On July 28, 2020 Louise Sirisko, Director of Education for York Region District School Board (YRDSB), issued the following statement:
E-Learning Video Removed
Dear Families,
It has come to our attention that during an e-learning Civics and Careers Continuing Education course, a video that showed a biased point of view on the Israel/ Palestinian conflict was shared with online participants.
The video was created and distributed by e-Learning Ontario and is included in the resources for the revised e-Learning Civics and Careers curriculum. This particular video was part of a selection of 4 videos that are available to all school boards in Ontario.
While this is not a YRDSB video, or a YRDSB course, we would like to be clear that we do not support the sharing of biased content or misinformation to students. We brought this to the attention of the Ministry of Education’s E-Learning Ontario, and the video has been reviewed and removed from the resources available to school boards
YRDSB continues to work to create learning spaces, including virtually, that are safe, welcoming and inclusive.
We are disappointed that some of our students were hurt by this video and please know that the views expressed are not indicative of the beliefs of the YRDSB school community. If parents have concerns about their child and feel that they need additional support, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s school.
Sincerely,
Louise Sirisko, Director of Education
Hi, i’m Maj and I’m going to talk about the Israel and Palestinian conflict that’s been going on in the Middle East. So the conflict between Israel and Palestine has been going on for decades and there is yet to be and it has yet to be resolved. Nor is there a resolution in sight. Over here you can see that little part that is Israel next to Egypt. So also you can see that this is a little spot here where the Gaza strip is and another spot here where the West Bank is located. Well, the Palestinians are located in that Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The issue here is that the current occupation of the Palestinian land by the Zionists have violated the human rights of the Palestinians. They have deprived the Palestinians of natural resources, such as water, and taking the majority of it for themselves. The Zionists that are granted these privileges are backed by the military. Another thing is that the Israelis use violence and destructive tactics to continue their occupation. In the past decade around , Palestinians have been killed and , of those were killed by Israeli soldiers. So what I find the coincidence in this is that the USA has been funding the Israeli military, grant so enabling them to continue their violent and destructive occupation. Another thing is that per cent of those Palestinians that are killed die on their own land. So another thing is that the Gaza militants have retaliated by firing rockets at Israel, but the Israelis have killed more than , more Palestinians than Israelis in the past decade. So this conflict continues to rage on because the Israelis continue to live as occupiers while the Palestinians live under occupation. This needs to change. The government of Israel needs to be pressured into ending this occupation by people around the world whether they’re civilians or politicians. So when the occupation ends this will create a way for both Palestinians and Israelis to live in equality, human rights and in peace.