The Anti-Semitic PDSB Catastrophe
Another Ontario school board ignores the Minister's direction to go "back to basics"
By
“After the horrifying events on Oct. 7, I made my expectations clear to all school boards that there is no room for influence of personal opinions or personal world views in Ontario classrooms.
“At a time when so many Canadians are divided, it is critical that schools bring people together, not further divide our society and students. The Peel District School Board should reverse their decision and leave politics outside of the classroom.” - Stephen Lecce, Ontario Minister of Education
On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, declared the independence of Israel as a sovereign nation. The ceremony began at 4pm and it took Ben-Gurion 17-minutes to read the entire 664-word Declaration of Establishment of the State of Israel.1 Throughout the day Jews had taken to the streets to sing Hatikvah (the national anthem of Israel) in anticipation of Ben-Gurion’s announcement. From then on, Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s independence day holiday, has been celebrated on the 14th of May.
However, jubilation on this historic day in 1948 was cut short by the imminence of invasion. Indeed, within a day of Ben-Gurion’s declaration, Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, and Iraq had entered Palestine taking control of Arab areas and attacking Israeli forces and Jewish villages. The First Arab-Israeli War, known as the War of Independence, lasted until 1949 and claimed the lives of 6,373 Israelis (1% of the population) and an estimated 7,000 Arab lives.2 It ended with a decisive victory for Israel.
Israel’s Arab neighbours have never been able to get over this humiliating defeat. Indeed, according to Islam, once a land has been conquered, it must forever remain Islamic. Palestinians mark May 15th as the Nakba - the full name in Arabic is Dhikra an-Nakba, which means Memory of the Catastrophe.
Last week, it was discovered that Nakba Remembrance Day (May 15) was added to the Peel District School Board’s Days of Significance 2023-24 calendar. As Toronto Sun columnist, Brian Lilley pointed out, “We shouldn’t be including a day denouncing a fellow democracy, calling its existence a catastrophe, in our school system in any way.”3
It makes no sense why any person or institution in the West would encourage the Islamic view that Israel belongs to Islam, or that Israel is not a legitimate state. What is wrong with the people at PDSB? They can’t seem to stop doing activism and identity politics even though the Minister of Education has ordered they go “back to basics.”
Canadians need to keep in mind that Israel is our ally. It is a liberal democracy, with a high standard of human rights and the rule of law. In Canada, there are many productive Jewish citizens. They don’t cause trouble, on the contrary, they make an invaluable contribution. Can the same be said about the hoards of Muslim Palestinian supporters who are engaging in and spreading antisemitism, and calling for the destruction of Israel, America, and the West in general, under the guise of Free Palestine advocacy?
Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East. The other countries in the region are Islamic and do not value the liberal rights and freedoms that Israel does. The Islamic world is entirely at odds with the cultural values of Canada. The lion share of world terrorism comes from Islam. Jews, Christians, and the West are the hated targets of radical Islam. Yet over and over, Canadian institutions act like Israel is our enemy, and Islam is our ally. On both accounts, one couldn’t be more wrong.
As reported by the Canadian Jewish News (CJN), the Jewish Educators and Family Association of Canada (JEFA) has launched an online campaign from within the Jewish community, encouraging people to write to Lecce protesting the addition of Naqba (or Nakba) Remembrance Day.
The suggested wording for a letter states: “Including the ‘Naqba Remembrance Day’ marks the first time a school board in Canada has officially adopted a day of significance that is in objection to the independence of a sovereign, democratically elected country…. This marks a dangerous precedent with other school boards now facing mounting pressure to follow suit.”
Also from CJN, a comment from Tamara Gottlieb (a founding member of JEFA):
“We’re now in a situation that’s quite serious for both Jewish teachers and Jewish students in terms of their safety in schools and their regular exposure to antisemitism. Somebody has to stop pointing fingers and start taking action.”
“It’s not that the community wants the Nakba Remembrance Day removed. They do, but actually the goal is to have an education system where parents don’t have to spend every moment of their day policing the system, because that’s what it’s come to right now. And that’s a totally unfair burden to place on parents.”
In February Minister Lecce intervened in the Toronto District School Board by urging that they remove a politically divisive anti-racism teaching resource called Facilitating Critical Conversations that accused Education in Ontario of white supremacy. The TDSB has since removed the resource.
It remains to be seen if the PDSB will remove Nakba Remembrance Day from their Days of Significance calendar. Or if they will truly return to a back to basics approach to teaching and leave the politics out of the classroom, as they have been directed to do by the Education Minister.
I checked the PDSB’s Days of Significance calendar this morning and the Nakba Remembrance Day was still listed. When one considers what Israelis and Jewish Canadians have been going through since the October 7th massacre where over 1200 Israelis were murdered at the hands of Palestinian Hamas terrorists, it is nothing short of shocking and sickening that there are Critical Social Justice activists masquerading in their various administrative or education roles at PDSB, who see nothing wrong with their insensitivity and constant injection of social justice politics into absolutely everything.
The sense I get, is that few of the Critical Social Justice types who have infiltrated Ontario education, are smart enough to know how awful their actions are. It’s time these people start listening to the Minister, and to parents! It’s way past time they get back to basics. Canadians are fed up with biased politics in the classroom. Get back to academics, or get out!
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Thanks for reading. For more on Israel, read James Pew’s two long-form essay’s 1) The Case for Israel and 2) Israel, A Promised Land - a third installment is in the works.
BREAKING NEWS:
A new long-form essay by Dr. M - Fulcrum and Pivot: The New Left Remaking of Toronto School Policy
James Pew has contributed a chapter to the new book Grave Error: How The Media Misled us (And the Truth about Residential Schools). You can read about it here - The Rise of Independent Canadian Researchers
Also, for more evidence of the ideological indoctrination in Canadian education, read Yes, schools are indoctrinating kids! And also, Yes, The University is an Indoctrination Camp!
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No absolutely not this conflict was started by Palestinians kidnapping raping and killing innocent civilians the Jewish faction is not rioting in the streets of Canadian cities, blocking traffic, assaulting other Canadians, dissing Canada, shouting death to America.
MY OPINION is any Canadian siding with Palestinians is a traitor and should be ashamed to be one.
They say “hindsight is 20/20,” that warnings are often missed. I always thought education was to remind people of signs of history repeating itself, but that clearly isn’t happening in Woke captured indoctrinated institutions. I’ve yet to meet a “progressive” who admits they were wrong about bad ideologies they hysterically bought into.
Those who drunk the Woke and Radical Kool-aid cannot see the Trojan horse is already inside the gates. Not long ago, Canadians from all walks of life had respect, made contributions, were proud of Canada and its history, tried to assimilate. However, after years of lies, dumbing down and propaganda Western nations are being fragmented. By canceling the truth, allowing racists to be racist, normalize attacking others by those who play victim, repeating lies over and over until accepted, appeasing fanatics.
The result will be a divided nation, followed by violence and medieval chaos. Look at a map of the Middle East and North Africa, with many examples, such as Lebanon, where Beirut was once known as “Paris of the Middle East.” Now that demographics shifted, it’s known as something far less flattering. A famous individual once said, “forgive them father, for they know not what they do.” Who are the real occupiers/conquerer’s? Looking at the map it is clear, It’s Not the Jews!