Andrews Labor/CFMEU Govt must remove "educators" responsible for anti-Semitism and egging on terrorism
Tuesday, 16 July 2019
Here's part of an excellent article in The Australian today.
According to the sample answer provided: “An example of an individual being persecuted for their religion could be the Arab families living in Israel who practise the Islam religion rather than the Jewish religion. Including unlawful demolition of homes and forced displacement and detainment of these families.” It claims that “when a person is discriminated against … it could push a person to become more dogmatic in following their religion, possibly leading to extremism”.
Mount Scopus Memorial College principal Rabbi James Kennard said he was “naturally disturbed” when the contents of the paper were brought to his attention and immediately lodged a complaint.
“I didn’t expect to find something very political, very biased and inaccurate in a Year 12 sample assessment paper,” Rabbi Kennard told The Australian. “It’s an utter falsehood. It creates a negative impression of Israel, which is actually a centre of religious tolerance … and the only democratic country in the Middle East.” He said it was a “libellous” to suggest “Israel is to blame for extremism”.
The council, a professional body representing health and physical education teachers, initially defended the document.
“We make sure that for the answers we provided, there would be evidence for them,” said professional learning manager Bernie Holland, adding SACs were written by four expert teachers and reviewed by two others.
Mr Holland said the subject matter dealt with in the unit required students to consider inequality and discrimination based on race, religion, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity, which could prove “controversial” at some schools. As a result, teachers were encouraged to cater sample questions to their own circumstances, he said.
However, it is understood that council chief executive Hilary Shelton contacted Rabbi Kennard last night to advise that “it was not anticipated nor intended that the example … would offend any individual or group”. She said the council had requested a recall of all issued copies of the sample SAC and reissued a new sample assessment addressing the key knowledge area.
However, Rabbi Kennard said he wasn’t concerned about only Jewish students.
“I will be explaining to my students that this not something they should pay any attention to but I’m also concerned about students at other schools,” he said.
“What is the effect on these students reading this stuff?”
Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler said it was absurd that the publishers elected to single out Israel, “a country where Arab citizens have full equal rights” to highlight religious discrimination.
“We should all be concerned that ACHPER have hijacked an important educational issue in the curriculum,” he said.
Mount Scopus student Ramona Chrapot, a “proud Jewish student”, said she was concerned that “innocent and unsuspecting” students were being misled.
“It’s instilling in them something that just isn’t right,’’ she said.