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I disagree with Gil Stein’s op-ed, “What California’s new antisemitism law means for Santa Cruz County schools,” and his support for Assembly Bill 715.
AB 715 creates a perverse hierarchy of protection.
No one disputes the need for accuracy and freedom from discrimination. Why, then, does antisemitism warrant exceptional state protection while other communities face far more immediate threats to their safety and civil rights?
AB 715 protects all students from discrimination — then gives antisemitism an additional, dedicated state antisemitism prevention coordinator. Why this extraordinary priority? At this very moment, immigrant families, overwhelmingly communities of color, face detention, deportation, and separation through U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement, while Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students face racism and discrimination. In what world should those confronting such immediate threats receive less dedicated protection?
This perverse hierarchy makes a mockery of equal protection.
Stein shows the problem when he declares it “inaccurate” to describe Israelis as colonizers. Settler colonialism is a major scholarly framework for understanding Zionism and Palestinian dispossession. A political constituency cannot decree such scholarship false. Nor did Judge Noël Wise dismiss First Amendment concerns as a “scare tactic”; she said teachers “may have a colorable claim” as implementation develops.
Pajaro Valley Unified School District and other county school boards should adopt resolutions affirming that AB 715 will not suppress Palestinian history, settler-colonial analysis or criticism of Zionism and Israeli policy.
Protect every student from hatred. Protect no state or ideology from history.
Unhae Langis
Santa Cruz
