The Ukraine Socialist Solidarity Campaign has initiated this statement. We urge all readers of Oaklandsocialist to sign the statement and pass it around. What would be especially useful is to find teachers who would take it to their unions. To add your name contact oaklandsocialist at oaklandsocialist@gmail.com or find the statement online here. Additional names will be posted next week.

Oppose legislative coverups of Israel war crimes

August 28th, 2024

We the undersigned are alarmed at two bills that are up before the California legislature. Senate Bill 1287, and Senate Bill 1277. These two bills are aimed at further covering up Israeli war crimes and repressing protests against those crimes.

SB1287 supposedly protects college and university students against intimidation or harassment due to their ethnicity or religion. This bill is worded so broadly that it will authorize repression of any college or university protests against Israeli war crimes. Already, tremendous pressure is being brought to bear on university officials to stop such protests. This bill, if it becomes law, will multiply this pressure many times over.

SB1277 mandates teaching about the Holocaust and genocide at grade school levels. Any fair minded person is entirely in favor of teaching about the Holocaust.

However, as Jewish Voices for Peace and others have pointed out:

● State law already requires that schools provide age-appropriate education in grades 7-12 on the Holocaust and other genocides. Although additional teacher support for this critical subject may be needed, the biased California Teachers Collaborative for Holocaust and Genocide Education is not the answer.

● SB1277 puts authority for grades 7-12 education on genocide in the hands of the California Teachers Collaborative, which is dominated by pro-Israel organizations focused on silencing critical discussion of Israel, including Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

● Genocide curriculum for our public schools should be developed by historians equipped tomake connections for students among the genocide of Native Americans, the translatlantic slave trade, and more recent genocidal wars — not by special interest groups.

● Existing curriculum developed by the California Teachers Collaborative falsely conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism. This is just one example of the biased, anti-Palestinian curriculum promulgated by this group.

Furthermore, this bill equates genocide with the Nazis’ Holocaust as if no other genocide ever existed. The ongoing genocidal war that Israel is waging is ruled out. SB 1277 makes no mention of Islamophobia, which is increasingly common in the United States.  SB1277 conflates opposition to Israel’s war crimes with anti-Semitism, thereby covering up for those crimes..

This occurs in the context of Israel’s genocidal war against the people of Gaza, its increased ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people of the West Bank, and the rise of sadism and outright fascism inside Israel itself. 

For example, there is the documented torture and abuse of Palestinian prisoners at Israel’s Sde Teiman prison. Included in this torture was some soldiers’ raping one of the prisoners with a pipe. Top Israeli politicians actually defended this sadistic act as have many Israeli citizens.

To repeat: We oppose genuine anti-Semitism as well as Islamophobia both of which are connected with resurgent white supremacy in the United States. However, these two bills, both taken together and singly, are intended to prevent the publicizing of and protesting against Israel’s many war crimes. We urge others to join us in opposing them.

______________________

SIGNATURES

1. Ofer Neiman, Israel, Israelis Against Apartheid
2. Naama Farjoun, Israel, Israelis Against Apartheid
3. Livnat Konopny Decleve, Israel, Israelis Against Apartheid
4. Yoseef Mekyton, Israel, Israelis Against Apartheid
5. Shirli Nadav, Israel, Israelis Against Apartheid
6. Dov Baum
7. Tamar Schneider, Israel, Israelis Against Apartheid
8. Karen Zack, Israel, Israelis Against Apartheid
9. Yael Shomroni, Israel, Israelis Against Apartheid
10. John Reimann, Oakland, CA, former recording secretary Carpenters 713
11. Clay Claiborne, Venice Beach, CA, https://claysbeach.blogspot.com/
12. Talmadge Wright, Sonoma County CA, Professor Emeritus Loyola
13. Meghan K., Syria Solidarity NYC
14. Dov Baum
15. Cheryl Zuur, former president, AFSCME 444
16. Ukraine Socialist Solidarity Campaign, https://linktr.ee/ukrainesocialistsolidaritycpgn