‘Sides Not Solutions’: Zionist Propaganda in UK Schools
If you are a teacher in the UK then you will already be familiar with the ‘Prevent Duty’ (or simply, Prevent) and the associated mandatory training that must be refreshed each year. The aim of Prevent, per its statutory guidance, is ’to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.’1 In the abstract, this policy appears to most educators as an appropriate counterpart to their broader safeguarding duties, with any serious concerns being referred to ‘Channel’, a rehabilitation programme. But, in practice its application has been anything but objective. A report by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) highlights that Muslims – less than 10% of the UK’s population – comprised 60% of Channel referrals. Whereas far-right extremists made up only 10% of Channel referrals, despite 31% of young people ‘believing Muslims are taking over England’. This discriminatory bias has led to a two-year-old being referred to social services for singing ‘Allahu Akbar’ and, presciently, a schoolboy being accused of ‘terrorist-like views’ for possessing a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) leaflet, with ‘Free Palestine’ badges being considered ‘extremist’. It is worth noting that 80% of Channel referrals were rejected between 2006 and 2013, validating MCB’s assessment of Prevent, ‘that children are being viewed through the lens of security and practitioners are finding threats where none exist in many cases.’2
A general critique of Prevent aside, when completing the training for teachers myself I was curious if the so-called ‘Israel-Palestine conflict’ would feature. There was nothing particularly prominent, until the ‘Promoting Best Practice’ section. In its summary, the training listed ‘Educate Against Hate’ as its sole source of useful classroom resources, and the first on that list is the organisation ‘Solutions Not Sides’ (SNS).3 Upon further inspection, I discovered that the SNS training package provides misleading and disingenuous ‘both sides’ messaging which perniciously supports the legitimacy of Israeli occupation, and that their wider funding and partner network consists of a conspicuous coalition of major Zionist groups.
The Propaganda War on Children
‘No one can be in the world, with the world, and with others and maintain a posture of neutrality. I cannot be in the world decontextualized, simply observing life.’
– Paulo Freire4
SNS was founded in 2009 by Sharon Booth, former PA to the British Defence Attaché in Jordan, and claims to provide ‘a critical approach to education on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,’offering a wide range of ‘teacher guides’ and ‘student-led learning resources.’ There are too many to analyse in full, but an exploration of their key terms, guide to ‘conspiracy theories,’ and overall message lay bare a disturbing exercise in Zionist propaganda.
The key definitions provided by SNS to supposedly aid its audience’s understanding of ‘the situation’ of Israel’s occupation characterise the organisation’s broader worldview.5 They give some historical background to the word ‘Apartheid’ and note its designation as a ‘crime against humanity’ by the UN. But nowhere do they mention its application by Israel in Palestine. Painting a both-sides narrative here would of course be folly, since even leading Israeli political figures have categorised it precisely in those terms.6 Though SNS acknowledge that the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS) is comparable to ‘tactics used to help end Apartheid in South Africa,’ they suggest that because some unnamed ‘particular individuals’ have targeted Jewish rather than Israeli shops, the campaign could be a vehicle for anti-Semitic actions. They also argue that Jews are particularly sensitive to boycotts as they could elicit ‘terrible memories and fears for Jewish people’ who were subjected to them in Nazi Germany. No mention is made of Israel blocking Palestinian goods, such as in occupied East Jerusalem in 2016,7 or its 16-year siege of Gaza.8 Colonialism, we are told, is a system ‘of domination, land, economic and population control by one country, power, or empire, over another, in the latter’s indigenous land, to the detriment, exploitation, and abuse of the indigenous population.’ Although Israel’s violent expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians ‘undoubtedly required drastic changing of the demographics’ (Israel’s founding is not labelled colonial),9 the term colonialism is said to be ‘misapplied in the context of modern international agreements, as Israel is now a fully recognised and legitimate state, rather than a temporary foreign power.’ While appealing to the authority of international law is plainly fallacious, following a logic that could be applied to all colonial configurations in history, the idea that Israel was not or is no longer a colonial state is also widely disputed, even by Israeli academics.10 SNS substantiate their claim by stating, despite numerous historical accounts to the contrary,11 that ‘some Israelis are themselves indigenous to the land, as their families have been in the land for many generations.’ In fact, as Steven Salaita notes, this is a claim made by Zionists to appropriate the sense of ‘access, belonging, biology, culture, jurisdiction, and identity’ that true indigeneity connotes.12 By endorsing these Zionist claims to legitimacy while whitewashing Israel’s overtly settler colonial origins, SNS is both explicitly and implicitly defending its historic and continued occupation of Palestine.
