The Hamas Israeli War

I am teaching a lesson on Nationalism on Friday as we enter our unit on the Enlightenment and political revolutions. I was thinking about curating some resources for students (with inspiration from this thread - thank you!) and having students respond to a writing prompt about the role of nationalism in the Hamas-Israeli conflict. 

Does anyone have suggestions about the wording for that writing prompt? It's a delicate issue, for sure. 

I am teaching a lesson on Nationalism on Friday as we enter our unit on the Enlightenment and political revolutions. I was thinking about curating some resources for students (with inspiration from this thread - thank you!) and having students respond to a writing prompt about the role of nationalism in the Hamas-Israeli conflict. 

Does anyone have suggestions about the wording for that writing prompt? It's a delicate issue, for sure. 

Anne Koschmider , are you looking for something more focused that what you asked? I thought asking the open-ended question -- What role did nationalism play in the Hamas-Israeli conflict? -- would allow students without prejudicing the response.  

John Vidoli I think you're right - keeping the prompt simple is the way to go. I want to be sure students consider historical context as well as the events unfolding day by day, so maybe I'll go with something like:

What role does nationalism play in the Hamas-Israeli conflict? Be sure to consider current and historical events in your answer. 

Additionally, I'll throw one more article in the mix with this option from Newsela:

PDF

I don't think nationalism is a simple answer. Isreal is a nationalistic, colonial project (in their own words), as well as imperial, as evidenced by their aggression towards other countries in the region (and their statements). Palestinians are losing more land by the hour and want liberation. Considering the Palestinian genocide taking place, I feel this needs to be talked about, even though the response of the holocaust during WW2 could be considered similar to today. That, in itself, is a good discussion; why we stay quiet when we know atrocities are happening (include Congo, Sudan and others as well in that).

Competing nationalisms is certainly a driver of this conflict .

Assuming best intention on your part, I would be careful - especially in an educator's community - not to flippantly spread ahistorical claims or  libels. These claims can be considered hate speech as they create a permission structure for the very real violence we see directed at Jewish communities in places like Bondi, London, Toronto, and New York. 

Adam Louis-Klein - an anthropologist at McGill University - has  finally disspelled all of this, a great read for all those interested. 

He has also created a new organization - MAAZ-  to name and call out antizionism as a hate movement, for those who are interested. 

I've also shared elsewhere in this thread some of the organizations who I believe are doing excellent work to provide balanced curricula for teachers - namely The Institute for Curriculum Services - https://icsresources.org/ and ConnectEd - https://connecteducation.org/

They certainly overstate their case but to categorize what they said as "libels" and "hate speech" is nonsense at best.

We can agree to disagree. Still, it's hard to imagine the concerns of any group being dismissed so easily as "nonsense." I do have a life experience that I'm speaking from. As it states in Klein's article, "People who have been targeted by anti-Zionism know the difference" between critique and libel. 

I really have zero wish to get into a debate on this forum. The OER Project community is a wonderful place for teachers to uplift and support one another. One way we do that is to share resources, which I have done to support my point.