Black Lives Matter (BLM) at School, an organization endorsed by the nation’s largest teachers’ unions, is recommending resources for K-12 educators to teach that lives lost in the ongoing Middle Eastern war should be blamed on “Israeli settler colonialism.”
“Education should be wielded in service of struggle,” the group declared, calling on Americans teachers to include in their teaching the “truth” about the “ongoing struggle to realize a free Palestine.” It recommended over a dozen links to books, websites, and articles aimed to help teachers approach the topic from a pro-Palestinian perspective.
One of the links directs to Decolonize Palestine, a Palestinian apologist website aiming to “debunk” what it called “myths” and “misunderstandings” such as that Israel is defending itself. Another leads to a curriculum about anti-Semitism, which explores why “criticism of Israel has been falsely equated with anti-Semitism” and how it is related to “state violence, racial construction, and capitalism.”
The resources also included articles explaining to teachers what is and why they should support the controversial Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to apply economic pressure on the Israeli government to change its Palestinian policies.
“Palestinians are reminding us that decolonization is not a metaphor or abstraction, but requires real, daily struggle,” BLM at School said.
It also produce textbooks, guides, and lesson plans that correspond to a set of BLM values, known as the “13 Principles.” These principles include the call for “black family” model that frees the mother from “patriarchal practices;” the return of collective “black villages,” described as “the disruption of Western-prescribed nuclear family structure;” and the “trans-affirming” commitment to “dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift Black trans folk.”
“Everybody has the right to choose their own gender by listening to their own heart and mind. Everyone gets to choose if they are a girl or a boy or both or neither or something else, and no one else gets to choose for them,” reads a teaching guide on how to use “age-appropriate language” to introduce the 13 principles to children as young 5 years old.
The AFT, headed by Randi Weingarten, who married a female rabbi of a progressive congregation in New York City, was the first to condemn Hamas and express solidarity with Israel.
“We unequivocally stand with the Israeli people against the heinous and inhuman attack by Hamas against innocent civilians,” said Ms. Weingarten. “The unconscionable attacks on innocent people, including young people at a concert, babies and grandmothers, must be condemned in the strongest terms.”
The NEA, meanwhile, didn’t issue an official statement until Tuesday, the same day BLM at School published its pro-Palestinian teaching resources.
“The horror of what Hamas terrorists did can never be justified, and we condemn their attack on civilians that led to the brutal and massive loss of life, the kidnapping of innocent people, and the shattering of so many lives,” NEA President Becky Pringle said, calling on educators to combat the “dangerous rise in anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim bigotry” in American classrooms.
The move also comes as several activist groups operating under the BLM banner drew widespread criticism after celebrating and trying to justify the brutal terror attacks Hamas unleashed on Israel.
In a now-deleted post on X, a BLM organization in Chicago shared an image of a Hamas paraglider with the caption reading, “I Stand With Palestine.” Following intense backlash, BLM Chicago took down the post and said it wasn’t “proud of” the message, but insisted tat “the people will do what they must to live free.”
“Yesterday we sent out msgs that we aren’t proud of. We stand with Palestine & the people who will do what they must to live free,” BLM Chicago wrote. “Our hearts are with, the grieving mothers, those rescuing babies from rubble, who are in danger of being wiped out completely.”
Another national BLM group, known as Black Lives Matter Grassroots, published a statement to its Instagram page that read, “Black Lives Matter Grassroots stands in solidarity with our Palestinian family who are currently resisting 57 years of settler colonialism and apartheid.” The caption changed the statement, clarifying it should be “75 YEARS,” not 57.
The BLM Global Network Foundation, the flagship organization of the BLM movement, reportedly said it is not connected to either of those BLM offshoots.
