Australia/Israel Review

In the days and weeks after the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, Jews around the world were horrified to find that antisemitism – once believed marginalised under the principle of “never again” – was alive and flourishing. At first, the demonstrations, attacks, and outpourings of hatred were put down to Israel’s defensive war in Gaza. But two years later, it is now clear that the “anti-Zionism” and anti-Israel upsurge is rooted in antisemitism plain and simple. Still, the question remains: What is the wellspring of this Jew hatred? The answer, in no small part, in the United States at least, is school. 

The wave of Jew hatred that flooded American campuses after October 7 was difficult to miss. Less visible, but perhaps more corrosive to society, is the hostility to Jews, Zionism, and Israel being taught at the kindergarten through high school level. Per the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “In 2023, antisemitic incidents at K-12 schools increased by 135% from the previous year to 1,162 incidents overall. Further, FBI data reveals that hate crimes in schools have more than doubled over the past five years.”

Part of the problem is certainly the bigotry that children bring into school. Earlier this year, Muslim Student Associations (MSAs) at two northern Virginia high schools promoted club meetings with videos of mock kidnappings, with hooded victims placed in a car trunk. In the same school system, a guest speaker allegedly went on an antisemitic tirade on social media, tweeting: “I’m not racist I love everyone. Except the yahood [Jews]” and “Never met a Jew who didn’t have a huge nose” (This occurred prior to the October 7 attacks). 

No surprise then that one of the school districts in the spotlight – Fairfax County, where I live – is the headquarters for American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), the umbrella organisation for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a major on-campus agitator. 

Two other districts are also in the sights of the US House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce: Berkeley, California, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (This is the same committee that exposed the antisemitic double standards at Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania.)

In Berkeley unified school district (California), multiple instances of students chanting, “kill the Jews”, brought complaints to the Department of Education. In various school districts, the Hitler salute, swastikas, and verbal and physical assaults on Jewish students became de rigeur. 

 But where is this antisemitic hatred coming from? Home? Social media? Teachers? 

At least in part, the answer is from elementary and high school teachers and administrators. 

The three districts (among others) are connected to a content/curriculum publisher named “Rethinking Schools”, and in particular, its “Teaching Palestine” curriculum. The curriculum itself is a far Left, borderline Marxist text that rails against the Jewish state in seven sections titled, “Why Teach About Palestine,” “History of Palestine-Israel,” “Gaza”, “Israeli Apartheid and Settler Colonialism,” “Challenging Zionism and Antisemitism,” “Solidarity with Palestine,” and “More Teaching Ideas and Resources.”

A report by the North American Values Institute dives into the curriculum in depth, highlighting sections such as “What Antisemitism Is and What It Is Not,” which refers to the historically left-leaning ADL as a “conservative and right-wing Jewish organisation” that encourages Jews to see themselves united against the rest of the world. The same section labels antisemitism as “historically contextual” and blames it on right-wing white nationalism.

Another section of the curriculum rewrites the history of the Zionist project, insisting that the Jews seeking to build a state wanted to exclude all non-Jews: “Today’s violence did not begin on Oct. 7… It did not begin with the Holocaust. No. It began with the Zionist movement’s conviction that Palestine should be a Jewish-only country and that Palestinians should disappear.” 

(The irony behind this revisionism is that it is Hamas’ aim to create a Judenrein Palestinian state in place of Israel. Indeed, the first Palestine National Charter, predating the Six-Day War and the conquest of east Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza, specifically renounced claims to both the West Bank and Gaza. The aim of the Palestinian “national movement” was the eradication of the Jewish state, not two states living peacefully side by side, as advocates suggest.)

In the United States, as in Australia, the issue of Israel has become inextricable from the explosion of antisemitism. And for supporters of Israel, the problem is not simply in the politics of the Left and far Right, but in the growing generational divide over Israel. 

In the United States, the left/right divide is stark: 30% of those on the right and 74% on the left have unfavourable views of Israel. (In Australia, those numbers are respectively 46% and 90%.) Between 2022 and 2025, young Republicans aged 18-49 have gone from 35% with negative views of Israel to 50%. And that is in the cohort that is more pro-Israel. (In the same poll, older Republicans have only shifted from 19% to 23% unfavourable.) The same Brookings Institution report (based on a YouGov poll) reports that for Democrats in the younger age group, there has been an increase from 62% to 71% in unfavourable views of Israel. 

Certainly, social media bears some of the blame for massive shifts, particularly among younger people. And the Democratic Party in America, like Labor in Australia, has increasingly shifted away from the centre and from its historic pro-Israel stances. Similarly, on the right, influencers like Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan have drawn younger, more populist Republicans towards a rabidly antisemitic, anti-Israel point of view. But that doesn’t explain the seismic shifts. 

It is difficult to escape the conclusion that American schools are incubating antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and Israel-hatred. Thus, students in universities arrive already primed for the intersectional Jew-hatred that is now endemic in academia. And what does that mean for American support for Israel, which has heretofore been critical to the survival of the Jewish state? Nothing good. 

Danielle Pletka is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Washington’s American Enterprise Institute, and the host, with Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen, of the podcast What the Hell is Going On? along with the eponymous substack.