The Politics of Teaching Palestine to Americans

"MJK-N: The book has three major components. It starts with a history of how American Jews have been indoctrinated with Zionism, particularly since 1967. I explore the way that American Hebrew schools slowly replaced subjects like the Bible and Hebrew with a Zionist curriculum and how various changes in the political landscape emboldened their curriculum. The second chapter covers coexistence, otherwise known as normalization. Many former Zionists, myself included, often look to Palestinian and Israeli coexistence as a paradigm that seems deceptively logical as a way to achieve "peace," whether used in an educational or activist context. I explore both coexistence programs like Seeds of Peace, as well as literary and cinematic texts that portray normalization; these are often texts that get adopted for classroom use because their politics are palatable even to liberal Zionists. The final two chapters are the heart and soul of the book. It shifts from these negative models of Zionism or soft Zionism into illustrating how one should teach Americans about Palestine. I use a framework, inspired by educators like Paolo Freire and Howard Zinn, to provide teachers with both texts they can use in the classroom to teach American students about Palestine as well as a method they can adopt in order to do so in a way that is respectful of Palestinian voices and rights."


Dear Marcy talks about her book on Jadaliyya


http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/3607/new-texts-out-now_marcy-jane-knopf-newman-the-poli