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<h1 class="page__title title balance-text" id="page-title">US public
school program comes under Israel lobby pressure</h1>
<header class="node__header">
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/charlotte-silver"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"
datatype="">Charlotte Silver</a></span> <span class="field
field-location"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/location/san-francisco"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"
datatype=""></a></span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single" property="dc:date"
datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-09-03T17:11:00+00:00">3
September 2015<br>
<b><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/us-public-school-program-comes-under-israel-lobby-pressure/14819">https://electronicintifada.net/content/us-public-school-program-comes-under-israel-lobby-pressure/14819</a></small></small></b><br>
</span></span> </p>
</header>
<p>An Israel advocacy group’s campaign to thwart implementation of
an Arabic language program in San Francisco public schools has
ended in failure.</p>
<p>Last May, the board of the San Francisco Unified School District
unanimously passed a <a
href="https://rpnorton.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/arabic-vietnamese-path-fewer-haney.pdf">resolution</a>
to implement Arabic and Vietnamese into the city’s Language
Pathways program. The program was established more than 40 years
ago to <a
href="http://web.sfusd.edu/Services/translation/Lists/Translated%20Documents%20Archive/Attachments/204/Lau%20Plan%20for%20Parents%209.09-ENG.pdf">ensure</a>
that students from an array of language backgrounds receive equal
access to education.</p>
<p>San Francisco has one of the most progressive language programs
in the United States, providing learning opportunities in <a
href="http://www.sfusd.edu/en/assets/sfusd-staff/programs/files/english-learners/2015-16%20EL%20Program%20Guide%20-%20English.pdf">more
than a dozen languages</a>.</p>
<p>But soon after the May resolution passed, board members began
hearing complaints about the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/aroc">Arab Resource
and Organizing Center</a>, a San Francisco Bay Area-based
activism group which campaigned for the language program. The
complaints came from people who had been mobilized by the local
chapter of the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/jewish-community-relations-council">Jewish
Community Relations Council</a>, a subsidiary of the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/jcpa">Jewish Council
for Public Affairs</a>.</p>
<p>JCPA is an umbrella organization that lists 125 JCRC chapters
around the country. It co-founded the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/israel-action-network">Israel
Action Network</a>, a $6 million initiative devoted to
combatting the “delegitimization” of Israel by attacking
grassroots activism expressing solidarity with Palestine.</p>
<h2>“Political agenda”</h2>
<p>In June, JCRC leaders Rosalind Franklin and <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/rabbi-doug-kahn">Rabbi
Doug Kahn</a> met with the superintendent of the school district
and president of the board of education to present their concerns
about the city working with AROC.</p>
<p>In a follow-up letter, Franklin and Kahn cast AROC as a “hateful
and inflammatory” group and state that it “has a political agenda
that is anathema to peaceful, inclusive and civil discourse.”</p>
<p>JCRC excoriate AROC’s anti-Zionist activism in the Bay Area,
including their part in the successful <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/block-boat">Block the
Boat</a> campaign.</p>
<p>AROC was a central organizer with other local activist groups and
labor unions to <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/bay-area-activists-declare-victory-after-israeli-carrier-cancels-all-ships">successfully
prevent</a> the unloading of an Israeli cargo ship at the Port
of Oakland during the assault on Gaza last summer.</p>
<p>The JCRC’s letter asserts that Zionist students and teachers
would not feel safe with AROC serving as a school resource.</p>
<h2>Bullying</h2>
<p>JCRC has a long history of bullying institutions from working
with groups it views as sympathetic to Palestinians. In 2011, it <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/gaza-childrens-images-war-censored-under-pressure-us-israel-lobby/10373">attempted
to prevent a local museum from displaying children’s art from
Gaza</a> after Israel’s 2008-2009 attack.</p>
<p>Authors of resolutions for San Francisco’s school district have a
30-day window to rewrite a resolution after it has been passed.
JCRC pressured the authors to rewrite the resolution to exclude
AROC as a partner while trying to rally support from other board
members and community organizations to cast AROC as a hate group.</p>
<p>JCRC’s Franklin and Kahn wrote in a letter to Noah Sochet, a
member and former chair of the Peace and Justice Commission in the
neighboring city of Berkeley who had given his support for AROC,
that the group “has expressed overt ‘hatred’ against those who
believe in the Jewish people’s right to freedom from oppression
and for national self-determination.”</p>
<p>JCRC’s letter also tries to portray AROC’s executive director, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/lara-kiswani">Lara
Kiswani</a>, as someone who promotes hate. JCRC selectively
quoted Kiswani from a local <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZMp83syN40">panel
discussion</a> about a boycott resolution <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/student-workers-have-spoken-us-labor-union-backs-israel-boycott">put
to vote among student workers</a> at the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/university-california">University
of California</a> last November.</p>
<p>During board meetings, AROC members told The Electronic Intifada,
JCRC showed a heavily edited clip of Kiswani as she placed the
Palestine liberation movement into a political context.</p>
<p>Kiswani told The Electronic Intifada that JCRC was trying to cast
AROC as a hate group so that the city could no longer work with
them.</p>
<h2>Smear campaign</h2>
<p>For some on the school board, the question boiled down to the
mere fact that AROC is an anti-Zionist organization, Kiswani said.</p>
<p>By the time the 30-day window closed, none of the three original
authors were willing to reintroduce the bill.</p>
<p>Kiswani says the Arabic Pathways program will emphasize culture
and history and give all students a chance to broaden their
understanding of the Arab world.</p>
<p>According to AROC, there is a growing Arab community in San
Francisco with an increasing number of refugees from Yemen and
Syria.</p>
<p>While its political organizing attracts more media attention,
AROC has been working with the city for years to improve services
to the Arab community. In 2012 they successfully lobbied the city
to provide Arabic language interpreters across the school
district.</p>
<h2>Core values</h2>
<p>JCRC’s attack on AROC’s involvement with San Francisco’s public
schools takes place within a broader effort by Israel lobby groups
to conflate criticism of Israeli policies with anti-Semitism and
hate speech.</p>
<p>The board’s acceptance of AROC as a partner with the school
district despite the JCRC’s protest has been seen as an implicit
rejection of the characterization of anti-Zionist groups as hate
groups.</p>
<p>“The city has a history of working with social justice
organizations that are anti-racist and hold anti-Zionism as a core
value,” Kiswani said. “AROC [is] one of them. The attempt by JCRC
to censor and repress this work failed.”</p>
<p><em>Charlotte Silver is a journalist based in San Francisco.
Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/CharESilver">@CharESilver</a></em>.</p>
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