Canadian textbooks call Israeli kids 'Spies' and 'Soldiers'

Posted: 7/20/2017 8:23:00 AM
Author: Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism
Source: This article first appeared on the Coordinating Forum For Countering Antisemitism website.

Canadian textbooks call Israeli kids ‘Spies’ and ‘Soldiers’
by Coordinating Forum for countering antisemitism staff

Among the latest pieces of information to that effect: According to the Toronto Sun, roughly 800 elementary schools within Canada’s Ontario province received a sixth grade social studies textbook that says Israel violates the human rights of its children by recruiting them to be “spies and soldiers,” and also goes as far as to say that Israel kidnaps children to serve as soldiers, forcing them to fight.

The textbook, Canada and the Global Community, is published by Nelson Canada, and, rather disturbingly, received the seal of approval of both Curriculum Services Canada, the country’s agency that serves to approve textbooks for use in the nation’s schools, as well as the Ontario Ministry of Education.

In a statement, the Chief Executive Officer of B’nai Brith Canada, Michael Mostyn, said, “The distribution of this textbook will surely have negative ramifications on Jewish students across the province if their peers were to, using its contents, charge Israel of kidnapping child soldiers.”

“The Ministry has an obligation to not only correct these errors but to teach the reality of the situation – that it is Palestinian leaders who use child soldiers,” continued Mostyn. “It is terrorist organizations like Hamas, the political authority in the Gaza Strip, who continue to promote children as terrorists and suicide bombers, while entities like the Palestinian Authority promote jihad and martyrdom in textbooks and other materials. Including these facts will restore balance and accuracy to the coverage of this sensitive issue in our classrooms.”

The “latest” is that the Ontario Ministry of Education has sent stickers to the relevant schools to be used in covering the errors in the books. That said, stickers don’t explain what is going on inside the corridors of power deep within Canada’s education system that allowed for the supposed “errors” in the first place.