California plans on adding a big fat healthy dose of antisemitism into its high school curriculum. Perhaps this is why the Qatar foundations has been spending millions of dollars in the American education system?
According to Adam Kredo at Free Beacon:
The California Department of Education is facing backlash after permitting a host of anti-Israel activists to build a statewide educational curriculum that demonizes the Jewish state and is said to be fostering hatred of Jewish and Israeli-American students, sources said.
Already, 83 pro-Israel and anti-discrimination organizations have petitioned the state’s education department to reform its Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) to remove multiple instances of what they say is anti-Semitic and anti-Israel bias.
Opponents say the new material will foster “an unsafe environment for Jewish and Israeli-American students.”
“We are aware that many individuals and groups affiliated with the Jewish community have already written to you about the ESMC’s shocking omission of information about American Jews and anti-Semitism, its use of classic anti-Semitic stereotypes, and its blatant anti-Israel bias,” a coalition of 83 pro-Israel organizations led by the AMCHA Initiative, a watchdog group that combats anti-Semitism in America, wrote to California’s Education Department.
“This includes the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, who wrote to you that they ‘cannot support a curriculum that erases the American Jewish experience, fails to discuss anti-Semitism, reinforces negative stereotypes about Jews, singles out Israel for criticism and would institutionalize the teaching of anti-Semitic stereotypes in our public schools,'” the groups wrote.
Some of the features of this new, bold education plan include portraying “Jews and Israel as part of ‘interlocking systems of oppression and privilege’ and its endorsement of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement as a form of ‘direct action’ or ‘resistance’ that students are encouraged to engage in…”
So who is behind this disgusting travesty? Shoham Nicolet, head of the Israel American Council, was “surprised to find out that you have people who are … supporters of BDS publicly.” The BDS movement stands for Boycott, Divest, Sanction Israel. The BDS movement encourages economic warfare against Israel and the people who live there. “How come the BDS movement is part of what is supposed to be allowed in classrooms in California?” Nicolet asked. That’s a good question.
Political activism doesn’t just happen without some large checkbooks funding the efforts. Let’s meet one of the committee members creating California’s Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum:
Samia Shoman, is a Palestinian-American who teaches in the San Mateo Union High District. Her lesson plans on Palestinian history have been featured as a teaching tool by the Qatar Foundation International, a group tied to the nation and its efforts to proliferate boycotts of Israel. Shoman is also a pro-Palestinian activist on Twitter.
The Qatar Foundation has been funding various programs in the public school system under the guise of encouraging Arabic education.
The Qatar Foundation gave $30.6 million over the past eight years to several dozen schools from New York to Oregon and supporting initiatives to create or encourage the growth of Arabic programs, including paying for teacher training, materials and salaries. The funding came through Qatar Foundation International, the foundation’s U.S. arm.
“We are going to definitely look at ways to expand in the future,” said Omran Hamad Al-Kuwari, executive director of the Qatar Foundation’s CEO office. “We’ve been quite surprised about the interest.”
“This is an attempt to make anti-Semitism institutional,” Masha Merkulova, founder and executive director of Club Z, a Bay Area organization that fosters commitment to Israel said. “This is what the kids are going to learn as part of normal things they learn.”
If you live in California, you’d better check the books you child is using for their “school work.”