On the Holocaust, SNS say that historical comparisons can help contemporary understanding, but ‘the occupation of the Palestinian territories is in no way similar to the Holocaust.’ It is true that the industrial extermination committed by the Nazis is different to the 75-year process of the Nakba, nevertheless, ‘the fate of the Palestinians,’ wrote Holocaust survivor Israel Shahak, ‘should be discussed together with the Holocaust!’ If not just for the fact that Nazi expressions like ‘thinning out’ or ‘making clean [of Palestinians]’ are common Israeli expressions, Shahak argues that asserting the ‘uniqueness’ of the Holocaust as a crime solely against Jews not only ignores its other victims, but more importantly, encourages an attitude of indifference and wilful disregard for systematic violations against other human groups in the past, present, or future.13 And finally, while the Nakba is described as a time of ‘utmost devastation for Palestinians,’ the SNS material claims that some Israelis associate ‘Nakba’ with the establishment of Israel (quite correctly, of course), and therefore ‘feel upset or threatened by the term.’ The implication here is that mentioning the Nakba could elicit emotional responses from both Palestinians and Israelis, and each side should receive equally compassionate treatment regarding those responses. Again, such logic obscures the rationale and motivations behind each of these interpretations, painting each side as equally traumatised, thus obscuring the historical reality of who the perpetrators and victims of the Nakba were. Indeed, it seems fitting that the SNS timeline resource lists Deir Yassin as the sole massacre carried out by Israel,14 despite it being just one in a long history of such atrocities.15
The SNS guide to ‘conspiracy theories’ deliberately includes some patently ludicrous ideas such as ‘Did Jews fake the Holocaust so they could create Israel?’ and ‘Did Muslims start the Holocaust?’ with questions related to some inconvenient truths such as ‘Did Israel create ISIS?’ SNS claims that this conspiracy theory ‘serves to disregard and downplay the active threat that the group [ISIS] continues to advocate for the murder of people in the West and Jewish people.’16 It is striking that this is their concern given that it is Muslims who constitute the vast majority of terror-related fatalities.17 But it also belies well-documented Israeli collaboration with like-minded groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria,18 as well as Israeli support for ISIS from a geostrategic perspective.19 Appropriately, for those who want to fact-check any of SNS’s claims in this regard, it recommends Bellingcat,20 a veritable hive of former western military and intelligence officers with a history of spreading disinformation.21
The stated purpose of this programme, visualised by a spectrum analogous to horseshoe theory, is to channel any anti-Israel/Palestine conversations, which are considered ‘lose-lose,’ towards a neutral position, which in reality is a two-state solution. You cannot be pro- one side. No. You should aim to be ‘pro-solution,’ a wholly nebulous ‘win-win’ scenario, only achieved through non-violence, and with a single caption: ‘Emotions: Hope, empathy, respect, empowerment.’22 A student-led resource on ultranationalism is particularly pernicious. With big pictures of Milosevic, Stalin, and Hitler23 it states that ‘extreme nationalism promotes the interests of one state or people above all others,’24 implying to children that support for a single-state solution for Palestine, the establishment of a democratic state for all, and the end of occupation is akin to the ultranationalism of Hitler and an unspeakably heinous proposal.
