Randy Fine, a state legislator supported by President Trump, enraged the test questions from the class at the Florida International University.
One of the questions recorded on social media said that Palestine was a country before the creation of Israel. Others seemed to suggest that the Zionists had invented terrorism. Mr. Fine was proof that textbooks at university and testing materials that accompany them were flooded in anti -Semitism.
Mr. Fine said he made him think, “How many other textbooks of Muslim terrorists are used in our university system?”
The system of large State University in Florida, which educates more than 430,000 students, is trying to find out.
Ray Rodrigues, Chancellor of the System, has removed the textbook “Terrorism and Internal Safety” from the system use, until the review. He then announced in August a remarkable effort feared by some professors and advocates of academic freedom: all 12 universities overseeing should set up faculty panels for veterinarians, including textbooks, anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli bias.
For Mr. Rodrigues, the test questions were in order, not only distorted or anti -Semitic, but were also illegal according to Florida 2024 status, which defines some criticism of Israel as anti -Semitic.
The subject of a class that has made a nationwide effort may seem unexpected. It was not in one of the disciplines such as sociology, This lawmakers leaning in recent years have focused and claimed that they are bastions of left -wing ideology.
Rather, there was a course on terrorism and internal security, taught by an instructor who served in Marines. And the primary author of the textbook is a long -term research worker in the area of security, who oversees the local anti -terrorism training in the Republican administration.
“It is such a random, inappropriate choice,” said Martha Schoolman, an English professor who opposed the efforts to screen textbooks. “But it doesn’t matter.” Because once you have decided, it is your work to check everything for anti -Semitism, nothing will pass. ”
She added: “This is a policy that is done on the basis of a screenshot.”
Nationwide efforts for the review take place at a time when academic communities are still winding from October 7, 2023, Hamas attack and military reaction from Israel. The areas that were roots protesting against the Israeli bombing of Gaza last spring, they calmed down. However, many universities and universities have tightened their rules governing protests, excluded students for breach of behavior and Class.
Efforts in Florida stand out. On level K-12Conservatives have long been pushing school districts disallow books and publishers on Take a look at the outline for inappropriate material. In higher education, however, such a control was relatively rare. The reviews of the course materials were directly in the field of professors and their departments.
Mr. Fine, who is Jewish and is called the “Hebrew hammer”, is a star in the Republican side. In November, Mr. Trump approved him on a chair in Congress that Mike Waltz resigned to become Mr. Trump’s national security advisor.
Mr. Fine, test questions Published on social media In June there were examples of anti-Israeli bias. One question was: “In which country, the Zionists bought land to create their new homeland?” The answer was Palestine. Palestine, however, was the Ottoman territory before the First World War and was then administered by Britain; It wasn’t a country.
It seems to indicate another test question Extremist Zionist organizations He invented terrorism. However, terrorism existed long before the conflict in the Middle East.
Mr. Fine began looking for responsibility. First, Mario Reyes, an additional professor, looked at the instructor of the course. Mr. Fine wrote on the social media that Mr. Reyes “should not buy green bananas for his office”, suggesting that his days at work were limited. However, after learning that Mr. Reyes, a naval veteran who works for the Ministry of Defense, did not write the test questions, instead he turned his attention to the textbook and its authors.
The primary author of the book Jonathan R. White has login data that hardly appears to be associated with pro-Palestinian bias. After the terrorist attacks of 11th. According to his biography, he conducted training against terrorism for police and military forces.
Dr. White, who recently left and became a pastor, did not respond to requests for comment.
In an interview, Mr. Fine acknowledged that he had not read a textbook he described as “Pro-Muslim terror”. However, he said he was assured by university officials that the book was problematic.
Mr. Rodrigues, who said in the interview that he checked the book, was more alleviated. He said the book contained “anti-Israeli bias”, although he did not know specific examples.
Review of The New York Times found that there was more nuance than three test questions. The textbook does not say or does not mean that Palestine was an independent country in modern times, nor that the Zionists have invented terrorism.
In the book passage, which seems to be the basis of one of the test questions under control, the author provided an Israeli perspective that terrorism in the region was associated with the Palestinian liberation organization. It also included the Palestinian perspective that the Israelis used terrorist tactics until they developed conventional military power.
However, it seems that the author of the textbook was not for testing questions.
The CENGAGE GROUP, a book publisher, stated in his statement that she used third -party sellers to write questions that have a quiz of a material contained in the book. The company said that the questions “did not meet our standards” and that it has stopped the digital and printing of the book, while performing “complete academic revision” to ensure that the content is without bias.
Brian Connolly, a professor of history at the University of South Florida, said the questions were poorly built, but resulted in a more nuanant writing textbook.
“If we focus on poorly written questions with a selection selection,” Dr. Connolly, “then it takes the system of the State University for the rest of their lives to solve it.”
The book remains reviewed by the State University system.
In August, Mr. Rodrigues gave march orders to the presidents at university to look for other examples of textbooks and teaching materials that contained anti-Semitism or anti-Israeli bias.
He said that the materials to be reviewed will be identified by searching for keywords of descriptions and curriculum. Search words included “Israel”, “Israeli”, “Palestinian”, “Middle East”, “Zionism”, “Judaism” and “Jews”.
Mr. Rodrigues said that anti -Semitism would be identified by the definition submitted by the International Alliance for the Holocaust memory. According to this definition, it would be called Israel’s work by “racist efforts” or Israel would qualify for the “double standard” as anti -Semites. The definition was criticized on the university campuses by someone who claims it Protects Israel from legitimate criticism.
The academic groups of Freedom, such as the American Association of University Professors, fired efforts to persecute the state textbook and called it “the idea of the police”, which “deepens the increasingly authoritarian approach of Florida to higher education”.
Faculty members have stated that they may violate their agreement on collective bargaining, which provides professors the right to “determine pedagogy”.
And the Association of Jewish Studies said that efforts were unduly single for control instructors who teach Jewish studies and related areas.
Laura Leibman, president of the group, said the efforts were good intentions. She said she was afraid that people had no subject to check the course materials based on muddy criteria without an object of expertise.
“It hit the heart of academic freedom,” she said.
Professor Schoolman, who is Jewish, said the whole exercise may seem like a farce. “The whole system must be turned upside down to find anti -Semitic needles in a haystack,” she said. But she was also afraid that she could signal more political battles to lose what professors could say and teach.
In an interview, Mr. Rodrigues said that faculty members would perform reviews and send their findings to the Governor’s Governor Council before the Board of Directors will meet this week. If distortion is identified, he said that experts would be brought to explore the materials further.
“We have to find out whether it was an anomaly,” Mr. Rodrigues said about internal security test issues, “or whether this is part of a wider problem.”
