Anti-Israel indoctrination in Toronto's public schools....

Lots of investigation....but probably little action...

An investigation is currently underway regarding High Schools Against Israeli Apartheid (HAIA), which was launched just over a year ago as a sub-group of Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA). New information points to the possibility of an agenda to indoctrinate minors with anti-Israel propaganda as well as an abuse of University of Toronto’s (U of T) rules on renting space.

A number of HAIA meetings allegedly took place in 2008 at U of T’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), which were advertised on CAIA and other anti-Israeli web sites as open to high school students only.

The Jewish Tribune hoped to attend a HAIA meeting last year. Upon arrival, organizers refused to say which room was being used for the event, insisting that it was a closed session.

A major question is whether holding a closed, unauthorized session with minors – which most high school students are – is appropriate.

According to the space rental office at U of T, no booking by HAIA was made in 2008. Lawrie Stephens of U of T’s media relations department confirmed that if there was any such meeting on U of T premises, “nobody can be excluded. It would be considered a public event. Our policies are very clear.”

Another piece of the puzzle is the mass mailings originating from an OISE graduate studies office, urging students to attend anti-Israel events.

Most recently, this newspaper found evidence suggesting that a flyer promoting an event – From Gaza to Toronto: Stop the Attack on Black and Palestinian Students – was sent to a student mailing list by Kristine Pearson, graduate studies liaison officer in the department of sociology and equity studies in education at the request of graduate student Saron Ghebressallassie, one of the program’s main organizers and speakers, who turns up at most anti-Israel rallies, including last week’s York University incident. The Jewish Tribune attempted to contact Pearson for comment but was unable to reach her before deadline.

At least one member of the department of sociology and equity studies in education has spoken at a recent CAIA event.

In a related development, the fall 2008 edition of Canadian Dimension magazine included an article by Natalie Shalabi, who recently graduated high school, discussing what she claimed was the launch of HAIA at The Student School (TSS), an alternative high school downtown in the winter of 2007. In February 2008, a newly arrived Israeli student at TTS left the school and enrolled at a local Jewish high school because he felt extremely uncomfortable at TTS (see Jewish Tribune, Feb. 21 and 28, 2008). The claims he made regarding virulent anti-Israel activity at the school with no balancing information concur with Shalabi’s report on HAIA’s activities, which includes an alarming statement that “members of HAIA have been invited to other high schools to discuss Israeli Apartheid.”

In a recent conversation, TDSB superintendent Manon Gardner stated, “HAIA was not founded at TSS,” adding that Shalabi is not a current student and that there is no anti-Israel activity there now.

TDSB trustee James Pasternak said an investigation on the situation is taking place.

“Spreading this insidious anti-Israel ideology by recruiting teenagers in public schools is repugnant,” he declared. “We will use every legal means possible to stop intolerance in public schools. The Toronto District School Board will not be used as a launching pad for discrimination and other anti-Israel propaganda activities. Any such activity is in strict violation of board policy and will be vigorously opposed by trustees and staff. The TDSB has a number of legal and collective bargaining mechanisms to enforce them.