Genociders teaching about Genocide? Why are we allowing Israel to indoctrinate kiwi teachers?
I’m sorry, WHAT???
Israel Has No Place Training New Zealand Teachers About Genocide
Palestine Forum of New Zealand and Alternative Jewish Voices are calling on the Government to immediately reject any proposal to involve Israel in training New Zealand teachers about genocide, including any programme that would send New Zealand teachers to Israel for professional development.
Palestine Forum chair Maher Nazzal says the proposal is deeply inappropriate and raises serious questions about the independence and integrity of New Zealand’s education system.
“A state currently facing proceedings alleging genocide cannot reasonably be presented as an authority for teaching New Zealand educators about genocide. The contradiction is extraordinary.”
“We want to educate children about genocide, including the Holocaust. But it must not become a political exercise, nor should it be used to shield students from confronting genocide, racism, dehumanisation and mass atrocities when they are occurring in our own time. Genocide studies must address the reality that students see on their screens.”
Never again must mean never again for everyone
The Forum says New Zealand students deserve an education that examines how genocide becomes possible including racism, racial supremacy, dehumanisation, dispossession, propaganda and the denial of another people’s humanity.
“The issue is not the Holocaust; the issue is genocide,” says Marilyn Garson, co-founder of Alternative Jewish Voices (AJV). “Genocide is a category, not a single template. The Holocaust cannot carry the message alone. A fuller presentation of historic genocide must sit alongside the experience of Palestinians and others who confront occupation, dispossession, apartheid, persecution and mass violence today. History gives context to the events that students see on their screens. We inherited the vow, ‘Never Again’ and it is deeply offensive to say that of the past, but not of the actual annihilation in Gaza today.
“It is not helpful for the Jewish community to speak about its historic grief in isolation. Do not place us outside of the reciprocal obligations that come from recognising all of the losses and standing up together to prevent more. We will keep each other safe in this world, or none of us will be safe. That is one lesson to draw from genocide.”
Israel is not synonymous with Jewish people
The NZ Holocaust Centre proposes to intensify the educational exchange with Israel, by sending teachers to Israel and bringing Israeli teacher trainers to New Zealand. That choice bypasses the global community of genocide scholars and the descendants of survivors.
“Israel does not speak for Jews or Jewish experience. The Holocaust didn’t happen in Israel, and Israel has absolutely no mandate to present a history which it has weaponised for political license,” Garson says.
Teachers and students deserve independent education not political advocacy
The Forum is particularly concerned about any proposal for New Zealand teachers to travel to Israel as part of their training.
“A teacher sent to Israel to learn about genocide cannot be expected to receive a complete and politically neutral account if the programme excludes the lived reality of Palestinians,” Nazzal says.
“If teachers are shown one side while being shielded from the realities of occupation, displacement, settlement expansion, restrictions on Palestinians and the destruction in Gaza, that is not professional development. It is political advocacy.”
The Forum notes that in July 2024, the International Court of Justice concluded that Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful and that Israel is under an obligation to bring that unlawful presence to an end as rapidly as possible.
“Those findings cannot simply be ignored when Israel is being presented to New Zealand educators as a source of expertise on genocide.”
New Zealand can do better
Palestine Forum says New Zealand has the expertise to develop its own independent and academically rigorous approach.
“We have outstanding historians, educators, genocide scholars, Jewish scholars and communities, Palestinian voices, descendants of other genocide survivors, human-rights experts and international-law specialists in New Zealand and internationally.”
“We do not need to outsource the teaching of genocide to a foreign government particularly one whose own conduct is at the centre of allegations and legal proceedings concerning mass atrocities.”
Nazzal concludes:
“The Holocaust belongs to humanity. Its lessons must never be monopolised by any state or turned into a political shield. If we are serious about ‘Never Again’, then we must teach our children to recognise genocide wherever it occurs including when it is happening before their eyes.”
Palestine Forum of New Zealand and Alternative Jewish Voices call on the Government to:
- Reject any Israeli government role in training New Zealand teachers about genocide;
- Abandon any proposal to send New Zealand teachers to Israel as part of such training;
- Ensure Holocaust and genocide education is developed independently, academically and free from state political influence;
- Include the study of contemporary mass atrocities, including the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territory; and
- Ensure students understand that “Never Again” applies universally to all peoples, without exception.
Ummmmmmm.
What?
Why are we allowing Israel to indoctrinate kiwi teachers?
I mean, sure, a country currently committing war crimes so extreme that they technically breach the legal threshold of Genocide can teach about Genocide but is that really any different to asking meth addicts to run your finances?
Isn’t their advice always going to be, ‘buy more meth’?
Is it really a good idea?
Tell you what.
Let’s publish the names of every single Teacher who takes up these offers and publicise them so everyone knows who to avoid.
Simple.
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Well, this is on the obvious side, which makes one wonder, what has already gone by and well go by, under the radar. Its the long arm of power, forever spreading…
What to do, what to do…….
The only reason Israel funds people travelling to their country is to indoctrinate them. In the US it’s pretty much a bribe for faithful service for politicians of whatever stripe.