Israel advocacy groups demand questionable changes to Virginia textbooks, reports IRmep

RICHMOND, Va., April 16, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A consortium of state and national Israel advocacy groups has sent a detailed set of requested changes to textbooks and teaching guides used in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Requested changes include:

1. Deletion of references to Israel "occupying" territories captured during the 1967 Six-Day War and substituting "controlled." International conventions clearly outline the responsibility of occupying powers and the illegality of collective punishment and population transfers.
2. Changes to maps to recognize Israel's declared "annexation" of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. The U.S. and most other countries do not officially recognize Israeli annexation of either territory.
3. Substitution of references to "occupied territories" to "captured areas."
4. Substitution of references to "Jewish settlers" and "settlements" with "building of homes and communities."
5. Deletion of a lesson reviewing a video documentary by Iranian-American religious studies scholar, author, producer and television host Reza Aslan.
6. Deletion of an activity based on reading the biography and work of Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi.
7. Substitution of an editorial cartoon titled "The Mideast Peace Game Rules" with a cartoon of an Arab suicide terrorist holding a  "Road Map to Peace" game hostage.

California-based Institute for Curriculum Services (ICS) proposed changes were submitted to the Virginia Department of Education on February 28 on behalf of the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, the Jewish Community Relations Committee (JCRC) of Richmond, and the JCRC of Tidewater.

In a January webcast (YouTube video), ICS chief Aliza Craimer Elias claimed that "working behind the scenes" through state advocacy organizations ICS had successfully made more than 11,000 changes to U.S. textbooks.

Publishers of the textbooks targeted for changes include National Geographic, Prentice Hall, Five Ponds Press, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and McGraw-Hill.

All the documents submitted to the Virginia Department of Education were obtained by the Institute for Research Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep) and posted at the Israel Lobby Archive: http://IsraelLobby.org/ICS

The ICS Adobe PDF documents are accompanied by IRmep's analysis of how the proposed ICS changes contravene international law, balance and current, fact-based historical understandings.

The Israel Lobby Archive is a research unit of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep). IRmep is a Washington-based nonprofit organization that studies US-Middle East policy formulation. IRmep is the publisher of the book "Big Israel: How Israel's Lobby Moves America" now available from Audible.

SOURCE Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy