On September 3, Massachusetts’ Northampton High School (N.H.S.) was shut down – dramatically, yet without much fanfare. All 900 pupils were given the day off, with every teacher conversely cooped up inside. Meanwhile, swarms of armed police patrolled the grounds. Their purpose was to deter any potential commotion from concerned parents or students who might attend to voice their discontent. N.H.S. was hosting a highly controversial staff instruction delivered by the “training and support organization” Project Shema.
Days earlier, local outlet The Daily Hampshire Gazette reported on how over 500 community members had signed a petition demanding N.H.S. scrap the “professional development training” delivered by Project Shema, which purportedly focuses on “addressing antisemitism” and instead “plan training on anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism.” The petition was launched “by parents of current students and current high school staff” due to their concerns that “Project Shema conflates antisemitic comments with criticism of Israel and support for Palestine.”
They charged that Project Shema closely aligns with the noxious Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a prominent and extremely well-funded Zionist lobby organization. With a sordid history of infiltrating and destabilizing social justice movements, it preaches the perverse gospel that any condemnation of Israel’s genocidal actions against the Palestinian people equates to antisemitism. The petition’s authors allege Project Shema employs similarly disreputable tactics and rhetoric to insulate the Zionist entity’s neverending erasure of Palestine from scrutiny. They further stated:
"By using Project Shema as a training resource, N.H.S. will be endorsing a narrative that the colonization, ethnic cleansing, and illegal occupation of Palestinian land and people is legitimate. It will bolster harmful narratives that Palestinians, and Arabs in general, are irrational and inherently antisemitic. N.H.S. will be aligning with those who claim that Israel’s genocide of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza constitutes ‘self defense.’” (more...)
ADL Offshoot’s Hidden Influence in US Schools: Project Shema Exposed
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