LA elementary school teachers suspended and now under investigation after teaching students a lesson about the ‘Palestinian genocide’

• California teachers were suspended after teaching first-graders a lesson on the topic of “genocide in Palestine.”

• Citizens of the World Charter School holds its classes in a local synagogue.

• The headmaster also takes two weeks off to attend sensitivity training.

A charter school in Los Angeles, whose classes take place in a Jewish synagogue, is investigating two teachers who posted online that they had taught first-graders about the topic of “genocide in Palestine.”

Citizens of the World Charter School announced Friday that it had suspended both teachers due to teaching and other points of conflict, Los Angeles television station KTLA reported.

Executive Director Melissa Kaplan said in a statement that the school “unequivocally condemns” teachers’ social media posts about the class, including the use of the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

Brian Schuldfrei, chief rabbi of the Adat Ari El Synagogue, said at a news conference that the synagogue had hung Israeli flags around its building where classes are held after Hamas launched attacks in Israel, KTLA reported.

Schuldfrei said he learned about the lesson when the school’s principal emailed him and asked if the synagogue could take down the flags, the report said.

“After the lesson, one of the teachers proudly shared on Instagram, and I quote, ‘LOL, but I did a lesson with my first graders today about the genocide in Palestine,'” Schuldfrei said. “The teacher went on to boast, ‘My favorite was a kid who said, ‘What if they just gave the land back to Palestine and found another place to live?'”

Citizens of the World did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment, but the school told the Los Angeles Times that the content of the lesson was still being investigated and that the teachers, if reinstated, would work at another campus.

According to The Times, school principal Hye-Won Gehring is also taking two weeks off to attend sensitivity training.

The war between Israel and Hamas has become a controversial topic in schools and colleges in the United States since the Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people.

In response, Israel launched air strikes and a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, in which, according to the Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry, more than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed so far, thousands of them believed to be children.

A growing pro-Palestinian movement in the United States is facing resistance in schools and colleges across the country.

On October 18, billionaire hedge fund manager Clifford Asness joined a chorus of major donors in stripping the University of Pennsylvania of its funding for the Palestine Writes literary festival, which he called an “anti-Semitic Burning Man.”

Omega Advisors CEO Leon Cooperman, who has donated more than $25 million to Columbia University, also threatened to stop funding the university if it does not publicly support Israel.

Cooperman’s comments followed a strike at Columbia University on October 11, when students walked out of classes to support Palestinians amid increasing violence in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman put pressure on Harvard to suspend students from classes because of anti-Semitic and pro-Palestinian actions on campus.

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