School district grilled by Congress accused of teaching one-sided lessons on Gaza

One of the school districts that attended the Wednesday House Education & Workforce on antisemitism in K-12 schools congressional session is facing legal challenge from a parent over their refusal to provide full Israel-Hamas War lesson plan materials that a public interest law firm has charged as biased against Israel.

Parent Yossi Fendel and the Deborah Project petitioned the Superior Court of California, Alameda County on April 4 for full disclosure of a Berkeley Unified School District-sanctioned curriculum being taught to Fendel's child.

The BUSD curriculum on the Gaza war is allegedly being withheld from Fendel's review in violation of parental rights afforded by the 1998 Education Empowerment Act because the district knew that the material presented a "one-sided presentation of issues relating to the conflict between Israel and Hamas."

BUSD Curriculum and Instruction Director Chris Albeck showed Fendel lesson slides in January, after months long correspondence with teacher Alex Day and the director, which Fendel said showed no balance, focusing on Israeli culpability.