Israel Advocacy Groups Seek Changes in Virginia School Textbooks
By: J. Michael Springmann Arab America Contributing Writer
In the midst of National Arab American Heritage Month, an initiative which seeks to educate teachers and students about the Arab American heritage, it’s ironic to learn of an effort by pro-Israel advocacy groups to change social studies textbooks vis-a-vis Palestine and Israel.
According to the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, Inc. (a Washington-based nonprofit organization that studies U.S.-Middle East policy), groups closely connected to Israel are seeking changes in textbooks used by the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Continuing a long-standing policy of apparent thought control, the California-based Institute for Curriculum Services (ICS) is pushing for more favorable treatment of Israel in U.S. school books. As stated on its website, ICS “work[s] with teachers, publishers, and community members to ensure that all students receive accurate, standards-based K-12 social studies education on Jewish history.” www.icsresources.org/why-choose-ics
ICS, hand in hand with such Zionist-centric organizations as the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, the Jewish Community Relations Committee (JCRC) of Richmond, and the JCRC of Tidewater, has demanded that the Commonwealth make the following changes to its instructional materials:
1. Deletion of references to Israel “occupying” territories captured during the 1967 Six-Day War and substituting “controlled.” International conventions clearly outline the responsibility of occupying powers and the illegality of collective punishment and population transfers.
2. Changes to maps to recognize Israel’s declared “annexation” of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. The U.S. and most other countries do not officially recognize Israeli annexation of either territory.
3. Substitution of references to “occupied territories” to “captured areas.”
4. Substitution of references to “Jewish settlers” and “settlements” with “building of homes and communities.”
5. Deletion of a lesson reviewing a video documentary by Iranian-American religious studies scholar, author, producer and television host Reza Aslan.
6. Deletion of an activity based on reading the biography and work of Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi.
7. Substitution of an editorial cartoon titled “The Mideast Peace Game Rules” with a cartoon of an Arab suicide terrorist holding a “Road Map to Peace” game hostage.
In a January webcast, ICS chief Aliza Craimer Elias claimed that According to their release, “working behind the scenes” through state advocacy organizations ICS had successfully made more than 11,000 changes to U.S. textbooks.
Publishers of the textbooks targeted for modification include National Geographic, Prentice Hall, Five Ponds Press, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and McGraw-Hill. Please note the major publishing houses targeted. www.irmep.org/about/default.asp
On April 17, 2018, Arab America contacted, Dr. Steven Constantine, Acting Supervisor of Public Instruction, Virginia Department of Education. Although unavailable for comment, his office referred us to Charles Pyle, the department’s Communications Director, who responded. (See below).
Arab America also contacted and left a message for Daniel Staffenberg, Chief Executive Officer of the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond, noting he was on deadline for Arab America and seeking an official statement on the this project as soon as possible. (The Federation’s website states that it is “the central fundraising, community planning, …and outreach arm of the Jewish community”. www.jewishrichmond.org. Staffenberg did not reply.
COMMENT: The proposed changes were submitted to the Virginia Department of Education on February 28, 2018. According to an email we received on April 17 from Charles Pyle, Communications Director for the Virginia Department of Education, the “Virginia Board of Education revises its list of approved history textbooks every seven years. Publishers are required to provide proof that submitted textbooks have been reviewed for accuracy by qualified historians. Submitted textbooks are then reviewed by committees of Virginia history teachers and recommended for approval based on alignment with the commonwealth’s history standards. Approval by the state board of a final list typically comes 12 months after publishers are invited to submit textbooks for review.”
As Pyle noted, this process was completed on March 22, 2018. He added that the public may comment on course book content and that the various Jewish organizations had already done so. Their observations were sent to the publishers without further remarks or recommendations from the Commonwealth.
Readers will note that, in the past, Saudi schools in the Washington, D.C. area were savaged for alleged textbook statements about Israel. Additionally, Saudi schools abroad were targeted for their treatment of the Zionist “state”.
The Israelis, in their hubris and colossal arrogance, have attacked American textbook publishers, such as McGraw-Hill, because their books showed maps not to the Izzies’ liking. E.g.,
The book, Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World, was taken off McGraw-Hill Education’s website and slated for recall and destruction in recent weeks following complaints about the maps…
The book features four maps of what is now Israel, Gaza and the West Bank and says that it shows “Palestinian loss of land” from 1946 to 2000, with which many historians and supporters of Israel strongly disagree. The critics of these maps argue that they distort key facts, such as Jewish ownership of land before Israel became a country in 1948. McGraw-Hill Education received complaints over the maps from advocates of Israel. http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/US-textbook-recalled-for-publication-of-maps-deemed-biased-against-Israel-447627
Ultimately, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”. (Attributed to John Philpot Curran, 1750-1817, in a slightly different wording; Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations.) Arabs and Arab-Americans must do as the Zionists do and monitor U.S. textbook publishers for their output–and denounce them vigorously and vociferously should they accede to Zionist hasbara (Hebrew for “explanation”, in reality, propaganda).
Note the Seal of the Commonwealth: Virtue triumphant over Tyranny. The Latin translates as “Thus always to tyrants”. Let’s help Virtue and Virginia fight the Zionist tyrants.
You will find more information about Virginia’s textbook review and approval process here:
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/instruction/textbooks/review_process/index.shtml.
Michael Springmann is an attorney, author, and political commentator. He has written Visas for Al Qaeda: CIA Handouts That Rocked The World and a second book Goodbye, Europe? Hello, Chaos? Merkel’s Migrant Bomb. Both are available on Amazon. The books’ website is: www.michaelspringmann.com