As we continue to reckon with the events since October 7, 2023, it is important to recognize that for Palestinians, our history and suffering did not begin on that date.

For Palestinians worldwide, this year represents 76 years + 1 continuous year of ongoing ethnic cleansing, leading to what the ICJ has recognized as a plausible case of genocide. An article in the respected British medical journal The Lancet suggests that as many as 186,000 or more deaths could be linked to the war on Gaza. Currently, more than one million children in Gaza are beginning their second year without access to education.

This moment presents an opportunity to take stock of where we stand as a community and as a school board.

We are Toronto Palestinian Families, and Toronto Jewish Families and allies. For over a year, our community has been deeply shocked and continues to be traumatized by the daily display of horrific images of murdered and mutilated children on our screens. This has had a profound impact on our students, particularly on Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students within the school board, many of whom are from newcomer families whose voices may not always be heard. It is important to recognize that most of the Palestinians living in Gaza today are refugees from the 1948 Nakba, a fact that many Canadians may not be aware of.

We are very concerned with the fact that despite a palpable increase in our community of anti-Palestinian racism (APR), the TDSB has still not accepted responsibility for the harm done to Palestinian families. The TDSB’s silence and refusal to recognize the suffering of its Palestinian students, families, and allies has been harmful to our families, and we have yet to see a clear public affirmation of our right to stand against genocide or the assurance that Palestinian students, families, and their allies will be supported in doing so.

Additionally, we want to highlight the rising incidents of various forms of oppression that students are facing, including anti-Palestinian racism (APR), anti-Black and anti-Asian racism, antisemitism, and anti-2SLGBT+ discrimination. Our children and educators deserve a learning environment free from harm and discrimination, one where they are supported and protected.

We urge the TDSB to not only recognize the right of Palestinian families to speak out but also to guarantee that our students and educators will be protected if they express solidarity with Palestinians seeking freedom. In fact, it is the duty of the Board to support and protect them from APR.

In November 2023, during a press conference, we called on the TDSB to provide staff with the necessary resources and training to transform every moment into a teachable one, instead of criminalizing our children's solidarity with others who are being slaughtered, imprisoned, and brutalized under the apartheid policies of the Israeli state. It should not be overlooked that we have been meeting with the TDSB since 2021 with these same demands.

Unfortunately, we have seen little progress, apart from the long and unnecessarily fraught process of including Anti-Palestinian Racism in the Combating Hate and Racism strategy. Now that APR has been notionally included in that strategy, we need to know what resources and supports will be given to educators and administrators, who are on the front lines of addressing APR in their classrooms and schools.

We hope the TDSB will recognize the urgency of this moment and act accordingly. Our demands are:

1. Include Anti-Palestinian Racism in the TDSB’s Equity Policy.

2. Publicly affirm that TDSB students and staff will not be punished for supporting Palestinian human rights and/or criticizing the state of Israel.

3. Develop and offer educational resources and training at all levels of the TDSB related to Palestinian human rights and Anti-Palestinian Racism.

4. End collaborations with groups that perpetrate Anti-Palestinian Racism, harass students and staff, target progressive Jewish voices, or push for curbs on civil liberties. Collaborations include, but are not limited to: creating and conducting workshops for students, staff, or parents, leading professional development for staff, assisting with policy directives, and offering field trips for students.

5. Build collaborations with organizations that teach Jewish identity that is not inherently linked to Israel, and recognize diversity within Jewish populations.

6. Acknowledge the harm done to Palestinian families by the TDSB’s erasure of Palestinian suffering in communications to all TDSB parents and caregivers, and the continued silence of the TDSB during what the United Nations has called “unparalleled and unprecedented” killing of civilians that has led Gaza to become “a graveyard for children.”

To this end, we demand the release and operationalization of the Rooted curriculum with associated staff training, as well as the inclusion of the Nakba Remembrance Day in the Board’s Days of Significance. These two actions will signal that the Board has taken our demands seriously and is prepared to make reparations for the harm done in this past year.

We also believe that the TDSB has a responsibility to enable and diligently collect reporting on anti-Palestinian racism. We, therefore, call for the inclusion of APR in the list of reportable incidents in the RBH Portal, as it is already recognized in the Combatting Hate and Racism strategy. We believe that the shortfall of its inclusion on the portal has resulted in APR being severely underreported in the system. By failing to include Anti-Palestinian Racism (APR) as a category in the RBH portal, the TDSB reinforces the erasure of the Palestinian experience, which aligns with the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association's definition of APR as often manifesting through silencing and erasure, leaving many fearful of disclosing or reporting their Palestinian identity.

Our children and educators deserve a learning environment free from harm and discrimination, one where they are supported and protected.