Since its establishment, SNS has worked with over 400 schools and 60,000 students. But an SNS report of school tours from 2017 is instructive for understanding their actual goals. Despite stating that the 2,079 student participants came from ‘a mix of backgrounds,’ the report demonstrated a strong focus on areas with proportionally higher Muslim populations (Manchester, Leicester, and two tours of Bradford). In each tour they admit that most students were Muslims, and for the Midlands they even stated that ‘to the best of our knowledge, we did not work with any Jewish students during the week.’25 In fact, in a document entitled ‘Solutions Not Sides Business Plan,’ which has now been removed from its website, SNS stated that their main targets were ‘areas [of Britain] with the largest populations of Jews and/or Muslims.’26 As this clearly does not square with the majority of students they are engaging with, it is apparent that SNS view Muslim children through the lens of security, and thus provide total continuity with the British government’s broader Prevent strategy which disproportionately targets Muslim children.
It is not surprising that an organisation would take the opportunity to occupy a place in the UK’s £1.4 billion teacher training market,27 and doing so would clearly require said organisation’s agenda to dovetail with that of British national interests. In the case of Israel, and in the context of 80% of Conservative MPs being members of Israeli lobby group Conservative Friends of Israel,28 this would mean disseminating information in such a way as to demonstrate tacit support for Israel and affirming ‘western values’. In fact, a 2015 SNS donor brochure underscores this well, with members of the ‘Occupy’ movement ‘wearing the Palestinian scarf and raising the Palestinian flag,’ being equated with the English Defence League ‘raising the Israeli flag.’29 To be clear, SNS does not deny that it receives funding from the British state, but the following section reveals an organisation that arose within the interests of a profoundly Zionist political milieu.
Solutions Not Sides: Origins
SNS was originally conceived as a flagship school programme by OneVoice Europe (OVE).30 OneVoice (with branch names OneVoice International, OneVoice Israel, and OneVoice Palestine) was founded in 2002 by billionaire Daniel Lubetzky. Its stated aim is focusing on leveraging a critical but largely untapped resource within the Israeli and Palestinian public: the centrist mainstream who support resolution of the conflict through a negotiated and mutually-acceptable two-state solution.’31 It is worth noting that Lubetzky sits on the advisory council for the Zionist lobby group, Israel Policy Forum,32 and is a director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL),33 a long-time collaborator with American imperialism in the suppression of social movements.34
OneVoice previously had on its board ‘State Department Special Advisor Dennis Ross, former Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Efraim Sneh, and former Israeli military ruler of the occupied West Bank General Danny Rothschild.’35 This has now changed but for a convoluted, but later revealing, reason. From 2013-2014, the United States funded OneVoice Israel (OVI) and OneVoice Palestine (OVP) with over $300k in the run up to the 2015 Israeli elections.36 OVI then merged with V15, a new ‘grassroots’ group advised by Barack Obama’s former national field advisor Jeremy Bird.37 V15 then merged with OVI and they were both subsequently absorbed by a new organisation, Darkenu (Our Path).38
Darkenu was founded in 2016 by former executive director of OVI, Polly Bronstein,39 with the help of former IDF General and Deputy Minister of Defense, Ephraim Sneh, and former IDF pilot and now businessman, Kobi Richter.40 Darkenu and Commanders for Israel’s Security organised the annual ‘Rabin Rally’ in 2017, inviting six former IDF chiefs of staff,41 and boasting speakers such as former Mossad chief, Shabtai Shavit,42 and retired Major General, Amnon Reshef.43 Indeed, One Voice International still exists as a separate entity, and has provided funding to the tune of $15 million since 2015 for its two major partners in Israel and Palestine, Darkenu and Zimam respectively.44 Darkenu’s current board members include former Brigadier General of the infamous Golani Brigade (who recently carved the Star of David into a park in Gaza),45 Baruch Spiegel, former paratrooper Yizhar Shai, and original founder of the One Voice Movement in Israel, Assaf Halachmi. Its stated mission is to ‘organise, amplify, and empower the moderate majority of Israelis, both Jewish and Arab, to exert influence on government policy and on the public discourse, ensuring our nation acts in line with … the spirit of Zionism.’46
