Stop AB 715

Assembly Bill 715 was introduced on May 14 and passed the assembly despite deep reservations from teachers, students, school boards, and community members. AB 715 is from the Project Esther playbook, which is designed to dismantle pro-Palestinian advocacy and activism within the United States through the weaponization of false charges of antisemitism. The bill's authors are seeking to censor any criticism of Israel and any education about Palestine and Palestinian stories and perspectives. Take action against AB 715 by sending an email to the Senate Education Committee in opposition to this dangerous bill.

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I am writing to you today to express my strong opposition to AB 715 (Zbur & Addis). This is a dangerous bill that seeks to weaponize antisemitism to silence and erase Palestinian and Arab histories and perspectives by adopting ideological framing into public education through California lawmaking.

As noted at the Assembly Education Committee hearing on May 14th, this bill is deeply flawed in a number of ways, and the amendments released last week are a blatant attempt to protect the Israeli government from criticism and adopt pro-Israeli ideology into California law at a time when Israel is credibly accused of horrific war crimes.

The bill threatens civil liberties, censors public education, and endangers educators. As of July 7, organizations including the ACLU, California Teachers Association, and California Faculty Association, in coalition with 70 other organizations, currently oppose this bill.

There are countless issues with AB 715:

It effectively adopts the controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism. AB 715 reworks but mirrors the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which equates criticism of Israel with antisemitism. Over 100 international organizations, including Jewish and Israeli groups, have rejected IHRA for precisely this reason.

It reflects a dangerous trend of censorship in public schools. Additionally, the problematic track records of the principal co-authors who crafted this legislation, and its predecessor AB 1468, speak for themselves: efforts to get individuals fired or canceled over speech critical of Israel or in support of shifting U.S. foreign policy. AB 715 is a blatant attempt to force the worldview and ideology of the bill’s principal co-authors into California public education.

It introduces vague and dangerous redefinition of nationality. The amended definition of nationality now includes  “country of ancestral ties, and “a social organization where a collective identity has emerged.” This broad and ill-defined language could easily be exploited by ideologically motivated groups (be they Zionist, Hindutva, Christian nationalist, white supremacist, etc.) to censor classroom discussions about discriminatory policies of foreign governments.

It creates an exclusive role that doesn’t exist for any other type of discrimination which in itself, is discriminatory. The bill would create an antisemitism prevention coordinator, a position that does not currently exist for any other ethnic, religious or historically marginalized group, despite record levels of discrimination for Black, Latino, Palestinian, Muslim, and other groups in the crosshairs of the Trump administration.

It relies on biased and incomplete hate crime data. AB 715 as amended requires  that the Attorney General’s annual "Hate Crime in California" report guide teacher training, while ignoring the significant underreporting of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate violence and discrimination as documented by organizations such the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and  the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).

It opens the door to book bans and curriculum censorship in California. AB 715 creates a huge opening for bans on books and other content that someone finds controversial, particularly “instructional materials regarding Jews, Israel, or the Israel-Palestine conflict,” which among a list of restrictions, must not “introduce or promote antisemitic content, including inaccurate historical narratives such as labeling Israel a settler colonial state.”

It is a redundant waste of resources at a time of a historic budget deficit. According to the Assembly Education Committee’s own analysis, nearly everything in AB 715 is already addressed under existing state law. With California facing a historic $12 billion budget deficit, this bill is not only unnecessary—it is a waste of public resources.

It ignores anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim hate. While AB 715 goes to great lengths to define antisemitism in a way that equates criticism of Zionism with hate speech, it makes only vague mention of Islamophobia and completely omits anti-Palestinian racism. This is despite a documented and unprecedented rise in hate violence targeting these communities.

I urge you to stand against censorship and attacks on freedom of speech and critical thinking masquerading as fighting discrimination in California public education. Vote NO on AB 715.

Sincerely,
[Sender]
[Address]

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