Blaming faculty when protests erupt ignores how we teach

June 12, Jill DeTemple, professor of religious studies at SMU Dallas, for a piece challenging the position that what faculty members teach incites students and community members to protest. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading Blaming faculty when protests erupt ignores how we teach: https://tinyurl.com/3c533a9p 

Student protests in support of Gaza have captured the attention of Congress, editorial writers and everyday citizens. Some have expressed solidarity with protesters, characterizing them as “invest[ing] in what’s happening in the world,”or “exercising their fundamental human rights.” Some have condemned them as “disruptive,” “uninformed,” “antisemitic” or “violent.”

Any of these descriptions could be true to a degree as the protests, like the conflict to which they respond, are complex social phenomena happening in the midst of profound political and social instability. Students demanding divestment, chanting slogans, and responding to death and destruction have themselves lived through the prolonged disruption of a global pandemic, a nation at war for the vast majority of their lives, and political polarization at a level as high as it’s been since the Civil War.

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Can a U.S.-led coalition help to rebuild Gaza?

Jan. 26, Erik “EJ” Rorem, an SMU senior studying political science who works as a research assistant at the SMU Center for Presidential History, for a piece proposing the U.S. should facilitate a coaliiton that could rebuild Gaza. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading Can a U.S.-led coalition help to rebuild Gaza? http://tinyurl.com/4r4sban6

The end of the war in Gaza is unforeseeable, but some form of Israeli victory seems plausible. Suppose Israel eventually dismantles — if not totally destroys — Hamas’ administrative and military power over Gaza. What comes next?

Unfortunately, Israel may soon become the dog that caught the car. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated publicly that Israel has no intention of occupying or governing Gaza, raising the question, “Who will?”

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Texas shouldn’t teach students that Palestinians are the bad guys

July 25, Sanaa Ghanim, SMU Human Rights student, for a piece criticizing the Texas state K-12 curriculum for what she believes is its biased presentation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Published in the Houston Chronicle: http://bit.ly/2GtBYJL

The Texas state curriculum for high school social studies leaves students with the impression that conflict in the Middle East boils down to this: The Palestinians are the bad guys, and the Israelis are the good guys.

The Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies used to require that public school teachers “explain how Arab rejection of the State of Israel has led to ongoing conflict.”

In November, the Texas State Board of Education softened that a bit, changing the requirement to “discuss factors contributing to the Arab-Israeli conflict, including the rejection of the existence of the State of Israel by the Arab League and a majority of Arab nations.”

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