Source : the age
Teachers are being urged to draw attention to Australian soldiers’ violence in the Middle East ahead of Anzac Day by a pro-Palestine lobby group “frustrated by resources that gloss over historical evidence to glorify war”.
Teachers and School Staff for Palestine Victoria have developed and distributed a new teaching resource – called “Challenging Anzac Day” – to thousands of teachers nationwide, encouraging them to share with students details of Australian troops’ role in the Middle East during the First World War.
Teachers are being urged to challenge the “the dominant and irresponsible Anzac mythology” ahead of commemorations.Credit: Chris Hopkins
The lesson guide urges teachers to tell children that members of an Australian Light Horse brigade raided and patrolled hundreds of villages, killing up to 137 civilians at Sarafand al-’Amar – also known as Surafend – in what was then Palestine.
“The brutal massacre committed by the ANZACs at Sarafand al-’Amar chillingly portended the Nakba, the catastrophic displacement of Palestinians in 1947-1949,” the resource says.
The Surafend incident, as it became known, was examined in recent years as part of the Australian Defence Force’s Brereton report, which found there was a reluctance among military command at the time to hold Australian forces to account for breaching prohibitions against killing civilians.
The pro-Palestine group’s resource also encourages teachers to tell students that Australian troops burned a village of 170 dwellings south of Cairo in 1919, and “arrested and flogged up to 250 seditious agitators”.
A spokesperson for the group, teacher Ohad Kozminsky, said the publication’s goal was to “challenge the dominant and irresponsible Anzac mythology”.
“We are frustrated by resources that gloss over historical evidence to glorify war and close off critical discussion of Australia’s role in violence and imperialism. Our students deserve better,” he said.
The Education Department said it did not endorse the group’s publication.
“Anzac Day is an important opportunity for the Victorian community to come together to recognise and express appreciation for the sacrifices made by those who have served in Australia’s armed forces,” a department spokesman said.
“Our curriculum includes Anzac Day resources that align with guidance from the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne and the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.”
Another spokesperson for the activist group, teacher Lucy Honan, said the publication had been shared with teachers aligned with the group at both public and private schools.
Asked whether activists had the right to question the curriculum, Honan defended the group’s actions as encouraging student learning.
“The current curriculum asks students to analyze the Anzac myth. So this is a resource to help teachers teach to the current curriculum. It’s not an alternative curriculum,” she said.
“It’s a resource to support what teachers are already trying to do, which is support students with a deeper understanding of what the Anzacs were involved in.”
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