The so-called non-partisanship at the heart of Darkenu’s mission is clearly non-existent, but how does this relate to SNS? On its current webpage, SNS emphatically reject the claim that it is funded by OneVoice: ‘SNS has received no funding from OneVoice since becoming an independent charity [in 2019], and even prior to that, all SNS funding was separately raised and held as restricted funds.’47 SNS received £90k of ‘net assets from OneVoice Europe’ according to their 2020 financial statement.48
Interestingly, the Wayback Machine internet archive shows that the FAQ section for SNS, and the question of OneVoice funding, was added after November 2nd, 2023. Their FAQs were previously listed elsewhere. Their statement on funding also specifies that they do not ‘share an office’ with OneVoice. It seems likely that the page was updated following a viral tweet from activist and rapper Lowkey (Kareem Dennis) on November 17th, who suggested that they share an office on Primrose Hill.49 Similarly, in response to an FAQ about funding by the British state, the 2022 SNS website stated that they do not ‘receive funding from the government of any other country or from individuals or organisations in any other country – all its funding for its work in the UK is from British sources.’ This has now been removed and replaced with a vague assertion that ‘other SNS funding comes mainly from grants by trusts and foundations and contributions from schools.’
Per financial reports from 2016 to 2021, with the stated aim of ensuring ‘that young people are more aware of the nuances behind the conflict in Israel and Palestine,’50 the British government granted SNS £350k.51 SNS funding from the British government is not in question, and they admit as much on their website, though they caveat that ‘there has never been any governmental input or interference.’ But why would they have to interfere if SNS is providing the same ‘balanced’ view of Israeli occupation as the British state?
Among its list of partners, SNS has received £120k from the Alan and Babette Sainsbury Charitable Fund, which lists former Conservative MP and President of the Conservative Friends of Israel (1997-2005) Timothy Sainsbury as a trustee.52 SNS also received £310k between 2018 and 2021 from the Pears Foundation.53 The Pears Foundation, in collaboration with Britain and Israel, provided £1.4m to establish the Britain Israel Research and Academic Exchange Partnership (BIRAX), a project specifically designed to undermine calls for an academic boycott of Israel in British universities. Its executive chair, Trevor Pears, sat on the board of the Conservative Friends of Israel and major Israel lobby group, BICOM.54
Given the litany of Zionist financial backers, it is odd that SNS categorically deny such a relationship with OneVoice. In fact, the notable absence of OneVoice in their list of partners twinned with such a strong ‘separation’ statement implies the relationship is no longer active. This begs the question as to why SNS still list Darkenu, a later evolution of OneVoice Israel, as a key partner, and one whom they use to platform Israeli speakers in British schools?
Sides Not Solutions
From ‘Solutions Not Sides’ course materials to its origins and partnerships, it is evident that, contrary to the name, it has firmly chosen a side. With the support of the British state, it is enacting an insidious propaganda campaign to subtly deceive children and educators across the UK.
By presenting Palestinian and Israeli needs as equally understandable and valid, SNS has sacrificed pedagogical integrity at the altar of spurious ‘impartiality,’ and its covert promotion of a two-state solution is essentially campaigning for the continuation of Israeli occupation, and with it the daily brutality meted out against the Palestinians.
As Paulo Freire warns, the promise of neutrality in education should be a red flag for all critically conscious parents and educators, for ‘Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.’
References
1 Home Office, ‘Prevent duty guidance: for England and Wales’, 2023.
2 Muslim Council of Britain, ‘Meeting Between David Anderson QC and the MCB: Concerns on Prevent’, 2015.
3 Educate Against Hate, ‘Teachers Classroom Resources’, 2023.
4 Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage, trans. Patrick Clarke, (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), 73.
