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NYC Public Schools Chancellor Suppresses Palestinian Voices

Above photo: Mayor Eric Adams and Chancellor David C. Banks introduce new program and division in the NYC Public Schools, on June 24, 2024. NYC Public Schools.

Silenced At School.

New York City Public Schools has been suppressing Palestinian narratives and activism. NYC Educators for Palestine has attempted to meet with Chancellor David Banks for months, but he keeps dodging our meeting.

When the students at our school made posters to raise funds for Gaza, we mentioned [in] a small paragraph stating that there is a very apparent genocide happening in Palestine. However, the day after, we were censored. Our principal… requested that we take down all posters.

NYC High School Student

Since long before “Israel’s” October 2023 escalation of the genocide against Palestinians, the New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) has both systemically erased and marginalized Palestinian narratives. This suppression comes from the top, most recently with NYCPS Chancellor David Banks’ Zionist internal communications and decision-making. Since October, Banks has taken every opportunity to reaffirm his commitment to continue his anti-intellectual conflation of Zionism and Judaism. He held press conferences and expressed support for unharmed and unvictimized Zionist students and staff who breached contracts and engaged in disruptive political actions on and off school grounds. He met and collaborated with Zionist organizations to perpetuate foreign state propaganda in curricula. He allowed Zionist hate groups to target NYCPS community members and schools with violent death threats and doxing. At the May 8th, 2024 congressional hearing assessing the response to antisemitism of three United States school districts, Banks condemned Palestinian calls for self-determination as “disgusting” and “antisemitic.” Banks’ asymmetrical response to allegations of antisemitism and to that of other forms of bigotry is tantamount to viewpoint discrimination and institutional bias.

At my school in December 2023, the administrators allowed two IDF soldiers into the building to speak to the Jewish Student Union about their account of what happened on October 7th. Many Palestinian students felt threatened. The pro-Palestinian students are being harassed and bullied by students and deans about their private social media accounts.

NYC Teacher

Despite almost a century of Zionist violence against Palestinians and the widespread targeting of anti-Zionist community members by other NYCPS community members and affiliated hate groups, Banks and the NYCPS leadership have taken a stance that ranges from silence to condemnation and discipline of those who would speak out against this violence. In recent internal communication, NYCPS leadership has passed responsibility to school administrations to suppress students’ and staff’s anti-genocide activism. This resulted in decentralized suppression of students and staff. This decentralization is key. With the pivot to the school level, the degree of suppression is muddled, and collective organizing is subverted as instances are perceived as disjointed and isolated. As highlighted in a recent letter from the NYCLU, the NYCPS guidance on political expression has led to routine and potentially unconstitutional censorship of pro-Palestine viewpoints among students and staff. This guidance has created an atmosphere of distrust, fear, and self-censorship, further marginalizing Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, Muslim-presenting, and pro-Palestinian teachers, students, and school community members within our schools.

I received an email from my principal that said some parents felt upset about my keffiyeh because it had the Palestinian colors in it. He forwarded the chancellor’s email with his email. He didn’t tell me not to wear it, but he encouraged me to think about it because of what a ‘hot button issue’ it is.

NYC Teacher

A group of educators called the NYC Educators for Palestine has collected testimony of this widespread discrimination and attempted to meet with Banks about offenses against NYCPS staff, students, and community members that include doxing, harassment, censorship, discriminatory discipline, and the imposition of a counter-factual curriculum. The NYC Educators for Palestine is a grassroots, rank-and-file, antiracist group of educators in New York City whose goal is to combat anti-intellectual, propagandistic, and Zionist curricula. They work to validate and uplift the voices of Palestinian educators, students, and community members. They have mobilized to protect doxed, harassed, disciplined, and censored members of NYC schools. Despite months of correspondence, and multiple public promises by Banks to meet with them, this meeting has yet to happen.

“The New York Post wrote at least three articles, Fox News wrote one article, and the Daily Mail wrote one article about me with a call to action to demand I be terminated for my pro-Palestine posts. I am Palestinian. I received death threats and harassment, my home address was doxxed on Twitter (since removed) and my place of work was doxxed. My school received violent threats in the calls to terminate me. I’m currently in the process of a disciplinary hearing because the DOE received ‘over 60’ formal complaints about me as a result of my identity and anti-Zionism.”

NYC Teacher

When meeting with parents and civil rights groups, Banks claimed that he had no idea that members of his school system have been targeted, doxed, and harassed. He claimed that he had no idea about the one-sided censorship and discipline of community members who express their Palestinian identity or solidarity with Palestine. He feigns ignorance while dodging meetings with affected parties. From as early as March 2024 the NYC Educators for Palestine scheduled time to meet with Banks. They navigated multiple schedule changes and cancellations by Banks’ office with at least one attempt to meet during their contractual teaching hours. When the group arrived at the long-postponed meeting on June 12, 2024, they were told that Banks could not meet with them. In an email sent by the NYC Educators for Palestine to Banks’ office after his no-show, they stated, “Our objective [was] to generate next steps to protect and support Palestinian and pro-Palestinian educators, students, and families. We planned to discuss how we can center and strengthen instruction on Palestinian history and heritage and work toward a more just and intellectually responsible curriculum.”

In school, we learn about past genocides, such as the Nanjing Massacre and the Holocaust. However, it feels like the DOE treats the genocide of Palestinians as if it’s nothing and do not attempt to teach us about it in any way. Because we are not being taught about it, we wanted to teach each other about it. Regarding Nakba Day… [our principal] denied us playing a Palestinian song, even though he had previously agreed to the song when it was requested by our Asian Student Union. I felt disgusted and I felt like my voice truly did not matter, especially as a Muslim student. It was appalling because everyone talks about freedom of speech but we’re restricted when we use that freedom. In a school that values diversity, we were silenced from bringing our diversity to bear.

NYC High School Student

NYCPS curricular resources are deliberately and dangerously one-sided. They center and promote Israeli perspectives. They repeatedly and exclusively frame Palestinian resistance as terrorism. Although Banks has said, “Our job as educators is to expose our students to objective facts and multiple perspectives, allowing them to make their own judgments and grow as independent and critical thinkers,” NYCPS imposed curriculum fails to adequately provide information about the Palestinians’ perspectives and experiences. There is no acknowledgment of the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. Two standouts among the propaganda-as-curriculum imposed by NYCPS are the Institute for Curriculum Services (ICS) and Facing History & Ourselves.

Our peers at Brooklyn Tech have stated that they have felt unsafe when other students walk around wearing Israeli flags and threatened Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students as well as pro-Palestinian students in general. When they report this to administration, they are silenced and their fears are not acknowledged.

NYC High School Student

The NYCPS is engaged in systemic bias and active discrimination against Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims and Muslim-presenting folks, and anyone who would show solidarity with these groups. These exist in NYCPS mandated curriculum, in selective application of NYCPS policies, in disregard for the safety of school communities targeted by Zionists, in carefully worded emails to school leaders directing them to suppress student activism and expressions of identity, and in the censorship and discipline of Palestinian and allied NYCPS community members. One student noted, “My teachers are afraid they’ll get in trouble if they talk about Palestine.”

Banks has an obligation to meet with NYCPS teachers to address this ongoing discrimination. In their email to Banks’ office, the NYC Educators for Palestine point out, “the inability to secure even one hour of your time is deeply disheartening and calls into question your stated commitment to equitable and open dialogue among members of NYCPS.” They affirm that they “remain committed to [their] students and communities and expect the same level of commitment and respect from [their] leaders.” They call on Chancellor Banks to honor his commitment to address these critical issues and work towards creating a truly supportive and inclusive environment for all educators and students.

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