by Hussam Ayloush | Special to the Courier

California’s classrooms should be places of learning, curiosity, and critical thinking that enrich and guide our next generation of leaders.

However, a dangerous bill being considered in the California state legislature, AB 715, threatens to chill free speech and comprehensive learning in classrooms, punish educators for discussing global human rights issues, and adds a financial strain on the state’s already deficient budget by adding additional levels of bureaucracy.

Under the guise of fighting antisemitism, AB 715 would go after educators who provide their students with accurate information on Palestine’s history, culture, and current events. The bill would silence discussion of Israel’s ongoing campaign of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and forced starvation of children and families in Gaza.

The bill’s proponents have acted in bad faith and used tactics such as rule waivers to speed through the legislative process and pass AB 715, without any critical debate, in the Assembly. On the Senate side, the Senate Education Committee has failed to effectively address concerns from diverse civil liberties and grassroots organizations, including those brought by the California Palestine Solidarity Coalition, as well as concerns voiced by parents, students, community organizations, and the California Teachers Association.

In its current form, the bill relies on the politically motivated International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, which conflates criticism of Israel with anti-Jewish hate and has been rejected by more than 100 international bodies and civil societies for being deeply problematic. The alliance’s flawed definition has been used as the basis for the National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, implemented under the Biden administration and executed in full force under the Trump administration. Under this strategy, the Trump administration has aggressively cracked down on the free speech of students and expelled, detained, and even attempted to deport them for speaking out against Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The IHRA definition of antisemitism played a key role in the federal government unlawfully detaining students Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi, and Rümeysa Öztürk for their pro-Palestine advocacy. Although their detentions were later overturned by judges, the Trump administration has set a dangerous precedent for how it plans to deal with legitimate criticism of a foreign government.

Now, California’s lawmakers seem to be following in Trump’s fascist footsteps. Although authored by Democrats, AB 715 employs tactics reminiscent of MAGA’s Project Esther playbook, a companion to Project 2025. Project Esther is designed to dismantle and censor pro-Palestinian advocacy in the U.S. by weaponizing false charges of antisemitism and labeling critique of Israel’s genocide as anti-Jewish discrimination and hate. Its architects are also actively dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and ethnic studies programs in schools and colleges around the country.

AB 715’s flaws don’t end there.

In addition to being based on the IHRA definition of antisemitism, AB 715 goes further in creating confusion for educators by conflating the Jewish faith with Israeli nationality, thereby opening the door for ethno-nationalist political ideologies to dictate our school curricula. That means, for example, that a lesson plan discussing the impact of Israel’s brutal military campaign on Gaza’s civilians could be labeled antisemitic and result in the teacher facing disciplinary action.

The bill also establishes a redundant “office of civil rights” under the Government Operations Agency, despite not one, but two, state agencies already containing mechanisms for combatting hate and discrimination — the Department of Justice and the Department of Education. The bill further exclusively prioritizes the safety of Jewish students by specifically adding the role of antisemitism coordinator, which again, relies on IHRA’s problematic definition of antisemitism that has been used to crack down on pro-Palestine student activists. The bill also disregards due process by allowing anonymous complaints and allows the complainant to bypass local controls and potentially take the complaint directly to the state superintendent.

There’s no denying that antisemitism, along with Islamophobia, is on the rise, and I appreciate attempts by elected officials to ensure that our children feel safe in their schools. However, passing AB 715 — a bill that prevents educators from teaching historical facts and discussing world events, and wrongly conflates the Jewish faith with a genocidal foreign state — is not the answer.

Hussam Ayloush is the CEO of CAIR California, a chapter of CAIR, the nation’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization.