There is suddenly a litmus test in the Democratic Party on naming the Gaza genocide.
Proponents claim that California’s AB 715 aims to combat antisemitism by strengthening anti-discrimination laws in public schools, but a closer look reveals it directly targets free speech on Palestine.
A controversial bill that would appoint an “Antisemitism Coordinator” to review school curriculum is heading to California Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk. Teachers’ unions and civil rights groups warn the legislation could suppress criticism of Israel.
The fires burning in Palestine and Los Angeles today are symptoms of the same disease: a system that values conquest over conservation, profit over people, and expansion over existence.
Orange County School of the Arts shut down a student meeting on Palestine after being contacted by the Anti-Defamation League. Students say the administration won’t acknowledge that it was censorship.
California has become the first state in the country to adopt an ethnic studies curriculum for its high schools, but the history of Palestine has been scrubbed from the educational program following pressure from pro-Israel groups.
A coalition of anti-Zionist organizations in San Diego raise concerns over progressive candidate Georgette Gómez who is running for Congress.
Instead of putting anti-racist education in the hands of the pro-Israel lobby, the California Department of Education should recommit to a true ethnic studies curriculum.
Ethnic Studies does not politicize a neutral curriculum; it is provides an historical corrective to the simultaneous absence and caricature of Arab Americans, Palestinians included, that already exists in the curriculum.
At the California Democratic Party’s fall convention on November 17, activists pushed a resolution that would have recognized the Palestinian right of return. Although the amendment ultimately failed to be voted into the platform, supporters point to the fact that no vote tally was actually taken and that the results could have been too close to call.