THINK-ISRAEL

INDOCTRINATING CHILDREN: 'PALESTINE SOLIDARITY' IN THE CLASSROOM

by Cinnamon Stillwell and Rima Greene

Marcy Jane Knopf-Newman is an anti-Israel activist and English professor who has taught at Boise State University, al-Quds University, the American University of Beirut, and other universities in the Middle East. In The Politics of Teaching Palestine to Americans: Addressing Pedagogical Strategies (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), she has assembled a guidebook for American high school teachers on how to teach the Arab-Israeli conflict. (While writing it she transitioned from university to high school teaching herself.) The book's documentation, though substantial, is extremely biased, as all of her quotes and references are part of a closed loop in which Palestinians are presented as innocent victims and Israelis as evil-doers. Her entire bibliography and a "What You Can Do" section are geared toward fomenting anti-Israel activism.

Inaccuracies abound, including the author's historical account of the term "anti-Semitism." Although the word has referred solely to hostility toward Jews since its coinage in the late nineteenth-century, Knopf-Newman politicizes it by distorting its etymology:

After World War II, anti-Semitism began to connote not racism directed at Semitic people (based on language groupings of Arabic, Aramaic, Akkadian or Hebrew) in general, but rather only to Jews, most of whom are of European origin and do not speak any Semitic language.

She attributes the motive behind this imaginary trend to "shift[ing] the discourse away from Palestine," demonstrating that for Knopf-Newman, even the concept of anti-Semitism is a tool of censorship to suppress discussion of "Palestine."

The author did not always hold such views. Raised in Los Angeles with what she describes as a Zionist education, she attended Hebrew day schools and participated in pro-Israel activities during high school. Growing up, she heard the well-known phrase, "Next year in Jerusalem," which Jews have said for thousands of years at Passover Seders. This historical fact is omitted in the book's preface, where she likens the phrase to a Zionist "cultural commemoration" serving "to foster unquestioned support of Israel."

Knopf-Newman's encounters with her Palestinian peers (who, she admonishes, are never to be called "Arabs," only "Palestinians") as an impressionable undergraduate at the University of Cincinnati spawned her adoption of a virulently anti-Israel narrative. As a teacher at Boise State she spent three years engaged in research in a Palestinian refugee camp, during which time she recalls cheering with her Palestinian friends after hearing about a successful Hezb'allah missile attack[1] on an Israeli ship. That four IDF sailors were killed doesn't warrant a mention.

In order to deconstruct how Zionism is taught in America, based in part on her own sense of betrayal, Knopf-Newman revisited her old Los Angeles Hebrew school and examined its teaching materials. She concluded that the curriculum shifted from its original emphasis on Judaism to stress Zionism in the aftermath of the Six-Day War. Her objective in writing the guidebook is "to explore how and what I learned as well as think about ways to disrupt the Zionist narrative altogether by teaching American youth about Palestine."

To achieve this goal, Knopf-Newman advocates using the classroom as a bully pulpit, a place to correct social imbalances in which only the designated victim's narrative is discussed. She exhibits no awareness of the differences between a teacher and an activist. Teaching "critical thinking" means indoctrinating students to believe that Palestinians are always right -- and Israelis are always wrong.

In a chapter titled "Hip-Hop Education and Palestine Solidarity," Knopf-Newman advocates using hip-hop, or rap, music because it has short, easy-to-remember segments that prove conducive to incorporating political material. Using her book as a guide, high school students can now rap, dance, or sing their way to anti-Zionism. Lesson plans include how to organize street theater with "apartheid walls" and "tunnels of oppression" that connect to other "sites of oppression." Such agitprop can be adopted, she helpfully suggests, by teachers of literature, social studies, theater, music, and many other subjects. She particularly admires content that connects genocide, imprisonment, slavery, indigenous people, the "prison-industrial complex," and even Hurricane Katrina with the delegitimization of Israel in the malleable minds of her students.

The Politics of Teaching Palestine to Americans is replete with false analogies to so-called "global colonialism," such as Mexicans and Latin-Americans trying to cross the Arizona border illegally, South African blacks under apartheid, African-Americans under slavery, and Native-Americans. Knopf-Newman makes it a point to claim "indigenous" status for Native-Americans, yet ignores the widely accepted presence of Jews in Jerusalem and the West Bank for thousands of years to insist that "indigenous" cannot possibly refer to Jews in Israel. In the lexicon she reveres, "indigenous" equals "good" and can refer only to Jews who, like herself, have "un-learned Zionism."

