It’s not only Republicans who want to censor education about Palestine
JVL Introduction
We’re becoming used to hearing about moves by Trump-inspired Republicans to ban books and and eradicate “woke” thought from schools and colleges in America. Less is known about support from a large segment of California’s Democratic establishment for legislation which could, according to PEN America, “amount to educational intimidation.” It threatens in particular ethnic studies education programmes to do with Israel and Palestine.
The article below examines a push to clamp down on ethnic studies curricula which stretches back to the late 2010s but “picked up political momentum in the wake of the October 7 attacks in Israel and the subsequent anti-war movement in the U.S. ”
We have to hope no one from the UK government’s education department is listening!
NWI
This article was originally published by The Intercept on Mon 28 Apr 2025. Read the original here.
Dems Push for “Educational Gag Order” Over Palestine Lessons in California
Critics warn a new bill clamping down on ethnic studies classes over antisemitism concerns goes too far.
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As you would imagine, there is reams of stuff on the ADLs website (which I’ve never been on before), but I came across the following (under the heading Campus Antisemitism Report Card):
Less than half of Jewish students reported feeling physically safe on their campuses during the fall semester of the 2023-2024 school year. The surge in protests has intensified anti-Jewish hate, leaving many Jewish students and falculties feeling threatened. While some school administrations….
https://www.adl.org/ (it’s about 2/3s of the way down the page)
I find this very hard to believe – ie that less than half reported feeling physically safe (which of course implies that MORE than half DON’T feel physically safe). It’s a complete and utter nonsense. In the first place there are of course Jewish students involved in the campus protests, and have been since they first started, and antisemites don’t differentiate between Jews, and have a dislike of all Jews. And in the second place – to state the glaringly obvious – does it seem remotely likely or plausible that people protesting against the mass slaughter of civilians in Gaza, and calling for the war on Gaza to stop, would be people who could be perceived as a threat to Jewish students and, as such, capable of physical violence against them. No, of course not, and it’s dispicable garbage lies. They’re empaths, and depise violence of course. And thirdly, has there been even ONE case of a protester, or protesters, physically harming or attacking a Jewish student. No, there hasn’t!
The ADL is spouting abhorrent and malicious propaganda lies so as to discredit the campus protesters, and deliberately trying to paint them as not only a threat to Jewish students, but also accusing them of being responsible – ie to blame – for an intensification in Jewish hate. And how totally TOTALLY evil is that!
NB Just did a search to see if the ADL is a charity, and this is what came up:
Yes, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which means it is a charity….