The constitutional climate case Juliana v. United States was filed by 21 youth against the U.S. government. The defendants said that the government's policies are causing catastrophic climate change and constitute a violation of their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property.
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Hundreds of thousands of people across 150 countries participated in protests on Sunday, September 21, 2014, collectively called “the People’s Climate March.”
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Indigenous representatives from around the world met in Anchorage, Alaska, in April 2009, to share experiences and strategies for confronting environmental degradation. They issued a declaration that details their observations and demands from the front lines of the climate crisis.
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Hoping to spark a movement in protest of the Belgian government’s role in its African colony, historian George Washington Williams wrote an open letter to Belgian King Leopold II exposing atrocities in the Congo.
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The Casement Report was delivered before the British Houses of Parliament, providing firsthand accounts of the brutal violence inflicted upon the indigenous people and the land in the Congo Free State by settler colonialists acting on behalf of Belgium’s King Leopold II.
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This was the largest uprising of the enslaved against their British overseers in Guyana. The uprising was ended after a few days, though it served as a catalyst for the abolition of slavery in British colonies soon thereafter.
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The First World War killed roughly 20 million people. Fighting transitioned from mainly human- and animal-powered to fossil fuel-powered technologies and accessing and protecting fossil fuel supplies became part of sustaining a powerful military. The Earth and the environment have suffered ever since.
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Article. Timeline by Bill Bigelow. 2023.
A timeline of the overthrow of democracy in Chile — the fall of Salvador Allende and the rise of Augusto Pinochet.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Norman Solomon. 2023. 240 pages.
Too often, our curriculum “makes war invisible.” Too often, the ravages of U.S. militarism go unexamined in our classes. This fact-filled book insists: Teach about this; people’s lives depend on it.
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Film. Written and directed by Justine Shapiro, B. Z. Goldberg, and Carlos Bolado. 2001. 106 minutes.
This documentary explores the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from the eyes and experiences of Israeli and Palestinian children living in the West Bank.
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Teaching Activity. By Samia Shoman. Rethinking Schools. 2014.
A social studies teacher uses conflicting narratives to engage students in studying the history of Palestine and Israel, focusing on the events of 1948.
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Letters to her family from 23-year-old U.S. peace activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed in 2003 while trying to prevent the Israeli army from destroying homes in the Gaza Strip. Followed by questions by Bill Bigelow for classroom discussion.
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A lesson to accompany the 2001 documentary Promises, which explores the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from the eyes and experiences of Israeli and Palestinian children living in the West Bank.
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Book. By Ilan Pappe.
An Israeli historian examines the most contested ideas concerning the origins and identity of the contemporary state of Israel.
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The Niños Héroes (translated as Boy Heroes or Heroic Cadets) were six military cadets killed in the Battle of Chapultepec, one of the last battles of the U.S. Mexico War.
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Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. 2024. 33 pages.
A mixer/mystery activity on Zionism, anti-Zionism, peasant resistance, the Great War, the British Mandate, and more.
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Determined to prevent the development of the local forest, Londoners protested to “Save The Forest” in an early instance of mass organizing for land conservation.
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Website. Provides graphic storytelling that can help students see Palestinian reality in new ways.
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Film. Directed by Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp. Media Education Foundation. 2016. Three versions: 21 min./45 min./84 min.
This film helps students recognize how the media and politicians consistently frame “Palestinian resistance as terrorism and Israeli aggression as self-defense.”
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Film. Directed by Erin Axelman and Sam Eilertsen. Tikkun Olam Productions. 2023. 84 minutes.
Examines young Jews who are fundamentally changing not just their attitudes about Israel, Palestine, and Palestinians, but about their own role in the world, and coming to see themselves as solidarity activists.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Rashid Khalidi. 2020. 320 pages.
Examines the modern history of Palestine as a colonial war waged against an Indigenous population in order to force them to unwillingly relinquish their homelands.
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Book — Fiction. By Nora Lester Murad. Illustrated by Kate Cosgrove. 2022. 223 pages.
A coming of age story that explores identity, place, voice, and belonging through a Palestinian-American girl named Ida.
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The successful 1985 student blockade of Hamilton Hall lasted for three weeks, as students demanded that Columbia University divest from corporations profiting from apartheid South Africa.
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