{"id":297602,"date":"2025-06-30T12:00:23","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T11:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=297602"},"modified":"2025-06-29T09:40:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T08:40:08","slug":"california-legislation-designed-to-protect-israeli-apartheid-and-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/06\/california-legislation-designed-to-protect-israeli-apartheid-and-genocide\/","title":{"rendered":"California Legislation Designed to Protect Israeli Apartheid and Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"

28 Jun 2025 – <\/em>Pro-Israel California legislators are taking a page out of Trump\u2019s playbook to prevent K-12 educators from presenting a realistic history and accurate portrayal of contemporary Israel\/Palestine. Their proposed legislation, AB 715,<\/a> a would-be model for other states, threatens to censor educational materials and instruction, punish educators who deviate from the Israel lobby\u2019s version of events, and invite Israel flag wavers to file complaints that burden school superintendents with needless investigations of teachers.<\/p>\n

It’s all about “Discrimination”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite the author’s claims that AB 715\u00a0 will strengthen protections against discrimination, including antisemitism, in K12 education, protections are already embedded in the California Education Code to prohibit discrimination on the basis of nationality, religion, ethnicity, race, gender and more.<\/p>\n

What then is the point?<\/p>\n

The answer lies in the language of the bill that both saddles administrators with policing lessons on Israel\/Palestine, and redefines nationality to include “actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics or residency in a country with a dominant religious or distinct religious identity.\u201d A Jewish student who perceives their identity as wrapped up in the nation state of Israel may take offense at discussion of history and current events that debates the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish ethno-nationalist state.<\/p>\n

In addition, AB 715 will require educators to “ensure a safe and supportive school climate,\u201d though the meaning of the words \u201csafe\u201d and \u201csupportive\u201d depends on one\u2019s point of view. While anti-Zionist Jews critical of Israel may interpret safety as disassociation from Israel\u2019s destruction of 90% of Gaza\u2019s schools, pro-Israel students might complain they feel unsafe” hearing criticism of Israel\u2019s post October 7th decimation of Gaza.<\/p>\n

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Palestinians live in an area destroyed by Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza Strip.\u00a0 \u00a9 2025 UNRWA Photo by Ashraf Amra<\/p><\/div>\n

Dropping the hammer on school administrators<\/strong><\/p>\n

Current law prohibits the California Department of Education (CDE) from adopting textbooks and supplemental materials deemed unlawfully discriminatory. AB 715 goes one giant step further to prohibit school districts, school board members and teacher trainers from allowing <\/strong>any educational materials that would subject a pupil to unlawful discrimination.<\/p>\n

“If AB 715 becomes law, fearful school administrators will micromanage the classroom,\u201d said Seth Morrison, board member of Jewish Voice for Peace-Action. \u201cPrincipals will crack down on teachers who discuss decolonization movements from Hawaii to Puerto Rico to Palestine.\u201d Morrison added, \u201cAB 715 echoes the agenda of MAGA extremists who share the goal of suppressing discussion on race history and global justice.”<\/p>\n

Antisemitism Coordinator<\/strong><\/p>\n

Should AB 715\u2019s \u201cintent\u201d section be realized in future legislation, a California “Antisemitism Coordinator” would oversee compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, forcing school districts to exhaust resources defending themselves before the California Department of Education and the federal Department of Education. Pro-Israel lobby groups such as the Anti-Defamation League have already filed Civil Rights Act antisemitism complaints against Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD),\u00a0 School District of Philadelphia, California State Polytechnic and Etiwanda School District and Santa Ana Public Schools, among others.<\/p>\n

AB 715 would add fuel to ADL fire, encouraging a nationally-boycotted organization that backed <\/a>Trump\u2019s abduction of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, to file even more complaints. Moreover, AB 715 would exceptionalize Jewish safety over the safety of Muslims, Blacks, Latinos, Indigenous and others. \u201cIt does not make Jews safer to have a special process; it separates and divides us from other vulnerable communities, further endangering us,\u201d said Liz Jackson, a Jewish parent involved in Berkeley Parents for Collective Liberation.<\/p>\n

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Seth Morrison from JVP at Calif Assembly Hearing<\/p><\/div>\n

Opponents and supporters of AB 715<\/strong><\/p>\n

Opponents of the bill in the state senate include CODEPINK-Central Coast, Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace (ICUJP) and the California Palestine Solidarity Coalition, an umbrella for Jewish Voice for Peace-Action, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Arab Resource Organizing Committee (AROC) and LIberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum.<\/p>\n

AB 715 backers, from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to the Jewish Federation, argue the legislation will curb the rising tide of antisemitic incidents in schools, though the ADL plays fast and loose with the term antisemitic, conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism to smear peace activists as enemies of the state. Chants such as \u201cFrom the river to the sea, Palestine will be free\u201d are categorized as antisemitic rather than liberatory.<\/p>\n

