This Monday is MLK Day, a national holiday to honor one of our great heroes, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
But for a group of public schoolteachers in New York City, “NYC Educators for Palestine,” Monday will be a day for Palestinian propaganda, as they will host a “Palestine Teach-In.”
The group has accused Israel of “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” and has asked city officials not to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of Jew-hatred, to end contracts with “curriculum vendors that reinforce harmful rhetoric about Palestinians and promote Zionism,” and include the “nakba and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that led to the creation of the State of Israel” in educational materials.
The flyer for the event doesn’t hide the connection with MLK: “Register for our free Palestine Teach-In for kids ages 6—18 this Jan. 19, MLK Day.”
“These teach-ins are just an attempt to indoctrinate young people into Jew hate,” NYC Public School Alliance President Karen Feldman told The New York Post. “They wine and dine them with free pizza and then they give them literature on blood libels and supporting Hamas.”
None of this hijacking should surprise us.
For decades, the Palestinian anti-Israel movement has been popularizing its cause by infiltrating any social cause that moves, what academics call “intersectionality.” Now they’re infiltrating not a cause but a day of remembrance. And instead of teaching kids about civil rights marches and King’s “I have a dream” speech, they’ll be telling them about refugee camps in Ramallah and Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza.
While “NYC Educators for Palestine” is not an official body of the NYC Department of Education (DOE), the public schoolteachers in the group are on the city’s payroll. According to DOE policy, teachers must adhere to DOE rules regarding speech and conduct.
Imagine the outcry if a group of Jewish public schoolteachers would announce a “Zionist teach-in” for MLK Day. Would Mayor Mamdani allow such a disruption of a national holiday?
The irony is that King was a proud supporter of Israel.
Which makes one wonder if at their teach-in on Monday, NYC Educators for Palestine will dare include these words which King spoke in 1968:
“We must stand with all our might to protect [Israel’s] right to exist. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.”
For the propaganda peddlers preparing to bash Zionism on MLK Day, sharing those words from King would indeed be a nakba.
Given all this politicizing, I couldn’t help thinking of another group, Spill the Honey, which produced the film “Shared Dreams, Shared Promise,” a moving reflection on the enduring alliance between African American and Jewish communities. This year, to honor Dr. King during MLK week, they’re offering congregations materials based on the film to incorporate into learning and community-wide programming.
I’m guessing Dr. King would approve.
