Progressive activists inside the Oakland teachers’ union decided to skip regular lesson plans today in favor of a pro-Palestinian ‘Teach-In’ during which students as young as kindergarteners were taught that I is for Intifada.

The lesson plans made available to teachers in a Google document for the Wednesday teach-in included a Palestinian-themed alphabet book for transitional kindergarten through third-grade students, with the letter I representing “intifada,” a word historically connected to the armed uprisings by Palestinians against Israeli occupation and control of disputed land. Another lesson for the early elementary grades encouraged students to identify what they “will chant at a Palestine protest.”

The NY Times has more on the curriculum for this event.

The suggested curriculum celebrates Palestinian music, food and poetry and recommends videos on the region’s politics from PBS and Vox. The curriculum also condemns antisemitism and states, “We must ensure that our Jewish students and colleagues feel safe, supported and heard at school.”

Much of the recommended content came from Pro-Palestinian advocacy groups.

A coloring book for elementary students features a Palestinian character who says, “A group of bullies called Zionists wanted our land so they stole it by force and hurt many people.” It also introduces the argument that Palestinian refugees have a right to return to the land that makes up the Jewish state.

So they want Jews to feel safe even as they teach five year olds that anyone who supports the state of Israel is a bully who should be opposed. I’m sure that’s going to work out well.

The union itself initially said this wasn’t a sanctioned event and then changed their minds and endorsed it Monday. Meanwhile the district is reminding teachers that they are not allowed to offer a purely partisan curriculum on any topic.

Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell cautioned teachers to adhere to district policy regarding the instruction of controversial issues, which includes presenting such content impartially and with factual information.

“I want to again make clear that our expectation is that all educators, in every classroom across the District, take seriously their responsibility to adhere to principles of education, and to keep their personal beliefs out of the classroom,” she said in a statement Monday.

District officials did not respond to requests for information on what actions the district would take if educators violated the policy.

Teach-in organizers pushed back, saying the superintendent was attempting to intimidate educators and that the district’s recommended curriculum was “blatantly biased.”

Jewish organizations have noticed that the events of Oct. 7 don’t seem to be mentioned in the new curriculum, which is really all you need to know about it.

Jewish agencies, including the Jewish Community Relations Council and the American Jewish Committee, have strongly criticized the material as biased, inaccurate and inflammatory.

One of the biggest bones of contention is that the material does not mention the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, doesn’t explain that the state of Israel was born out of the Holocaust and defines a Zionist as a bloodthirsty land grabber who wants a state only for Jews.

To many Jews, the word Zionism simply means a love for Israel and a belief that Jews should have a safe homeland to live in.

“We are deeply concerned,” AJC Rabbi Serena Eisenberg said. “Some lesson plans have not been approved and they are simplified materials that promote stereotypes and factual inaccuracies. We expect teachers to teach math and reading and science. They’re not supposed to be promoting their own political views in the classroom.”

But that’s precisely what is happening in Oakland. As you might expect, Jewish parents in the district aren’t happy about this.

Shira Avoth, an Israeli American and the mother of an Oakland seventh grader, said the teach-in was not her son’s first encounter at school with criticism of Israel. His English teacher, she said, had displayed a poster with the message “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”…

Ms. Avoth, 49, said the teach-in curriculum amounted to “misinformation” and disputed what she characterized as its portrayal of Israelis as white colonizers from Europe, which omits the fact that many Israelis, like her own family, were expelled from other Middle Eastern countries.

She said that her son had planned to attend school on Wednesday ready to discuss the topic. “He feels he should show up and represent himself,” she said.

It’s interesting to see how relatively easy it is for a group of far left unionists to supplant the curriculum and disregard the superintendent and parents. You can imagine what would happen if a right-wing group attempted this on any current hot topic including this one. The outrage would be intense. But all it takes in Oakland is an entirely one-sided YouTube video like the one created by the organizers of this event.