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Beginning January 1, 2026, teachers in California classrooms will be looking over their shoulders to avoid running afoul of a frightening new “antisemitism” law. On October 7, despite widespread opposition from civil rights groups, teachers’ unions, and education advocates, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 715, which amends the California Education Code to police what teachers can teach and what students can learn about Israel and Palestine.

“This problematic classroom censorship bill silences Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, Jewish, and other marginalized voices in California public schools by shielding a foreign government — Israel — from legitimate criticism and criminalizes honest discussions on Palestine and other global human rights issues,” the Council on American Islamic Relations said in a statement.

Under this law, educators could be charged with unlawful discrimination and disciplined “if they expose their students to ideas, information, and instructional materials that may be considered critical of the State of Israel and the philosophy of Zionism,” according to a lawsuit filed on November 2 by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC).

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, on behalf of California public school teachers and parents of students who teach and seek to learn about Palestine, Israel, and the Middle East. The defendants named in Prichett et al. v. Newsom et al. are Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond.

AB 715 Violates the First Amendment and Due Process

“Since California’s Education Code already prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, and national origin, the only plausible inference to be made is that the new law seeks to alter or expand the definition,” the lawsuit says.

Although ostensibly aimed at preventing antisemitism in the classroom, AB 715 nowhere defines “antisemitism.” It instructs school districts to follow Joe Biden’s U.S. National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism, which adopts the definition of antisemitism in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).

The IHRA lists several examples of attitudes and speech that it identifies as antisemitic, including:

*Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interest of their own nations.

*Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.

*Applying double standards by requiring of [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.

*Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.

Both Biden’s National Strategy and the IHRA conflate criticism of Israel and Zionism with antisemitism. For example, they call it “antisemitic” to challenge Jewish people’s right to a majority state in an area inhabited by an equal number of Palestinians. They require “factually accurate” instruction but punish teachers professionally for making accurate statements – such as the fact that 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled in 1948 during the creation of Israel.........

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