Raising All Our Voices - Online Only
February Updates from Sawa: Newton-Area Alliance for Peace and Justice - Online only content
Sawa Activism - Raising All Our Voices
Sawa Participates in TIM Panel at Commission Hearing on Antisemitism
Background
On February 10, the Massachusetts Special Commission on Combatting Antisemitism held its fourth meeting. As described in our December newsletter, we are concerned that the recommendations of the Commission will focus on silencing criticism of the State of Israel and US policy towards Israel/Palestine, instead of addressing the dangers of real antisemitism in Massachusetts.
Sawa is a co-founding organization of Together for an Inclusive Massachusetts (TIM), an alliance of groups advocating for justice and equity in Massachusetts. TIM had the opportunity to testify at the February 10 meeting of the Commission. The Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) was also on the agenda for the meeting.
Discussion with MTA
The first guest to address the Commission was MTA President Max Page, alongside Jessica Antoline, a history teacher from Lexington. Page gave an excellent introduction where he described the importance of connecting antisemitism with other issues of oppression and described that antisemitism is at the heart of white nationalism.
Instead of engaging with the points shared by Page, Commission chairs Rep. Cataldo and Sen. Velis began an aggressive interrogation about materials linked to in resources provided by the MTA. Specifically, the Commission chairs projected images of resistance art – a few of which were antisemitic, most others that only seem inflammatory without context – that were cherry picked from a large set of images on a website external to the MTA. Despite responses from Page clarifying that these materials were provided as a resource to educators who are interested in exploring the topic of Israel/Palestine, the chairs harangued him about what they saw as antisemitism, and an apparent attempt to indoctrinate students. Page repeated that, despite repeated their allegations, the MTA does not develop curricula for schools, but Velis and Cataldo continued the McCarthyesque questioning for nearly two hours.
The local impact is that the images shown in the hearing, which were selected excerpts of the materials linked from the MTA’s in-house website, have further heightened tensions in Newton. The MTA representatives did not respond to any of the specific images, during the hearing.
Antoline’s message centered on the professionalism of educators, their mission to explore different perspectives and resources, and their appreciation of the complexity and nuance of any materials they engage with. Her testimony highlighted the challenges history teachers face in navigating politically and emotionally charged topics like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She emphasized that educators were often left vulnerable, caught between media pressure, political expectations, and their own moral and intellectual dilemmas. Teaching history is inherently complex, involving both facts and memory, and the expectation of "neutrality" is misleading.
Ms. Antoline talked about the availability of materials from organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and “Facing History and Ourselves”, which are presented to teachers as prepared and organized resources for their use. She said that these materials reflect the perspective and agenda of these organizations, as was natural, but that the use of materials from one set of perspectives, alone, leaves a gap. She said that the teacher’s task of seeking out additional information to fill this gap is formidable, and one for which they are not given sufficient resources. While she was not involved in the development of the MTA resources on understanding Israel/Palestine, Antoline emphatically rejected the notion, suggested by the Commission chairs, that educators would blindly accept and use in their classroom materials presented to them by any group.
Presentation by TIM
The TIM panel was finally seated before the Commission. The panel included Sawa’s own Sana Fadel, as well as Elsa Auerbach from Jewish Voice for Peace Boston, Emilia Diamant of the Boston Workers’ Circle, and Merrie Najimy, an elementary STEM lab teacher.
We are proud of the panel for delivering outstanding, heartfelt, and actionable testimony. The panelists presented on three overarching themes: (1) the fact that the Commission has not addressed or mentioned the most pressing threat of antisemitism and other forms of hate: white supremacist antisemitism; (2) solutions and ways of addressing antisemitism within an antiracist framework; and (3) the need to address rather than promote the weaponization of expanding definitions of antisemitism to censor and punish education about and activism related to Palestine and Palestinians. Read TIM’s formal testimony here.
Auerbach discussed the century-long history of Jewish anti-Zionism and its distinction from antisemitism. Najimy spoke about the difference between Palestinian solidarity and antisemitism, and the need to incorporate different narratives in the classroom. Diamant elaborated on how solidarity and intercommunal collaborations are key to fighting systems of injustice that enable antisemitism. Finally, Fadel spoke about the dangers of definitions that equate anti-Zionism with antisemitism, and how accusations of antisemitism are used to silence and punish teaching about Palestine and Palestinians, using the experiences of students and educators in Newton and beyond to demonstrate how this plays out in our schools. In the midst of an answer a Commission member’s question, the Commission Co-Chair abruptly gavelled the Q&A portion of the panel to a close, leading to a section where the Commission members made speeches concerning the panel’s testimony, rather than allowing the panelists to speak for themselves and be judged by their words.
