not just symbolic…it’s a matter of cold hard fact because the same government that funds bombs to bomb schools in Gaza is funding de-education right here at home.”
“She and others told me that what they saw in Israel was worse Apartheid than what they faced in the Jim Crow South in America”
Adam Sanchez editor at Rethinking Schools and teacher in the Philly area:
“So what is happening right now is one political viewpoint, Zionism, ties Jewish safety to the land of Israel - this has been a minority viewpoint amongst Jews for the majority of Jewish history but there’s been an active propaganda campaign since the 1970s..”
Sanchez celebrates that their activism got Keziah Ridgeway back into the classroom and talks about the benefits of social justice-oriented school unions like CTU and LAUSD:
And finally Bill Bigelow, co-director of the Zinn Education Project and curriculum editor of Rethinking Schools, talks about a lesson he taught at a Portland high school last year:
“The first through-line is the Zionist movement’s contempt for Palestinian life…Herzl refers to Palestinians as non-Jewish communities. And that erasure of Palestinians is consistent.”
“Another through-line is Zionism’s partnership with Empire…and now of course with the US Empire…the genocide in Gaza is just impossible to imagine without the US military support.”
“The cooperation between Jews and Christians and Muslims..Zionism is an attack on that cooperation…Zionism is a movement of segregation and domination.”
And finally Suzanna Kassouf:
“Palestinian liberation is not…a single issue existing in a vacuum.”
“For many of us educators, we can be in schools that are so supportive of us teaching about systemic racism or so supportive of us teaching about gender justice…”
“To stand with Palestine is to recognize that the forces that are driving the occupation there - colonialism, racialized capitalism, militarized borders, these are the same forces that are oppressing black communities here and around the world. And oppressing indigenous nations, migrants, queer folks and so many others…all the other types of injustices that we as justice-focused educators teach about in our classrooms.”
“The weapons used in Gaza are tested in Ferguson.”
“Trump…creating a separate legal system for people he doesn’t like is so reminiscent of the occupied territories where Palestinians are tried in military courts.”
“I come from the climate movement..and I have found in the last 19 months that fighting for justice in Palestine has not asked me to step out of that struggle..it’s the same logic that allows children to be buried under the rubble in Rafah allows fossil fuel billionaires to dig..and doom all of our children to climate disaster.”
“All of our battles are one and when we recognize that we can build coalitions to against the billionaires, the imperialists, the warmongers.”
“Palestine is not the exception. Palestine is the mirror - when we look in that mirror, it asks us what kind of world we are fighting for.”
They end by saying “this is an activism book, this is an organizing book” - think about that when this book inevitability turns up in your kid’s classroom
That's what public education is becoming: activist training... emphasis on training. The correct label for this training is not 'education' but meets the criteria as 'indoctrination'. On the public dime. These teachers and admins know this but choose to do it anyway. That's why they need to be fired for unprofessional conduct breaching their agreed upon professional ethics.