Teaching Palestine

Teaching Palestine

Edited by Bill Bigelow, Jesse Hagopian, Suzanna Kassouf, Adam Sanchez, and Samia Shoman

 Teaching Palestine: Lessons, Stories, Voices provides educators with powerful tools to uncover the history and current context of Palestine-Israel in the classroom — poetry, personal narratives, interviews, role plays, critical reading and writing activities, and more. Teaching Palestine offers a defense of Palestinian humanity centering Palestinian lives, uplifting and celebrating Palestinians’ struggle for justice, and critiquing racism and inequality.

With articles by MECA's Zeiad Shamrouch, Jody Sokolower, and Samia Shoman, this is a vital resource for all educators and activists. 

Reviews:

“Teaching Palestine is an urgently needed resource for teachers and students. It fills a huge gap in the school curriculum with regard to a hundred-year-old injustice in whose perpetuation the United States is deeply complicit. There is no better time to publish such a rich resource than now, when the whole world, especially young people, are watching genocide in Gaza being committed with impunity. They want to learn more about the Palestinian story from the Palestinians and their supporters. This book provides resources for a deep, objective understanding of the issues.”
Mona Khalidi, Former librarian at University of Chicago Lab Schools and assistant dean of student affairs and the assistant director of graduate studies of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.
Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor Emeritus of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University and author of The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017

“This book is a brilliant and much-needed antidote to the biased, distorted, and harmful narratives in schools and mainstream media that dehumanize Palestinians and justify their death and dispossession. Thoughtfully curated for educators, this collection is just as essential for organizers working for justice from the U.S. to Palestine. I’m especially grateful for the accessible resources that explain how false accusations of antisemitism are weaponized to shield the Israeli government from accountability for decades of oppression of Palestinians. Instead, this collection situates the fight against antisemitism exactly where it belongs: alongside, and inseparable from the struggle for Palestinian freedom. This book is a generous offer for all of us fighting for that world — where Palestinians, and all people, live with justice, dignity and freedom.”
Stefanie Fox, Executive Director, Jewish Voice for Peace

“If the old adage, ‘the world is a classroom,’ is true, then every educator on the planet needs this book. A carefully curated collection of essays, poetry, stories, art, photographs, documents, maps, and lesson plans, this is a text that can correct lies, open minds, and possibly save lives.  Any book that can do that is worth fighting for.”
Robin D. G. Kelley, Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History, UCLA; author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination

“This well documented teaching resource about Palestine is a much-needed correction to the pervasive mythology and disinformation promulgated in public spaces. For decades, a manipulative Zionist narrative with no historic or forensic basis has been pushed into schools and imposed on popular imagination, while indigenous Palestinian voices were excluded or muted. But the truth, like water, has a way of seeping through the most fortified lies. We’re seeing that happen now in Western discourse, and it’s vital to have such resources on hand to bolster these public and formal education conversations with the documented historic audit.”
Susan Abulhawa, author Mornings in Jenin, The Blue Between Sky and Water, Against the Loveless World

“This powerful book, published by Rethinking Schools … is an invaluable tool for educators who struggle to bring Palestinian history and current context into their classrooms. This book is an absolute must for educators and organizers engaged in awareness-raising activities in their communities.” Visualizing Palestine 

• Publisher: Rethinking Schools (2025)
  
• ISBN: 9780942961492