The first speaker following the TIM panel’s testimony, Jeremy Burton, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), delivered a speech containing multiple misrepresentations. He falsely claimed that a poll that had been cited by TIM defined Zionism in a particular way, and distorted the poll’s findings. Also falsely, Burton stated that the IHRA definition of antisemitism is not controversial. Most notably, Burton mischaracterized TIM’s criticism of the Commission’s formation, equating their concerns about Israel-aligned advocacy groups with the antisemitic trope of Jewish dual loyalty. TIM had only argued that groups like JCRC and ADL were "pro-Israel" based on their public policies and statements—not that they were directed by Israel or disloyal to the U.S. – and their gravest concern – as played out at the hearing – is the lack of diversity in Jewish voices and perspectives on the Commission (as stated in this open letter to legislators last June). Burton’s defamatory accusation was a blatant misrepresentation meant to discredit TIM’s critique; a misrepresentation to which TIM panelists were not permitted to respond.
During the legislative debate leading up to the creation of the Commission, legislators pushed back arguing that the Commission would address antisemitism and would not be a political debate on the state of Israel and the actions of its government. Yet, on the question of Israel’s direct involvement, the Boston Globe recently exposed that the Israeli government recently paid more than $6,100 to fund a trip to Israel by Commission chair Velis, who was accompanied by 9 other policymakers. Senator Velis defended this trip stating that his trip to Israel was to inform his work on the Commission in direct conflict with prior statements by legislators and the ADL’s statement that his trip is “immaterial” to his work on the Commission.
In Closing
Even several weeks later, we Sawa members are still processing the Commission hearing and the misguided & distracting public reaction it stirred up. It has been a difficult few weeks, and we are disappointed and frustrated. The Commission chairs did not engage in a good-faith discussion about actual antisemitism but instead interrogated panelists in an attempt to discredit them and denied them the opportunity to respond to the questions from the Commission members. While attention has been focused on the MTA situation, we hope you can join us in elevating the testimony of the TIM panel, who shared thoughtful and relevant strategies for truly combating antisemitism in Massachusetts. Please watch/listen to the presentation by the TIM panel and share the panel’s testimony.
Links:
Watch a recording of the February 10 hearing; the TIM panel begins 1h 58 min into the meeting. (Watch the recording from the start here.)
Download materials provided by TIM to the Commission to accompany the TIM testimony. (Scroll down past the minutes of the prior Commission meeting watermarked “DRAFT”. TIM Materials are near the end.)
Learn more about the Commission in this fact sheet from TIM.
Read about the first two Commission meetings and our concerns about the Commission in Sawa’s December newsletter.
Contact your State Rep and State Senator about the Commission.
Follow up: Harvard and Anti-Palestinian Bias
Last month, we told you about Harvard Medical School cancelling a lecture and teaching session concerning Palestinian pediatric patients, and closed with the fact that faculty and students were advocating for them to be reinstituted. We are happy to report that these efforts were successful. The medical students were able to hear from the Gazan patients on Thursday 2/13/2025, and Dr. Barry S. Levy spoke at Harvard on Thursday 2/24/2025.
Sawa Members In The Press:
Doctors Against Genocide Message to U.S. Senate
"Across the West, many medical professionals have refused to take a stand against the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza. However, one group, Doctors Against Genocide, cofounded by Sawa member Dr. Karameh Keummerle, lobbied Congress to demand that Senators stand up to new President Donald Trump’s imperialist designs on Gaza.” See PressTV news coverage HERE.
What Sawa Members Are Reading…
(Book and film recommendations from Sawa Members…)
“N”: Le labyrinthe des égarés (“The Labyrinth of the Lost: The West and Its Enemies”) Amin Maalouf, Franco-Lebanese writer and journalist. Maalouf attempts to explain the current geopolitical situation by analyzing the rise and fall of Meiji era Japan, China, Soviet Russia, and the United States. Although not a historical or political science analysis (Maalouf is a writer and journalist) and lacking nuances of many periods, Maalouf's analysis of the decline of the West is powerful. Beyond that, it pulls the reader, particularly those of us with mainly Western education, to grasp the possibility of understanding the world from a different perspective. (Available in some libraries)
Saadia & Sana: Ida in the Middle by Nora Lester Murad (2024) is a young adult fiction that follows an “invisible” middle schooler who is yearning for belonging and a connection to her family roots. Through a magical olive, Ida is transported between two versions of her life: as a daughter of immigrants in the US and as a Palestinian child living under occupation. (Also at library)
Laila: If I Must Die by Refaat Alareer. This rich, elegiac compilation of work from the late Palestinian poet and professor, Refaat Alareer, brings together his marvelous poetry and deeply human writing about literature, teaching, politics, and family. (Also at library)
Noura: The Attack by Yasmina Khadra Dr. Amin Jaafari is an Arab-Israeli surgeon at a hospital in Tel Aviv. As an admired and respected member of his community, he has carved a space for himself and his wife, Sihem, at the crossroads of two troubled societies. His world is abruptly shattered when Sihem is killed in a suicide bombing. Great book, totally recommend it (Also at library)
“Sawa” Means Together…
Driven by a vision of collective liberation, our diverse peace alliance advocates for equality and justice for Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, and inclusion for all.