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Scottish Friends of Israel submission of 2 October 2021

PE1879/H - Provide an accessible and professionally developed learning and teaching resource on Israel and Palestine

In our view, the submitted ‘Background information’ on this petition is inaccurate and misleading.

North Lanarkshire Council (NLC) spokesman told the BBC: "The description of Palestinian people is entirely inappropriate and we apologise unreservedly for the offence caused…. this was an isolated incident”.

Factions counter to the welfare of Israel, the Palestinian people and the road to peace, proposed to a cross-party group at the Scottish Parliament their intentions to use the incident to further their anti-Israel objectives. Including:

a) Introduction to schools a video giving an unbalanced re-run of the history of world support for the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine.

b) Resources to link citizenship in primary and secondary schools with pro-Palestinian issues.

Then chair of the Association of Palestinian Communities in Scotland demanded "that all materials used in schools relating to the teaching of the history of Palestine be discussed between Education Scotland (ES) and the Palestinian community".

Assurances were given by then NLC leader, that:

1. No materials used in NLC schools related to the teaching of the history of Palestine would be subject to control over content by ES and/or the Palestinian Community.
2. Any materials produced would not give a one-sided view of the development of Israel history.
3. Nor would the council allow any anti-Israeli organisations to support school teachers produce material for schools based on a Palestinian narrative.

Then Cabinet Secretary for Education and Minister for Learning advised that “The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that there is balanced, objective and impartial exploration of potentially controversial issues in Scottish schools”. Neither made any references to “the solution”.

In 2015, at a cross-party meeting within the Scottish parliament, a key member of a strategic review group, Glasgow and Clyde Child Rights Group (GCCRG), presented the suggestion of the ‘teaching resource’. She told the meeting;

“Eight local authorities had come together 3 or 4 years ago and had adopted Palestine as a global rights partner”- Freedom of Information (FoI) later revealed that council representatives were not authorised and did not discuss the Arab-Israel Conflict or issues on Palestine.

GCCRG was formed by West of Scotland local authorities whereby teachers, representing the authorities, could discuss concerns on Scottish schoolchildren’s rights as presented by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). It was later revealed that the original GCCRG had been in abeyance before 2014 and never reformed. It was noted that by 2016 the GCCRG was being referred to as ‘Glasgow and Clyde Rights Based Learning Group’ (GCRBL).

The petition ‘background information’ advises; “Education Scotland confirmed that the resource had been quality assured and was available on GLOW. However, within two weeks the resource was taken off the public area of GLOW without explanation.” - That is misleading and contrary to published evidence.

The Deputy First Minister, recognising that all stakeholders would be unable to reach a consensus on the material as a previously stipulated requirement, advised all stakeholders that ownership of the material had been claimed by the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) and he, along with the Chief Executive of ES, now considered government involvement ended.

The body issuing the alleged ‘quality assurance’ remains unidentified as are its members and qualifications.

The Scottish Friends of Israel Consultative Group, formed at the request of ES to provide additional assessment, advised that the group had no objection to a teaching resource per se but had concluded on evidence available that;

The resource in question is an attempt by known anti-Israel activists and promotors of the boycott of Israel to introduce a tendentious narrative into schools.

Denis MacEoin, who holds a doctorate from Cambridge University and has lectured in Arabic studies in Durham and Newcastle Universities and abroad, examined the resource’s published material. He provided his assessment to the Cabinet Secretary for Education and to Education Scotland.

We believe that the psychology of the principal proponents of the proposed resource has been clearly expressed as:

“We need a narrative to balance the Holocaust one. … It is difficult to get into schools because of the anti-Semitism agenda”.

“It is important that we have a resource for our schoolchildren to be able to learn from, for teachers to be able to pick up and Jews to teach their children in a way that they can rely on”.

"White supremacy and Zionism are two of a kind, with both modelled on ethnic exclusion".

Rather than about achieving balanced, objective and impartial teaching material, this resource is about rewriting history—both ancient and modern—and stirring up anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hostility in the minds of Scottish schoolchildren.