Knopf-Newman makes no attempt to understand either Israel's predicament or whether its citizens have a right to self-defense in the face of a relentless enemy fueled by irredentist and revanchist goals. She never examines the constant rocket attacks from Gaza. To the contrary, Israelis always "massacre" innocent Palestinians, even when charges of such atrocities are exposed as lies.

Her insistence, against all evidence, that the Arab-Israeli conflict is not about religion omits crucial terms such as "jihad" or "terrorism." There is no violence from religious fanatics, but rather "armed resistance" to Israel's imaginary "ethnic cleansing." She exhibits no awareness that the content of English-language media often differs starkly from Arabic language content. She either cannot or will not admit that turning Israel into another Islamic state is the real motivation of its opponents. How could she, without using the word "Muslim" in her book? Even a discussion about the concept of pan-Arab tribalism is missing.

Knopf-Newman writes in the shadow of her hero, the late historian Howard Zinn, whose A Young People's History of the United States she quotes approvingly: "History is always a matter of taking sides." She also reserves praise for her principal mentor Edward Said, the late Columbia University English professor whose Orientalism contributed mightily to the politicization of Middle East studies and who once wrote[2] that, "Facts get their importance from what is made of them in interpretation."

Other dubious influences include former DePaul University professor Norman Finkelstein,[3] Tel Aviv University pseudo-historian Shlomo Sand,[4] and University of Exeter professor and Israeli ex-patriot Ilan Pappe,[5] all of whom she quotes extensively throughout the book and cites in her "select bibliography."

In her long list of acknowledgments, Knopf-Newman gives special thanks to virulent anti-Israel activist and Electronic Intifada co-founder Ali Abuminah, as well as Weather Underground terrorist-turned-education professor and friend-of-Obama Bill Ayers, who introduced her to the world of "alternative pedagogies in American schools." The Politics of Teaching Palestine to Americans is the product of these nefarious alliances. Its use in American high schools risks producing radicalized students whose hostility toward Israel is matched only by their ignorance of history.

Footnotes

[1] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3347191,00.html

[2] http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/24390.Edward_W_Said

[3] http://www.campus-watch.org/search.php?cx=015692155655874064424%3A-cjrsa07xqe&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=norman+finkelstein&sa=Search

[4] http://www.campus-watch.org/search.php?cx=015692155655874064424%3A-cjrsa07xqe&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=shlomo+sand&sa=Search

[5] http://www.campus-watch.org/search.php?cx=015692155655874064424%3A-cjrsa07xqe&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=ilan+pappe&sa=Search

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EDITOR'S ADDENDA:

[1]

Stillwell and Greene's chilling account of how to teach our children to be dhimmis isn't fantasy. This is a report of an actual incident in Texas called "State Investigation Launched After Students Dress in Burqas." It was written by Todd Starnes and was archived February 25, 2013 at
http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/state-investigation-launched-after-students-dress-in-burqas.html. Starnes is the author of Dispatches From Bitter America, which is endorsed by Sarah Palin, Mark Levin and Sean Hannity. The article was distributed by Act for America (www.actforamerica.org).

A Texas lawmaker is launching an investigation after a teacher reportedly invited female students to dress up in Islamic garb and then told her classroom they should call Muslim terrorists — freedom fighters.

State Sen. Dan Patrick, chairman of the senate education committee, told Fox News he is very disturbed by the photograph as well as reports that students were exposed to a story that blamed Egypt's turmoil on democracy — rather than the Muslim Brotherhood.

"Parents are very sensitive to any issue that seems to be anti-American — that blames democracy for some sort of trouble in the world," he said.

A Texas mom became outraged after she discovered a Facebook photo of her child wearing Islamic garb.

The lesson on Islam was taught in a world geography class at Lumberton High School (http://www.lumberton.k12.tx.us/education/components/scrapbook/ default.php?sectiondetailid=10467). The teacher brought burqas and other Islamic clothing for the female students to wear. They were also assigned to write an essay based on a Washington Post story that blamed Egypt's troubles on democracy — instead of the Muslim Brotherhood.

