California Ethnic Studies Issue and the University of California: Update

Hat tip AMCHA Initiative

 

There has been a troubling update in the ongoing effort by pro-Palestinian activists within the University of California system to dictate teaching requirements within California secondary schools pertaining to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The effort, spearheaded by Christine Hong and Emmaia Gelman, co-founders of the "Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism", seeks to impose teaching points on the above conflict in the new California Ethnic Studies course material, points developed by "UC faculty experts", which would be required for any high school graduate's admission into the UC system.

As previously reported, this effort has been met with resistance by several Jewish groups, most notably the AMCHA Initiative, s Santa Cruz-based group of Jewish academics who are active in combatting anti-Semitism on college campuses.

I am linking the latest letter from the AMCHA Initiative here. 

I would like to highlight a few points.

 "In a newly-exposed letter, University of California (UC) faculty tasked with developing California ethnic studies high school standards referred to Jews as “highly funded lobby groups” and attacked attempts to prevent antisemitic materials from becoming part of ethnic studies courses as “censorship” and “racism.”

First of all, anyone familiar with the history of anti-Semitism, past and present, knows that "highly-funded lobby groups" is a dog whistle that appeals to one of the older anti-Jewish tropes. The same adjective could be applied to the pro-Palestinian groups active around the world. Furthermore, to portray Jews as proponents of racism is an absurdity. Most American Jews identify as liberals and have a long history of supporting equal rights for all. Defending oneself against anti-Semitism is not racist.

 "That proposal, if approved, would force virtually every high school student to take an ethnic studies course whose content would be determined by UC faculty “experts” who believe antisemitic portrayals of Jews and anti-Zionism should be incorporated into high school ethnic studies courses."

I find it highly ironic that the very people (Hong, Gelman, et al.) who are charging Jewish groups with censorship are the very people who seek to impose certain teaching points-totally slanted to the pro-Palestinian narrative- as developed by "UC faculty experts" on California high schools as a requirement for admission into a UC school. One may safely assume that any pro-Israel points would be censored by these "UC faculty experts". But I am astounded by the arrogance and chutzpah of these UC activists who seek to dictate what must be taught in California high schools. I would have hoped that the current UC President, Michael Drake, would have called these people on the carpet, but obviously, that is not going to happen.  He is weak and demonstrated that weakness when he was UC Irvine chancellor.

This entire episode is a sordid tale of academic activism in action. These left-wing activists, who have succeeded in making the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into one of the biggest hot-button issues on US campuses, are engaging in anti-Jewish tropes. They claim to draw a distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, but they will resort to age-old anti-Jewish tropes when it suits their purpose. It reminds me of the years I was teaching part-time at UC Irvine and watching the anti-Israel events that came around every May. How many times did I hear Amir Abdel Malik Ali spit out the words, "Zionist Jew" as he applied that label to his opponents-even several who were not Jewish? 

In addition, the larger issue of ethnic studies and how it will be taught in California secondary schools has been corrupted-predictably- by those who designed it in the first place. It has been put together by activists with an agenda, which is anything but constructive. They rail about "settler colonialism" and "US fascism" and insist that anti-Zionism should be a core principle of (US) ethnic studies. Their dogmatic language in their letter to Governor Newsom (linked in the AMCHA letter) betrays their extremist worldview. While Governor Gavin Newsom, rightfully rejected the original draft, the new version is also flawed and leaves the door open for activist educators to teach what they want with little regard for the safety and welfare of Jewish students, who have been and will continue to be collateral damage in this asinine campaign against the Jewish state of Israel..