Coordinated by Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change.

Teaching the Seeds of Violence in Palestine-Israel

New Lesson

“With its unceasing bombardment of our homes and neighborhoods,” writes Gaza-based journalist Afaf Al Najjar in The Nation, “Israel has transformed Gaza into a slaughterhouse. And with its continuous targeting of hospitals, bakeries, water wells, solar panels, and markets, Israel is depriving us of all the necessities of life.”

The unrelenting violence there is a crime against humanity.

We owe it to our students — and to the people of Gaza — to explore in our classrooms the history of this violence.

The Zinn Education Project has just posted “Teaching the Seeds of Violence in Palestine-Israel,” an activity written by Bill Bigelow, that takes students back to the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries and helps them see the roots of today’s crisis.

The lesson is a mixer/mystery activity on Zionism, anti-Zionism, peasant resistance, the Great War, the British Mandate, and more. As with all lessons at the Zinn Education Project website, it is free.

Lesson

We encourage teachers’ feedback on this new lesson. Let us know how it worked, student insights, classroom stories, and suggested edits or additions.

More Teaching Resources on Palestine-Israel

We offer a collection of lessons, films, primary documents, infographics, articles, podcasts, and more for teaching about Palestine-Israel. For daily news, with classroom-friendly clips, we recommend Democracy Now!

Teaching for Change’s Social Justice Books has a collection of books for pre-K-12 on Palestine.

The spring issue of Rethinking Schools magazine will feature articles, lessons, and poetry for teaching about Palestine. Subscribe today.

Painting by Abdel Rahman Al Muzain, 1977.

Resources

Conferences and Classes

For Social Justice Educators

Check out the list of events hosted by the Zinn Education Project and our colleagues — for example, the Zinn Education Project’s Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online class series, NCSS conference workshop application, NEH Summer Institutes, informational session for Teaching for Black Lives study groups, and more.

Events Calendar

The History of Black Music

Teach the Black Freedom Struggle Class

When coupled with the sonic elements of the blues and the historical social connotations associated with Black musicians in American society, the relatively new sounds of the electric guitar became a charged cultural symbol that reverberated for decades thereafter. Electrified blues established an entirely different trajectory for Black music. — Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Photo by Harry Hammond/Getty Images/V&A Images/Hulton Archive

Learn more at our March 4 class on The History of Black Music: A Love Supreme with Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr.

Explore how electrified blues and other genres of Black music have shaped cultural landscapes from the 18th century to the present day, and find ways to incorporate rich musical traditions of resistance and community building in the classroom. Ramsey will be in conversation with Rethinking Schools editor Jesse Hagopian.

Our free classes offer the chance to learn directly from scholars and to meet educators from across the country. Register today and invite your colleagues and students to join you. ASL interpretation and professional development certificates provided.

We Need Your Help

Teachers are under attack for teaching truthfully about U.S. history. Please donate so that we can continue to offer free people’s history lessons and resources, and defend teachers’ right to use them.

Donate Today

Donate Now

COORDINATED BY:

PO BOX 73038, WASHINGTON, D.C. 20056

202-588-7205 | zinnedproject.org