Firing Bronx History Teacher Over Israel Criticism Chills Free Speech & Human Rights Advocacy

Photo by Feliphe Schiarolli on Unsplash

The Ethical Culture Fieldston School’s decision to fire Jewish high school history teacher JB Brager is the latest in a well-documented, nationwide campaign to censor and punish critics of Israel. Brager was fired last week after they made statements critical of Israel and Zionism.

Brager joins a long list of teachers and activists who have been censored, fired, de-funded, defamed, harassed and targeted with frivolous litigation because of taking a principled stance for Palestinian rights.

Since the Great Return March in 2018, Palestine Legal has seen an uptick in incidents targeting speech supporting Palestinian rights in middle and high schools. 

“There is a real Mccarthyite atmosphere when it comes to talking about Palestine,” said senior staff attorney Radhika Sainath, who together with co-counsel Jethro Eisenstein, is providing legal advice to Brager. “Teachers shouldn’t be scared of losing their jobs for criticizing Israel or simply teaching about Palestinian human rights. This is not an environment that’s conducive to learning.”

The Fieldston School is a private pre-K-12 school in the Bronx. According to its site, “the core of our educational program is the study and practice of ethics, which prepares us — and compels us — to take care of our world, ourselves, and each other.”

A letter signed by nearly 80 Jewish spiritual leaders calls on Fieldston to reinstate Brager, noting that “by firing Dr. Brager you send a strong message to your students — that dissent should be feared, that expressing one’s right to free speech has limitations, that differing opinions will not be tolerated, that there is one story of history that can be allowed, and there is one kind of Jewish person.”

Censorship efforts and smear campaigns have targeted critical discussion of Palestine and Israel in public and private high schools around the country.

In New York City, a longtime history teacher resigned from the private Riverdale School after his course on Palestine/Israel was canceled due to donor outrage over his sympathy for 62 Palestinians killed by Israel during the Great Return March in Gaza in May 2018. Some parents and donors similarly decried a moment of silence for these Gaza victims at the Beacon School, a selective public high school in Manhattan. 

Two teachers at the private Friends Central School outside Philadelphia were fired in 2017 after inviting a Palestinian peace activist and Swarthmore professor Sa’ed Atshan to speak to students, drawing ire from some parents. 

Jewish and Zionist organizations have attacked an Arabic language program in San Francisco schools because the organization backing the program supports Palestinian human rights. Similar attacks have targeted ethnic studies programming in California public schools because a proposed curriculum included discussion of the movement for Palestinian human rights.

Palestine Legal is currently advising Jon Cohen, a New York City public school educator who was censored for having items supportive of Palestinian rights in his workspace last May. 

We encourage any educators facing backlash for Palestinian human rights advocacy to contact us.