Muslim Occupation of Canadian Schools

"Israel was established after its neighbours rejected a United Nations plan to partition the land between Jews and Arabs. As it was founded, [Israel] joined the United Nations in 1949. The legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state is completely insusceptible to question, and the attempt to represent it as entirely a wrongful occupation of anyone else's territory is not even slightly sustainable."

"The Jews have transformed a primitive country in one lifetime into a sophisticated and prosperous democratic state where the deserts now bloom, and [as] a nuclear power."

"The Jews have been in what is now Israel for more than 5,000 years. The Phoenicians, Jews, Egyptians, Syrians, Persians, Macedonians, Seleucids Romans, Byzantines, Arabians, Turks, and British have governed there, but not the Palestinians."

"The elimination by force of Israel is impossible and all attempts to do so are doomed in advance, as well as illegal."

Conrad Black, Canadian businessman, publisher, writer, historian

"Over 700,000 Palestinians were forcefully expelled from their homes, more than 15,000 were massacred, and over 500 of their villages were destroyed."

"To uphold our commitment to social justice, decolonization and reconciliation, it is imperative that we ensure students do not leave the education system completely ignorant of the history of Palestine and Israel. We cannot have yet another generation grow up believing it's 'too complicated' or 'too sensitive'."

Pro-Palestinian 'activist' group letter, British Columbia

Action Alert #30   Demand That the Nakba Be Added to the BC Curriculum-- Muslim Alert

"[The proposal in the letter sent to the NDP British Columbia government] is a distortion of 'what happened in 1948'."

"It omits the fact that the [Arab] Palestinians launched the war in defiance of the proposal by the international community [UN partition plan]."

"That's not in there and neither is the second part of the war, which was launched by the Arab states when they invaded Israel in May 1948."

"It doesn't explain why 700,000 Jews were uprooted from the Arab states in which they had lived until 1948, under pressure by Arab societies and Arab governments, creating a Jewish refugee problem. None of this is explained or touched upon at all in that proposal they made."

Israeli historian, pre-eminent scholar, Benny Morris

 

"Students in British Columbia learn about history throughout the K-12 curriculum -- including references to international wars and global conflicts."

"At the local level, school districts and teachers us their professional judgement when choosing to incorporate current and historical conflicts into their lesson planning that align with the required learning standards of the curriculum."

British Columbia education ministry statement

Protesters hold an effigy of Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a rally to call for a ceasefire, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada March 9, 2024.

(photo credit: REUTERS/Ismail Shakil)

Organizers of an open letter demanding a new curriculum in British Columbia's school system that would feature politicized content on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians include the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Network which has its headquarters in Vancouver, and which is known to have close associations with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, widely acknowledged as a terrorist group, listed on Canada's designated list of international terrorist organizations. 

Samidoun has recognition from Germany -- the 20th century's infamous, most lethal proponent of acidic antisemitism -- as a major proponent of repulsive racist hatred toward Jews, and as such is not only deemed a terrorist group, but is proscribed from operating in Germany, in accord with its laws against Holocaust denial and antisemitism in a state dedication to rejecting its shameful past in recognition of its monumental debt to humanity. 

In Justin Trudeau's Canada, with the Liberal leader's eye fixed on a large and growing voting bloc, unwilling to hazard alienating Arab/Palestinian/Muslim votes, Samidoun with its well-known penchant for demonizing Israel and Jews is nonchalantly permitted to operate. On October 7, even while Hamas began committing its widespread atrocities in southern Israel, Samidoun's statement glorified the ongoing massacre:

"The resistance is rising throughout occupied Palestine, smashing the siege on Gaza with a comprehensive  offensive, confronting the occupier by land, air and sea", completing its jubilant sentiment over sadistic savagery with images of terrorists clad in keffiyehs.

The British Columbia education ministry responded to the letter non-committally, leaving open an opportunity for committed antisemites in its public school system to proceed with their own biased interpretation, apart from, or filling in the regular school curriculum by advising parents to contact their child's teacher or principal should they wish to discuss what is being taught in the school their children attend.

 

At the Annual General Meeting of the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (BCTF), teacher delegates passed a historic motion about Palestine. The motion asked the BCTF to push the Ministry of Education to include the Nakba and the military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank in the BC curriculum.  Spring Magazine

These 'social activists' looking to improve on the reality of historical events they view with the jaundiced eye of cherished victimhood, sent their letter with its demands to Rachna Singh, British Columbia's minister of Education and Child Care, insisting social studies curricula in the province be overhauled to draw attention to the "Nakba" (catastrophe) that Palestinians mourn and Jews celebrate, as the formal rebirth of the State of Israel.

This refers to the time when five Arab countries responded to the declaration of statehood for Israel by amassing a collective military assault on the nascent Jewish State. Historian Gil Troy's thought was the implementation of a constructive lesson plan could alternately examine support for partition and the two-state solution from then-diplomat Lester B. Pearson, later Nobel Laureate, and Prime Minister of Canada. A lesson plan that would provoke students "to think for themselves" not reliant on "partisan lies" as a service to young students.

Samidoun was not alone in writing the letter with its appeal for justification in 'adjusting' history. There was input by other interested 'pro-Palestinian' (the preferred term to 'anti-Israel, anti-Jew) groups such as Teachers 4 Palestine BC, Palestinian Youth Movement Vancouver, and Independent Jewish Voices, a fringe group promoting Holocaust denial conspiracies which doesn't hesitate to participate in events staged by antisemites and sympathizers of terrorism aimed at Jews and Israel.

Israeli infantry making a full assault on Egyptian forces in the Negev area of Israel during the war of independence. Photo by Keystone/Getty Images

"By not acknowledging that most Palestinian Arabs rejected the compromise -- and encouraged terrorist attacks on their Palestinian Jewish neighbours -- the petition, and implicitly the curriculum doesn't explain how the war truly began."

"[The letter demanding school curricula be altered, is an example of] twistory, not history [framed to perpetuate a simplistic] misleading [narrative with no educational value]."

"And it, of course, ignores the invasion by outside Arab armies in May 1948, when the Jews, who accepted the compromise, launched Israel, as per the UN's vision."

"It overlooks the United Nations' attempt at compromise -- in its 1947 Partition Plan, which recognized the historical legitimacy of Jewish ties to the land. It also ignores the fact that Canada voted for the partition and that a great Canadian leader, Lester B. Pearson, had a leading role in drawing up the proposed compromise."

"The letter takes a complicated conflict, which could be taught sensitively and thoughtfully, with a nuance and respect for the truth, and reduces it to a one-sided opportunity to erase the history of Israel, the legitimacy of Zionism, the depth of Jewish ties to the land -- while bashing Canada along the way."

Distinguished historian Gil Troy, McGill University academic