Senator Scott Wiener (D-SF) and Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino), co-chairs of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus and chairs of the legislature\u2019s budget committees, joined Rick Chavez-Zbur (D-Santa Monica) and Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay) to co-author AB 715 after abandoning the unpopular AB 1468, a bill to dumb down ethnic studies. Wiener, Gabriel and Zbur are cheerleaders for the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California (JPAC-CA<\/a>), a lobby organization outnumbered almost two to one this spring when AB 715 opponents (140) and supporters (74)\u00a0 testified before the assembly education committee prior to the bill\u2019s passage on the assembly floor.<\/p>\n

Chairs of the legislature\u2019s Black, AAPI and Latino caucuses have also lent their names as AB 715 co-authors, perhaps in hopes of securing funding for the still-unfunded ethnic studies discipline that, contingent on funding, was to become a high school graduation requirement by 2030.<\/p>\n

The Reality that cannot be told<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the legislature passes AB715, fearful school board members and administrators may choose to prohibit lessons on the ethnic cleansing and genocide in Palestine, even though international human rights organizations and judicial bodies have documented Israel\u2019s crimes of apartheid, occupation and genocide.<\/p>\n

Here are\u00a0 examples of such documentation:<\/p>\n

* Amnesty International investigation concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.<\/a> (Dec., 2024)<\/p>\n

* Human Rights Watch: Israel\u2019s Crime of Extermination, Acts of Genocide.<\/a> (Dec., 2024)<\/p>\n

* Amnesty International: \u201cApartheid against Palestinians: a cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity.\u201d\u2002 <\/a>\u00a0(Feb., 2022)<\/p>\n

* Human Rights Watch: \u201cA Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes.\u201d<\/a> (April, 2021)<\/p>\n

* B\u2019Tselem (leading Israeli human rights group): \u201cA regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. <\/a>(Jan., 2021)<\/p>\n

These independent reports all document a reality that would make a pro-Israel student uncomfortable, though discomfort is not a justification for censorship.<\/p>\n

\u201cRepackaging censorship under the guise of combating antisemitism does a disservice to the very real fight against hate,\u201d said Hussam Ayloush, CEO of the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.<\/p>\n

The Genocide that cannot be mentioned<\/strong><\/p>\n

If AB715 passes, discussion of Israel’s 76-year old occupation and current genocide in Gaza will be off-limits for educators concerned about becoming the target of a complaint that could cost them their job.<\/p>\n

It will not matter that Israeli leaders have been explici<\/u>t about their intentions to kill, starve and eliminate Palestinian civilians. On October 9, 2023, the Israeli Minister of Defense stated, “No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

For over 18 months Israel has relentlessly bombed the tiny Gaza Strip, preventing food, drinking water, medicines and other essentials from entering the occupied territory or, more recently, killing unarmed Gaza civilians in line to receive flour for their family. \u201cIt\u2019s a killing field,\u201d Israeli soldiers told Haaretz<\/a> in June, adding the killings were part of \u201cOperation Salted Fish\u2013the Israeli version of Red Light, Green Light. \u201cWe shoot, they run, we shoot again.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of June 26, 2025, Israel’s genocide in Gaza has led to at least 56,259 deaths and 132,458 injuries, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.<\/p>\n

In the past two years Israel has also seized land in Lebanon and Syria and launched a war with Iran. To deny California students an opportunity to hear, discuss, and debate Israel\u2019s militarism, which the US subsidizes with billions of dollars, would rob students of the education they deserve and are entitled to under State of California social science standards that set goals for teaching and learning.<\/p>\n

JPAC-CA, the chief lobbyist for AB 715, prides itself on previously tapping the state budget to secure $465 million for an agenda that includes countering antisemitism and expanding Holocaust education. What good is Holocaust education, however, if state lawmakers suppress lessons on the current genocide to stifle dissent and normalize the horror? How useful are lessons on antisemitism as a form of racism if discussion of US-Israel racism against Palestinians is taboo?<\/p>\n

California lawmakers promoting AB 715 could use a few lessons themselves.<\/p>\n

##<\/p>\n

Hearings on AB 715 are scheduled for Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in the Senate Education Committee and Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in the Senate Judiciary Committee.<\/em><\/p>\n

To send a letter to the CA Senate Education Committee in opposition to AB 715, click on the <\/em>CODEPINK action.<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

___________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rick Sterling is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network<\/em><\/a> and an investigative journalist who lives in the SF Bay Area, California. He can be contacted at <\/em>rsterling1@gmail.com<\/em><\/a> or <\/em>rsterling1@protonmail.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Marcy Winograd is a retired high school teacher and a member of the legislative team for Jewish Voice for Peace-Action. Marcy@Codepink.org<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

28 Jun 2025 – Pro-Israel California legislators are trying to prevent K-12 educators from presenting a realistic and accurate portrayal of Israel\/Palestine. Their legislation censors educational materials, punishes educators who deviate from Israeli versions, and invites complaints with needless investigations of teachers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":186639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[2491,258,865,88,2571,427,70],"class_list":["post-297602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-california","tag-education","tag-genocide","tag-israel","tag-official-lies-and-narratives","tag-palestine","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297602"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":297610,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297602\/revisions\/297610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}