Teachers demand book-burning and disruption
A call for book-burning at this year’s National Council of Teachers of English annual convention — whose tagline is “Heart, Hope and Humanity” — has laid bare a growing effort by anti-Zionist activists to control, by whatever means, the narrative on topics they consider contentious.
The shocking proposal came from Sawsan Jaber, an English department chair and member of NCTE’s Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English. During a panel discussion titled “Let’s Talk About Palestine,” Jaber advocated for abandoning and even burning books that she deemed ideologically incompatible with her views.
She cited “The Kite Runner” a novel by Afghan American author Khaled Hosseini, which she claimed inflicted “curriculum violence” because the author is “not an Arab” and “not a Muslim,” although he identifies as a secular Muslim.
The same activists had campaigned aggressively to pressure NCTE into canceling the inclusion in the conference of CAMERA (the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis). They issued defamatory, false claims about the watchdog group, which they alleged would threaten their safety. (An NCTE investigation found no evidence to support that, and the convention proceeded with the CAMERA Education Institute as a participant.)
At the heart of the activists’ grievances was CAMERA Education Institute’s mission to highlight positive, true-to-life representations of Israel and Jewish identity in children’s literature with an exhibit of books selected by the organization’s literacy specialists and teachers. The opposition escalated through a petition condemning CAMERA as “racist and predatory,” a narrative echoed during panel discussions.
The “Let’s Talk About Palestine” panel itself showcased the activists’ intolerance of views different from their own. It began with the screening of an anti-Israel video produced by the radical Jewish Voice for Peace, a group that opposes the existence of a Jewish state and whose views are far outside the mainstream Jewish community.
The video was a propagandistic, ahistorical narrative falsely portraying Israel as an illegitimate, racist state that displaced indigenous Palestinians, that was “built on a blueprint of exclusion” and practices “institutional discrimination against non-Jews.” It ended with a rallying cry to join the controversial BDS campaign against Israel, which has been widely criticized as an antisemitic movement and banned in many places.
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Hannah Moushabeck, author of a children’s book and co-owner of a publishing company, followed the film with a list of “facts” she insisted were not open to debate. These included that Israel is an apartheid, colonial state committing genocide against the Palestinian people; Zionism is not part of Judaism and is entirely separate; and that teachers and students face discrimination just for supporting Palestinian human rights.
Certain highly debatable assertions were off-limits for debate, she insisted, suppressing a priori any opinion not wholly in conformity with the activists’ message.
The panel’s stance is completely at odds with NCTE’s Position Statement on Supporting Teachers and Students in Discussing Complex Topics, which emphasizes NCTE’s commitment to oppose censorship and the importance of “respectful and productive discourse when exploring and discussing complex topics.”
Also at odds with NCTE’s official position were the panelists’ allegations that Americans and Zionists support a Palestinian “genocide.” Although the NCTE leadership disavowed a genocide statement issued last year by its committee against racism on which Jaber serves, the claim was presented as incontrovertible truth by the panelists.
Jaber similarly tried to suppress perspectives that challenge her dogma by lashing out at the United States and the Zionists for invoking Oct. 7 because this, she said, “criminalizes” and “dehumanizes” Palestinians.
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With a literacy crisis in the United States — America ranks far below other developed nations in literacy (21% of adults in the United States are illiterate, compared to less than 4% in developed nations) — serious educators are searching for effective strategies to build foundational English proficiency and higher-order literacy skills. Jaber, however, seemed less focused on building literary skills than she was on promoting her political agenda in the classroom.
She warned of a “very violent next four years” in the United States, told teachers their role was “to disrupt,” and encouraged fostering “activism” and “active resistance” in students.
She recommended doing away with classic English instruction. “We have to bury that sh**,” she said about a type of formally structured essay and urged teachers to stop teaching “certain novels [sic] like Shakespeare.”
Nora Lester Murad’s role on the panel was to endorse its anti-Zionist ideology “as a Jew” and push back against the belief that Israel is an essential part of Judaism, although the vast majority of Jews around the world support it. Murad also invoked her Jewish identity to decry the protection of Jews as an excuse or guise for “anti-Palestinian racism.”
Much of her presentation was devoted to demonizing CAMERA with ludicrous bogus charges put forth without any evidence, including that CAMERA staff called her a rapist, verbally attacked elderly women from Jewish Voice for Peace by telling them they should have died in the Holocaust, AND doxxed the activists.
CAMERA was not the only target of the activists’ wrath. The panelists also attacked Multicultural Children’s Book Day (now known as Read Your World) for allowing a comment to appear that challenged something Murad had written.
They attacked the Anti-Defamation League, the century-old anti-hate organization that fights antisemitism and bigotry, for trying to address antisemitism in schools. “Drop the ADL,” the panelists chanted.
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They attacked the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators for an incident that took place several years ago when its then-chief equity and inclusion officer posted a statement condemning an increase in cases of antisemitism and faced an online backlash by Palestinian and Muslim members for not mentioning Islamophobia.
While it was the equity officer who was subject to online abuse and death threats even after resigning from the organization, one panelist complained that the organization was hostile to Palestinians and announced that she had left it because she “didn’t feel safe in that space.”
Perhaps most surprising were the panelists’ repeated attacks on NCTE itself, which had provided them the platform to freely speak and which they then used to condemn any group that doesn’t conform to their dogma.
Despite the numerous sessions and workshops devoted to Palestinian, Arab and Muslim speakers at the conference, the panelists nevertheless complained that NCTE “erases” them from the narrative and fails to acknowledge their “humanity” and “presence.” They threatened that if NCTE does not “meet their needs” — i.e., expelling CAMERA Education Institute or anyone else with dissenting opinions — then it does not deserve to exist.
With the 2024 convention now over, activists are continuing their campaign to drop the ADL. They’re escalating their smear campaign against CAMERA. And they’ve launched a campaign to stigmatize the NCTE for not muzzling opposing voices.
The National Council of Teachers of English has been home to literacy educators in the United States for more than 100 years. With its stated mission to “promote the development of English literacy,” it emphasizes inclusivity, engagement, cross-community connections and the promotion of critical thinking.
For many years, the council has provided the anti-Israel activists a platform to speak their minds in the name of equity and inclusion. Now that NCTE has drawn a line at complying with demands to cancel another organization — seeing no evidence to support accusations made by the activists — the question is will NCTE stand firm?
Ricki Hollander is a senior analyst at CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America. To reach her, write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
