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March 20th, 2021 
Awake Goy 
California has become the first state in the country to adopt an ethnic studies curriculum for its high schools, but the history of Palestine has been scrubbed from the educational program.
On Thursday, California State Board of Education voted unanimously to approve the curriculum. “We are reminded daily that racism is not only a legacy of the past but a clear and present danger,” said the board’s president Linda Darling-Hammond. “We must understand this history if we are finally to end it.”
In 2019, the bill was held up after some claimed the program singled out Israel and failed to adequately address antisemitism. The backlash was fueled by right-wing, pro-Israel groups and the app Act.IL (which is partially funded by the Israeli government) called on its users to oppose its implentation.
The anger was in reaction to a Arab American Studies course, which had been drafted by the state’s Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Advisory Committee. The course noted the community’s underrepresentation in media and defined the BDS movement for students.
BDS is “a global social movement that currently aims to establish freedom for Palestinians living under apartheid conditions,” the draft explained. “Inspired by tactics employed during the South African anti-apartheid movement, the Palestinian-led movement calls for the boycott, divestment, and sanctioning of the Israeli government until it complies with International law.”
This definition was vociferously attacked by groups like Stand With Us (an organization that denies the West Bank is even being occupied), who called for the state’s education department to be flooded with comments opposing its inclusion. “The State of California is currently reviewing a model Ethnic Studies curriculum, which openly promotes hateful boycotts against Israel and omits antisemitism as a form of bigotry,” read an alert that the group put out. “We especially encourage parents, high school students, and educators to comment and share how this model curriculum will impact them personally.”
The board ended up bowing to the pressure and modified the program. California Governor Gavin Newsom even apologized for the language of the original draft.
Educator Jody Sokolower explained what happened next on our site last month:
The California Department of Education disbanded the original advisory committee and the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) was revised under a cloak of secrecy — they refused to release the names of the consultants or the writers in charge of the revisions. They did, however, continue to meet with pro-Israel lobbyists. Media headlines targeted the ESMC’s mention of BDS (the movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel for its human rights violations against Palestinians) in a list of social movements students might want to research. But, in fact, the pro-Israel lobby’s opposition extended to any mention of Palestine or acknowledgment of Arab American studies as integral to ethnic studies.
Arab American, Asian American, and other ethnic studies educators, students, and community members started organizing to defend the ESMC. University faculty joined forces with K–12 teachers and community activists to enlist support and public comment. The Association for Asian American Studies, the Arab American Studies Association, Black Lives Matter, Jewish Voice for Peace, veterans of the 1968 strikes, and internationally recognized scholars — including Angela Davis and Robin D. G. Kelley — all came out in support of the ESMC. Progressive Jewish educators and activists made it clear that the pro-Israel lobby does not speak for them.
These demands were completely ignored. The version of the curriculum that was just adopted omits any mention of Palestine at all. Neoconservative New York Times columnist Bret Stephens lamented the adoption of ethnic studies overall, but applauded the moves. “At least the anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist dog whistles have been taken out,” he wrote.
The Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) sent out an email denouncing the current program as “whitewashed” and “anti-Palestinian.” “Today CDE has put on a production to mask the mass opposition to this curriculum,” said AROC Executive Director Lara Kiswani in a statement. “They have continued to center whiteness, allowing white right-wing interest groups to shape a curriculum intended on eradicating racism.”
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