"I am outraged," one of the parents, who asked not to be identified, told Fox News. "I felt my blood pressure go through my head."

The parent said she was not aware of the lesson until she discovered a photograph of her 14-year-old daughter wearing a burqa on Facebook.

"As parents we should have been made aware this and I felt like the line had been crossed," she told Fox News. "Christian kids who want to pray have to do it outside of school hours — yet Islam is being taught to our kids during school hours."

Sen. Patrick said he understands why the parents are upset.

"Could you imagine if someone asked a Muslim student to dress up as a priest," the senator asked. "The parents of a Muslim student might be rather upset about that."

The young girl's father wondered why the teacher was giving children lessons about Islam in a geography class.

"She went from learning about Mexico to learning about Russia to learning about Islam," he said. "Islam is not a country. Islam is not a continent."

The parents said they confronted their daughter and told her to explain exactly what she had been taught.

"They were asked about their perception of Islam," she said. "Most of the class said they thought about terrorism. And her response was, 'we're going to change the way we perceive Islam.'"

The teacher reportedly told the students that she did not necessarily agree with the lessons —but she was required to teach the material.

The Lumberton Independent School District released a statement to Fox News defending the class.

"The lesson that was offered focused on exposing students to world cultures, religions, customs and belief systems," the statement read. "The lesson is not teaching a specific religion, and the students volunteered to wear the clothing."

The school district said Judaism and Christianity were also part of the lesson. However, the parents said Christianity was not discussed in the classroom.

"The Christian perspective was not taught," she said. "They went in-depth into Islam and I'm not comfortable with it."

The district said the photograph does not reflect the entire aspect of the lesson.

"The lesson encompassed diversity education so students receive a firm understanding of our world and why people are motivated differently," the statement read.

The parents said they immediately contacted the principal of the high school who defended the program and said it was required under CSCOPE — a controversial electronic curriculum system that provides online lesson plans for teachers.

"The principal told me it was world geography and they have to learn this stuff," she said.

However, the school district said the lesson taught at the high school was not part of written CSCOPE lesson.

"This is the normal answer from every school using CSCOPE," said Janice VanCleave, a vocal critic of the program and the founder of Texas CSCOPE Review (http://www.txcscopereview.com/). "They are definitely promoting the Islamic religion."

VanCleave said the trouble is that teachers are not giving students the full story.

"They are not telling students how these young women are treated in this religion," she told Fox News. "In the Islamic countries women are not treated well at all."

Last month, evidence was presented at a state hearing showing that CSCOPE offered a number of lessons about Islam.

One particular lesson instructed teachers to provide classroom readings of selected texts from the Koran.

Students were also taught that Allah is God.

CSCOPE offered no comparable lessons on Christianity or Judaism, VanCleave told Fox News.

"I do think CSCOPE promotes the Islamic religion," she said. "I don't think it's right to be proselytizing the Islamic religion in our schools."

Patrick said every time they've asked CSCOPE leaders about the lessons on Islam, lawmakers were told "those were old lessons."

"In this particular case — there's a photograph and there's a letter from the school district and there's another companion lesson," he said. "You start adding these issues up and it puts CSCOPE under the microscope more."

[2]

The Other than Mexican (OTM) group crossing the US border illegally is a sizable portion of the illegal aliens in the USA. Many of them come from countries that produce and harbor Islamic terrorists. This fact is underplayed when the Administration sympathizes with the plight of the illegal aliens in order to expedite their going to the head of the legal entry line.

To be effective, propaganda can't just praise the "Other" -- non Judeo-Christian religions, countries other than the USA, etc. It has to vilify American values and history. This is a video about a Department of Agriculture's training-in-sensitivity program for its employees. It included such assertions as: "The Pilgrims were illegal aliens." Illogically, it also places the Pilgrims in the 1% elite category, while "illegal aliens" clearly belong to the 99%.

This is the video:

Read the whole story here.

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Berkeley resident Rima Greene co-wrote this book review with Cinnamon Stillwell, the West Coast Representative for Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum. She can be reached at stillwell@meforum.org. This article appeared February 16, 2013 in the American Thinker. it is archived at
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/02/indoctrinating_children_palestine_solidarity_in_the_classroom.html#ixzz2LfJG3Wx8