January 29, 2007
Why can't teachers unions ever just focus on the quality of their teaching?
From: Yahoo News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20070117/ca_pr_on_na/teachers_condemning_israel
Teacher's anti-Israel resolution angers Jewish group, parents, splits union
By: COLIN PERKEL
Wed Jan 17, 4:56 PM ET
TORONTO (CP) - Two Ontario high school teachers who want their union to condemn Israel's treatment of Palestinians have angered Jewish groups and raised questions about the politicization of classrooms.
The teachers' motion, to be debated Thursday, has also unleashed a torrent of abuse against beleaguered union executives, who say critics fail to understand how democratic organizations function.
"The level of discourse has been just incredibly low and vile," Doug Jolliffe, president of the Toronto district of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, said Wednesday.
"But to turn and say we cannot have any kind of discussions on this... It's not Holocaust denial, where there is no argument to be made."
The motion put forward by Jason Kunin, an English teacher and Jewish activist who has frequently criticized Israeli government policies, and Hyssam Hulays, a computer science teacher, decries "Israel's continued violation of the human rights of Palestinians."
Among other things, the Toronto teachers want the union to develop classroom materials on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and to support an international boycott of Israel.
Their motion also calls on the union to press Prime Minister Stephen Harper to criticize Israel's "aggression" against Gaza and Lebanon, and to end sanctions against the Palestinians' Hamas government.
Neither Kunin nor Hulays returned calls to their schools Wednesday.
The motion, similar to one passed by the Ontario branch of the Canadian Union of Public Employees last spring, has alarmed pro-Jewish groups such as B'nai Brith.
They argue that egregious human-rights abuses in other countries are ignored, there's no condemnation of Palestinian violence, and criticism of Israeli policies can quickly bleed into anti-Semitism.
The group has urged subscribers to its e-mail alert list to speak out against what it calls "inherently, one-sided, biased propaganda."
Anita Bromberg, a lawyer for B'nai Brith, said the group is also concerned by the prospect of unbalanced and potentially damaging teaching material finding its way into class.
"If it's based on biased, one-sided rhetoric, that kind of propaganda in the classroom can be nothing short of a tool of racism in the wrong hands," Bromberg said.
"There's no doubt that one's personal beliefs can form the basis of debate in the classroom."
Jolliffe, who neither supports the motion nor believes it will pass, said B'nai Brith is trying to stifle the right of union members to put forward motions.
About 150 of the federation's Toronto activists are expected at the union's District 12 monthly council meeting Thursday where the motion will be debated.
Rhonda Kimberley-Young, provincial president of the 60,000-member teachers federation, said she was "disappointed" at the attention paid to a motion that hadn't even been discussed yet.
"This is two members in one bargaining unit in one district trying to raise an issue for local debate," Kimberley-Young said.
"I am frustrated because it is a highly sensitive issue, a highly divisive issue (and) to have an irresponsible public debate on this can be quite fractious."
The federation, which is divided into 130 bargaining units in 35 districts across the province, has neither considered nor endorsed the motion, she stressed.
Copyright 2007 - The Canadian Press