5 Solutions Not Sides, ‘A Guide to Vocabulary on the Topic of Israel-Palestine’, 2023.
6 Chris McGreal, ‘Amnesty says Israel is an apartheid state. Many Israeli politicians agree’, (The Guardian, 2022).
7 Rania Zabaneh, ‘Israeli ban on Palestinian goods in Jerusalem slammed’, (Al Jazeera, 2016).
8 Tamara Nassar, ‘Israel cuts fuel, Gaza goes dark’, (The Electronic Intifada, 2020).
9 From its inception, Zionism has been an avowedly colonial project. In his 1925 essay 'The Iron Wall', key Zionist founder, Vladimir Jabotinsky, wrote that 'Zionism is a colonisation adventure.' In a July 2023 speech, current Israeli President, Benjamin Netanyahu, remarked that 'One hundred years after the "iron wall" was stamped in Jabotinsky's writings we are continuing to successfully implement these principles.’ Additionally, the first Zionist bank was named the ‘Jewish Colonial Trust’ and the entire campaign was supported by the 'Palestine Jewish Colonisation Association’ and the ‘Jewish Agency Colonisation Department’. See Decolonize Palestine, ‘Zionism is not colonialism, just Jewish self-determination’, 2023; and Prime Minister’s Office (Israel), ‘Excerpt from PM Netanyahu 's Remarks at the State Memorial Ceremony for Ze'ev Jabotinsky’, 2023.
10 Ilan Pappé. (2012). ’Shtetl Colonialism: First and Last Impressions of Indigeneity by Colonised Colonisers’, Settler Colonial Studies, 2:1, 39-58.
11 Many academic books dispute Zionist claims to an ancestral as mythological. See Eyal Weizman, Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation, (Verso, 2012); Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland, trans. Geremy Forman, (Verso, 2012); and Shlomo Sand, The Invention of Jewish People, trans. Yael Lothan, (Verso, 2009).
12 Steven Salaita. (2014). Inter/Nationalism from the Holy Land to the New World: Encountering Palestine in American Indian Studies. Native American and Indigenous Studies, 1(2), 133.
13 Israel Shahak, ‘‘The Life of Death’: An Exchange’, (The New York Review of Books, 1987).
14 Solutions Not Sides, ‘A Timeline of Events in Palestine-Israel’, 2023.
15 Palestine Remix, ‘Timeline of Palestine’s History’, 2023.
16 Solutions Not Sides, ‘A Guide to Conspiracy Theories Around the Topic of Israel-Palestine’, 2023.
17 National Counterterrorism Center, ‘2011 Report on Terrorism’, 14.
18 Patrick Donovan Higgins, ‘Gunning for Damascus: The US War on the Syrian Arab Republic’, Middle East Critique, 32:2, 234
19 Efraim Inbar, ISIS: The Dangers for Israel, (Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies, 2016), 16.
20 Solutions Not Sides, ‘Fact Checker Resource Post’, 2023.
21 Alan Macleod, ‘How Bellingcat Launders National Security State Talking Points into the Press’, (Mintpress News, 2021).
22 Solutions Not Sides, ‘How to Tackle Anti-Jewish & Anti-Muslim Bullying Around the Issue of Israel-Palestine, 2023.
23 The conflation of Stalin and Hitler is in itself a misleading comparison. See Domenico Losurdo, ‘Stalin and Hitler: Twin Brothers or Mortal Enemies?’, trans. Frank Ruda, Crisis and Critique, 2016, Vol. 3, No. 1. pp. 32-47.
24 Solutions Not Sides, ‘Nationalism: Israeli and Palestinian Narratives and Symbols’, 9.
25 Solutions Not Sides, ‘Spring Term 2017 Report – Regions: Bradford, Manchester, East Midlands, and Bradford’, 2017.
26 Ben White, ‘When it comes to Palestine, ‘taking sides’ and ‘solutions’ are not mutually exclusive’, 2018.
27 Jens Van den Brandle and James Zuccollo, ‘The cost of high-quality professional development for teachers in England’, (Education Policy Institute, 2021), 12.
28 James Hughes, ‘Why did London School of Economics censor this article on Israel’s lobby?’ (The Electronic Intifada, 2023).
