NYC Educators’ Seminar Sparks Controversy Over Teaching About “Ongoing Genocide in Gaza” & “Israeli Occupation”
Edited by: Fern Sidman
A faction of New York City educators has stirred controversy by organizing a virtual seminar aimed at sharing resources on how to teach students about the purported “Israeli occupation” and the unsubstantiated “ongoing genocide in Gaza” while allegedly aiming to “get around censorship,” according to a report on Thursday in the New York Post. The event, titled a “curriculum share,” is scheduled for this Saturday and is organized by the group “NYC Educators For Palestine”. The seminar targets K-12 classroom teachers, with a focus on providing them with lessons and materials related to Palestinian history, the Israeli “occupation” and the current situation in Gaza, the Post report added.
According to promotional materials, teachers attending the two-hour seminar will have the opportunity to present and share original lessons and materials they have developed on these contentious topics, as was reported by the Post. The event’s description mentions that every teacher who attends will leave with a collection of lessons they can use with their students.
One principal, Terri Grey, who leads the Virtual Innovators Academy—a remote public school for first-year 9th and 10th graders—reportedly promoted the upcoming event to her educators. According to the information provided in the Post report, Grey’s email to teachers included details on how to RSVP and mentioned that a panel of legal experts would discuss “how to combat censorship as we strive to create classrooms that foster justice, understanding, and healing.”
As was indicated in the Post report, the email from Grey caught the attention of the advocacy group New York City Public School (NYCPS) Alliance, which criticized the message in an Instagram post, accusing Schools Chancellor David Banks of allowing hatred to fester and inciting violence by failing to address the issue.
The Instagram post said, “you continuously fail your Jewish, Zionist and Israeli families. You should be ashamed of the hatred that you’re allowing to fester and the violence you’re inciting through the lack of enforcement of your regulations.”
Banks just earlier this month unveiled a plan to deal with growing tensions related to the Israel-Hamas war — warning that employees “should ensure that expressions of their personal political views are kept separate” from their jobs in New York City public schools, according to the report in the Post.
In response to the controversy, a spokesman for the city Department of Education clarified that the Zoom conference is not affiliated with, endorsed, or hosted by NYCPS, as per the report in the Post. The department stated that they have no authority over whether or how the event is conducted.
The situation adds fuel to the ongoing debate surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how it is discussed within educational settings. On Wednesday, furious Jewish students, teachers and advocates rallied outside the DOE’s lower Manhattan headquarters over its failure to address the frightening escalation of virulent anti-Semitism in the nation’s largest school district, according to the Post report.
The End Jew Hatred and NYCPS Alliance activist groups were among those brandishing Israeli flags and chanting “shame.”
The controversy surrounding the upcoming seminar raises questions about the delicate balance between academic freedom, political expression, and potential biases in the education system.
