{"id":22507,"date":"2015-05-18T03:41:23","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T07:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=22507"},"modified":"2015-05-25T15:09:52","modified_gmt":"2015-05-25T19:09:52","slug":"profs-whose-jerusalem-common-core-lesson-teaches-students-to-support-hamas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/profs-whose-jerusalem-common-core-lesson-teaches-students-to-support-hamas\/","title":{"rendered":"Prof’s ‘Whose Jerusalem?’ Common Core lesson teaches students to support Hamas"},"content":{"rendered":"

A \u201cWhose Jerusalem?\u201d workshop\u00a0created by a Boston University professor that\u2019s\u00a0been taught in many high schools in recent years\u00a0and was added to the Common Core-approved national curriculum has come under fire\u00a0by critics who contend it\u00a0whitewashes terrorism, promotes\u00a0an anti-Israel and anti-American political agenda, and encourages young people to sympathize with Hamas.<\/p>\n

Americans for Peace and Tolerance released an expose\u00a0video<\/a>\u00a0April 23 that aims to prove\u00a0\u201cWhose Jerusalem?\u201d fails \u201cto meet the basic rules of evidence and logic and attempt[s] to indoctrinate students, especially Jewish students, against the state of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The workshop teaches that Hamas \u2013 a U.S.-designated terrorist group \u2013 and Fatah are political parties that support \u201cmore peaceful means than intifada,\u201d among other lessons.\u00a0The group\u00a0argues<\/a>\u00a0the lesson\u00a0abandons \u201cacademic integrity\u201d and enlists students as political activists for an ideological cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite its bias and serious flaws, the …\u00a0workshop is Common Core compliant,\u201d APT president Charles Jacobs said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0workshop\u2019s\u00a0curriculum<\/a>, designed for students in middle and high schools,\u00a0requires students\u00a0play the parts of Arab, Israeli, or American leaders to negotiate a \u201cBATNA\u201d (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement) for the division of Jerusalem using the materials provided by the workshop.<\/p>\n

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According to Americans for Peace and Tolerance\u2019s video, the workshop also includes exercises that asks instructors to have Jewish students empathize with Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group that calls for the death of all Jews in its founding charter.\u00a0\"CC1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Boston University Profesor Carl Hobert, who developed the workshop, has defined\u00a0\u201cWhose Jerusalem?\u201d as \u201ceducational civil disobedience\u201d guided by a hands-on approach.\u00a0Included in APT\u2019s\u00a0video<\/a>\u00a0is a clip of Hobert speaking to an audience about the simulations done in his workshop on the Arab-Israeli conflict. When describing the roles students play in the simulation he says:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a student goes, I am devoutly Jewish and I\u2019ve got family members in Israel. I would like to be a member of Likud Party. Guess what we make that student? A member of Hamas.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In APT\u2019s\u00a0video<\/a>, Hobert is also quoted saying that students learn through the workshop that Hamas and Fatah are political parties that support \u201cmore peaceful means than intifada.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>APT uses the lesson plan’s paperwork to show students are taught to equate these \u201cpolitical parties\u201d with Israel\u2019s democratically elected parties, such as Likud and Labor.<\/span>
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\nThe workshop\u00a0also suggests an equivalence\u00a0between the use of military drones by the United States and terrorist suicide bombing.\u00a0<\/span>APT\u2019<\/span>s\u00a0<\/span><\/span>video<\/a>\u00a0shows Hobert telling students that drones\u00a0\u201c<\/span>kill people who \"CC2\"<\/a>are <\/span><\/span>supposedly <\/i>terrorists.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0He asks,\u00a0\u201c<\/span>Isn\u2019<\/span>t that a form of terrorism?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hobert did openly\u00a0admit<\/a>\u00a0in an interview with\u00a0Al-Jazeera<\/i>\u00a0that through these exercises students will learn to \u201cput pressure on our government to create a Palestinian state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noam Chomsky of MIT and Denis Sullivan of Northeastern, both outspoken critics of Israel and America, assisted Hobert in the creation of the course, according to APT.\u00a0Hobert even brought Chomsky, who is described in\u00a0BU Today<\/i><\/a>\u00a0<\/i>as his \u201cfriend and longtime inspiration,\u201d to speak about the Middle East at Boston University in 2009.<\/p>\n

Hobert did not respond to repeated requests for comment from\u00a0The College Fix.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"Stand With Us released a\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0May 7 thanking APT for exposing the bias in the\u00a0workshop.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the guise of \u2018global education\u2019 and \u2018conflict resolution,\u2019 it\u00a0distorts facts about the Arab-Israeli conflict, promotes an anti-Israel political agenda, and encourages sympathy for terrorist groups,\u201d the nonprofit stated. \u201cIt is shameful that Boston University would sponsor a program that degrades academic standards, misinforms students, and gives its imprimatur to indoctrination masquerading as scholarship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zionist Organization of America\u2019s\u00a0Northeast Campus Coordinator Zach Stern said he is also worried about the impact this course will have on students\u2019 understanding of the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis workshop is very troubling,\u201d Stern told\u00a0The College Fix<\/em>. \u201cWhy pretend that Hamas and the PA are reasonable actors when both openly call for the genocide of the Jewish people and the destruction of the Jewish state? This workshop seems to ignore the actual facts; and its impossible to solve anything without recognizing the facts.\u201d\u00a0\"CC3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But Hobert described the\u00a0workshop as simply\u00a0\u201ca conflict resolution case study used in middle and high schools around the U.S.\u201d It was created with state and federal education dollars, and is an approved Common <\/span>Core State Standards-based curriculum workshop, his\u00a0<\/span>professor profile notes<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Already the controversial\u00a0\u201cWhose Jerusalem?\u201d \u00a0is conducted in many high schools. It is offered through\u00a0the nonprofit \u201cAxis of Hope,\u201d which\u00a0operates out of the\u00a0Boston University Global Literary Institute<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0works with at least 25 high schools in various states and three foreign schools,\u00a0according to the nonprofit\u2019s\u00a0website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

APT’s Jacobs\u00a0noted<\/a>\u00a0\u201cat a time of growing anti-Semitism on U.S. college campuses, it is very disturbing\u00a0[Boston University] would permit or promote such biased educational materials in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"\"Axis of Hope\u00a0describes<\/a>\u00a0itself as a nonprofit \u201cdedicated to developing in young adults an understanding of alternative, non-violent approaches to resolving complex conflicts locally, nationally and internationally.\u201d<\/p>\n

College Fix\u00a0reporter\u00a0Alexandra Zimmern is recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.<\/em><\/p>\n

Like\u00a0The College Fix<\/i>\u00a0on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0Follow us on Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n

IMAGES: APT<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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