29 It is, of course, revealing that an organisation which prides itself on being sensitive to cultural references would sincerely refer to the keffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian head-dress, as simply a scarf.’ See Solutions Not Sides, ‘Information for Donors’, 2015.
30 This fact is stated by OneVoice Europe Board member Katellin Teller in her 2023 PhD thesis and is corroborated by financial statements from OneVoice Europe. See Katelin Teller (2023). ‘Organisational Learning, Politics and Change: The Mundane and the Extraordinary in Peacebuilding. A case study of OneVoice (US), Darkenu (Israel), Zimam (Palestine) and Solutions Not Sides (SNS) (UK)’, PhD thesis The Open University, 93; and OneVoice Europe, ‘Unaudited Trustees Report and Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 March 2016’, (Charity Commission, 2016), 9.
31 OneVoice Movement, ‘Our History’, 2023.
32 Israel Policy Forum, ‘Board of Directors’, 2023.
33 ADL, ‘Our Board of Directors: Daniel Lubetzky’, 2023.
34 Drop the ADL, ‘The ADL is not an ally: A Primer’, 2023.
35 Ali Abunimah, ‘One Voice: manufacturing consent for Israeli apartheid’, (The Electronic Intifada, 2009).
36 United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, ‘Review of U.S. State Department Grants to OneVoice’, 2015.
37 Julie Hirschfeld Davis, ‘Former Obama Campaign Aide Now Works to Oust Netanyahu’, (The New York Times, 2015).
38 Katelin Teller (2023). ‘Organisational Learning, Politics and Change: The Mundane and the Extraordinary in Peacebuilding. A case study of OneVoice (US), Darkenu (Israel), Zimam (Palestine) and Solutions Not Sides (SNS) (UK)’, PhD thesis The Open University, 90.
39 PR Newswire, ‘OneVoice Israel Partners with V15 to Change Status Quo’, 2015.
40 Pamela Peled, ‘We’ll do it our way’, (The Jerusalem Post, 2016).
41 Andrew Tobin, ‘Leftists say Rabin commemoration ‘whitewashes’ assassination’, (The Times of Israel, 2017).
42 Jacob Magid and Times of Israel Staff, ‘85,000 attend rally marking 22nd anniversary of Rabin’s murder’, (The Times of Israel, 2017).
43 Gideon Levy, ‘Yitzhak Rabin Memorial 2017: War Is Over if You Want It - Just Don't Mention the Occupation’, (Haaretz, 2017).
44 OneVoice, ‘Impact Report: Get to Know OneVoice’, 2022.
45 Michael Horovitz, ‘Honouring fallen, Golani troops trace giant Star of David into captured terror outpost’, (The Times of Israel, 2023).
46 Darkenu, ‘Who Are We? Vision’, 2023.
47 Solutions Not Sides, ‘FAQs about SNS' work, mission and goals’, 2023.
48 Solutions Not Sides, ‘Report and financial statements for the year ended 31 August 2020’, (Charity Commission, 2020), 9.
49 It is not clear when exactly it was updated as, at the time of writing, the Wayback archive had not captured a snapshot of the website since November 2nd, 2023.
50 Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, ‘Annual Report and Accounts: 2019-20’, 364.
51 It is telling that the government’s 2018 ‘Action Against Hate’ report and their 2018 annual report actually confuse SNS with OneVoice. See Home Office, ‘Action Against Hate The UK Government’s plan for tackling hate crime: 2018 – two years on’, 11; and Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, ‘Annual Report and Accounts: 2018-19’, 139.
52 Giving is Great, ‘Alan & Babette Sainsbury Charitable Fund: Grants Made’, 2023.
53 Giving is Great, ‘Solutions Not Sides: Donations from Grant Makers’, 2023.
54 Hilary Aked, ‘Billionaire donor using British Council to combat Israel boycott’, (The Electronic Intifada, 2016).
55 Paulo Freire, The Politics of Education: Culture, Power, and Liberation, trans. Donaldo Macedo, (Bergin & Garvey, 1985), 122.