Proposal to teach Palestinian history in schools faces backlash

A group of teachers has successfully campaigned for the B.C. Teachers' Federation to lobby the government to include the history of Palestinians in the provincial curriculum.

The proposal has drawn backlash from members of the Jewish community, who say the move is problematic and "one sided." 

The resolution, passed at the BCTF's annual general meeting in March, aims for the union to "continuously lobby" the Ministry of Education and Child Care to include the Nakba — or "catastrophe," the Arabic term used to describe the displacement of Palestinians between 1947 and 1949 — along with the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank in the list of sample topics for schools.

Teachers 4 Palestine, a group born in the wake of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas that includes teachers of different faiths and backgrounds, was behind the motion.

Tara Ehrcke, a Jewish high school teacher in Victoria who is involved with Teachers 4 Palestine, said the topic was "noticeably absent" from the curriculum.

"It does impact the kind of background learning that teachers themselves do and are exposed to," said Ehrcke, who was a delegate at the AGM. 

"If something is in the curriculum, that means teachers would receive education about this topic and be better equipped in order to have that discussion with students."

But the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) has contacted the BCTF to express their concerns that the inclusion of the topic will increase antisemitism and intimidation against Jewish students and educators in the classroom. 

"Characterizing the return of the Jewish people to their ancestral homeland after more than 2,000 years of exile as a 'catastrophe' ... is deeply offensive," said Nico Slobinsky, vice-president of CIJA for the Pacific region.

"Teaching about the Nakba will delegitimize Israel. The delegitimization of the Jewish state leads to the demonization not only of Israelis, but of Jewish Canadians who overwhelmingly support Israel."

B.C.'s curriculum is unique in the sense that social studies and history are taught around "big ideas".

Teachers are free to choose the content they use to teach those ideas, but are provided a list of key questions and sample topics to guide them.

"There is no mandatory textbook or resources in the B.C. curriculum," said Lindsay Gibson, assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy in the Faculty of Education at UBC. "It really is up to teachers to have to identify their own research and resources that they're going to bring into the classroom for students."

The idea behind the proposal is to include the history of Palestinians in the list of sample topics, which also include subjects like the Armenian genocide, apartheid in South Africa, the genocide in Rwanda and the internment of Japanese people in Canada during the Second World War.