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.”
‘Big ideas’ curriculum
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.”
A group of B.C. teachers is calling for an addition to the province’s curriculum. They’re hoping to teach the history of the creation of Israel and the displacement of Palestinians from the land. As Radio-Canada’s Francis Plourde reports, their initiative is being met with some opposition.
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.
According to the UN, the Nakba refers to the “mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.”
As a result of the war, more than half of the Palestinian population — more than 700,000 people according to UN figures — were displaced. Many sought refuge in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, while others settled in neighbouring countries.
Israel insists the Palestinians were not driven out, but instead that most of them left the territory voluntarily for various reasons, among them to avoid being caught in the crossfire.
‘It can be scary talking about Palestine and Israel’
While being in the list of sample topics would not make teaching the Nakba mandatory in B.C. schools, it would go a long way toward filling a gap in knowledge, according to Khaled Shawwash, an elementary school teacher also involved with Teachers 4 Palestine.
He and others believe the curriculum doesn’t currently include enough about Palestine and Israel. By making those changes, they feel they would have more tools to approach the topic.
“As a Palestinian educator, it’s been challenging,” Shawwash said.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty around what parts I can discuss or how I can discuss it. And I think it’s really been the driving force behind this campaign.
“It can be scary talking about Palestine and Israel. By having it in the curriculum, teachers and educators will have more confidence in approaching the topic.”
Their efforts have received support from various groups through a petition online. As of April 24, 6,397 people had signed it the petition.
Strong opposition from members of Jewish community
But some members of the Jewish community have countered the proposal with a petition of their own.
The petition, started by Vancouver mother Maria Kleiner, calls on the B.C. government to reject the proposal, which it says “has the potential to increase targeted hatred of specific children thus creating an unsafe learning environment.”
As of April 24, her petition had received more than 5,915 signatures.
“It brings politics into the classroom, which is to create division and polarization. It comes at a very difficult time already,” said Kleiner, adding that the proposal was “one sided.”
“It’s a very complex topic, and by simplifying, it becomes purely political propaganda in the classroom, which doesn’t belong there,” said Kleiner, who, after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel, started a website in which she shares her thoughts and documents about antisemitism in Canada.
Ontario and British Columbia will update their high school curriculum by the 2025 school year in an effort to combat antisemitism. B.C. says it will make it mandatory for Grade 10 students to learn about the Holocaust while Ontario will expand its current Holocaust curriculum.
But another Jewish mother from Vancouver disagrees.
Tamara Herman, whose grandparents survived the Holocaust, grew up hearing stories about the genocide of Jews during the Second World War and its impact, and says it shaped her world view. That’s why, she says, she strongly believes in the need to tell the full history of the region.
“One of the most important things in breaking cycles of devastation is to understand how we got to a certain point and why,” says Herman, who is involved with Independent Jewish Voices, an organization advocating for the rights of Palestinians.
“And I don’t feel my children can be equipped to be able to find a different trajectory moving forward as they pick up the pieces after this horrific devastation without understanding the history of Palestine and Israel.
“That history includes the Nakba, and my child is entitled to learn about it just as much as my child is entitled to learn about the Holocaust and other factors that contributed to where we are.”
‘Difficult histories’
The history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is considered to be one the most challenging to teach for educators, according to experts.
“In history education, we call these ‘difficult histories'” said Gibson, who teaches future educators at UBC.
He says teachers are often left wondering how to teach topics such as this one at a time of increased polarization.
But he’s quick to relativize the significance of the proposal and the backlash it’s facing.
“I’m not convinced that just including this [in the suggested curriculum] is going to marginalize any population,” he says, adding that it’s likely the Nakba is taught in some B.C. schools already.
“I don’t know how you could teach about the history of Palestine and Israel, about the refugee issue over time and the root of that without the Nakba,” he added.
“It’s a pivotal moment, it’s a historical root issue of what we’re seeing today.”
Teachers ‘fully equipped’ to teach complex topics: minister
Asked recently about the issue, Education Minister Rachna Singh closed the door to discussions about changing the school curriculum.
“I’m leaving it to the teachers,” she said. “I feel that they are fully equipped and they have the professional judgment on how to assess their student population and how to impart these lessons. This is what my expectation is, that every child is feeling safe in their schools.”
In a statement provided to CBC/Radio-Canada, the BCTF said it would connect with the Ministry of Education and Child Care “to discuss this and other important issues B.C. teachers are facing.”
BCTF president Clint Johnston will also communicate with his members about the resolution, the statement said.