Delegitimization – How to Respond : From Blog Posts to Book 

The purpose of “Delegitimization – How to Respond” and these blog posts is to combine them into a published book entitled Safe Schools for Jewish Students: An Educator’s Guide to Preventing Antisemitism and Strengthening Belonging.

Go here for the full Table of Contents.

Chapter 3 – Delegitimization: How to Respond

Delegitimization: How to Respond to Students’ Talking Points

In each case, pull the student aside, tell them that what they said was hurtful to Jewish people, and have them complete the appropriate research task(s) listed below, citing six sources, three left-wing and three right-wing, supporting their research.

Jews stole land from the Palestinians aka Arabs.

• Make a table listing the villages Jews stole from the Arabs before the 1948 war, and the villages Arabs stole from the Jews before the 1948 war.
• Within the boundaries of Israel in the UN’s 1948 Partition Plan, compare the percentage of Israeli land that was bought by the Jews to the percentage of Israeli land that was stolen by the Jews.

Jews and Arabs lived peacefully before Israel became a State.

Make a table listing the dates, places and reasons Jews attacked Arab villages, and the dates, places and reasons Arabs attacked Jewish villages before Israel became a State.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

Research which river and which sea, and what the goal is of Palestinian and Arab leadership—Hamas, Ahmed Shukairy, Hafez al-Assad, Sheikh Hassan al-Bana—when they make such a statement.

Jews are occupying Arab Palestinian land.

• Occupation is the control and resource exploitation of someone else’s land. Choose a textbook unambiguous example of an occupation in history, like the British occupation of Palestine, the French occupation of what is now Syria, Nazi Germany’s occupation of France.
• Make a table of similarities and differences between the sample occupation and the way Israel is occupying the land.

The Palestinians just want their land back.

• Research what the Palestinian leadership—Yassir Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh, Hamad Al-Regeb, Saleh Al-Arouri, Ghazi Hamad, Senior Hamas official Ali Baraka, Hamas Interior Minister Fathi Hamad—said they would do with the Jews in the region from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea when taking control of the region.
• Research what the Palestinian media—Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV and PA media—said they would do with the Jews in the region from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea when taking control of the region.
• Research what the Palestinian religious leaders—cleric Yunis Al-Astal, Sheik Ahmad Bahr, cleric Wael Al-Zard—said they would do with the Jews in the region from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea when taking control of the region.

Jews expelled the Arab Palestinians from their homes in the Nakba.

Make a table listing the names of the Jewish leaders in Palestine who gave orders to expel the Arabs, and the Arabic leaders who gave orders to expel the Jews, and the Arabic leaders who gave the order for Arab Palestinians to leave their homes.

Jews are colonizers.

Find other examples of indigenous people colonizing their land. If there are none, choose a typical historical example of colonization—the United States, France, Spain, Portugal or the U.K.—and find the commonalities and differences between how the Jews colonized British Palestine and the example you picked.

Jews are occupying the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Research the holiest site in Islam and the holiest site in Judaism. Research which direction Muslims and Jews face when they pray. Research which country governs the Al-Aqsa Mosque and what the permissions and prohibitions are for Muslims and Jews at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Globalize the Intifada.

Define “intifada” in the most popular contexts. Research what happened during the First Intifada and the Second Intifada. Research the contexts for when there has been a call for a globalization of the intifada.

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Author Biography of Safe Schools for Jewish Students

Ezra Barany, son of a Bronx father and a Dutch mother from Nazi-occupied Netherlands, loves riveting readers with Jewish thrillers. His first two books in The Torah Codes series were award-winning international bestsellers. In his free time, he has eye-opening discussions on the art of writing novels with his wife and book coach Beth Barany. A high school physics teacher, Ezra lives in Oakland with his beloved wife and two cats working on the next book. Ezra, not the cats.