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February 2021

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Students raise their fist in solidarity with the Third World Liberation Front 2016, the name of the four students on a hunger strike to defend the funding of the SF State College of Ethnic Studies, during an emergency press conference in the Quad Monday, May 9, 2016. (Photo: Melissa Minton/Creative Commons/Flickr)

In a struggle that is eerily similar to the battle for the Mexican American Studies a decade ago, teachers, students, and community activists in California are fighting to defend the content and pedagogy of ethnic studies.

A Palestinian man walks next to his family's belongings near the site of their home which was dismantled by Israeli forces in Khirbet Humsah on February 2, 2021. (Photo: Shadi Jarar'ah/APA Images)

On Monday morning, Israeli armed forces and Civil Administration authorities arrived at Khirbet Humsah, a Bedouin enclave in the northern Jordan Valley, with bulldozers and proceeded to dismantle at least 28 structures, including homes and agricultural pens. This was not the first time Khirbet Humsah’s residents were left homeless and displaced. On November 3rd, 2020, just hours before the US elections, Israeli forces also completely razed the village to the ground, leaving its residents to spend a cold and rainy winter night without shelter.

Palestinians burn posters depicting U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a protest against the U.S. intention to move its embassy to Jerusalem and to recognize the city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip December 6, 2017. (Photo: Ashraf Amra/APA Images)

The Biden Administration put forth its first detailed comments on its Israeli-Palestinian policy in a speech to the United Nations Security Council on January 26, 2021, which was also the first anniversary of the reveal of Donald Trump’s infamous “Deal of the Century.” A year later, America needs to show goodwill towards the Palestinians to gain their trust. For starters, the Biden Administration should begin by disavowing Trump’s “Deal of the Century” and declare it, and all that which resulted from it, as null and void.