The New York Post somehow learned two elementary school teachers are teaching an anti-Israel song, “Wheels on the Tank,” to children at Public School 705, an arts and science school located in Prospect Heights.
The teachers were identified by the Post as Giuseppe Rebaudengo and Ann Battaglia.
The lyrics begin:
The wheels on the tank go round and round, all through the town,
The people in the town they hold their ground, and never back down.
The second stanza goes:
The bombs in the air go whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, all through the skies.
From every river to every sea the people cry, cry, cry ‘Free Palestine!’ till the wheels on the tanks fall off.
Jeff Stier, a New York City-based Jewish leader, tells AFN he was not surprised to learn an anti-Israel song is being taught to children in his city.
"This is really not a surprise, sadly,” he says, “because the New York City public school system has been taken over by the DEI crowd for years."
DEI, which stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion, has been described as “wokeness” and is related to Marxist-inspired Critical Race Theory.
In fact, in a social media post viewed by the Post, Giuseppe Rebaudengo thanked a Marxist website named Woke Kindergarten for providing “resources” used in his classroom.
The idea elementary school teachers would use a resource called Woke Kindergarten sounds more like a satirical Babylon Bee story, but a review of its content by AFN suggests it is legitimate and drenched in communist thought. A section called “woke wonderings” ponders how to keep people safe if the police are abolished; how to get people what they need if money is abolished; and how to house people if landlords are abolished, among other communist fantasies about gaining power.
A section called “lil’ comrade convos” features a Super Hero named “Little Power” who encourages children to define and discuss what power means.
Regarding the Israel-Hamas war now taking place, the Woke Kindergarten website has an entire section on “teach palestine” that advises young children what to expect at their first-ever protest.
According to the Post, it found a school lesson that calls Israel a "made up place." As far as the Jews who live there, it calls Israelis "settlers calle Zionists who are harming and killing the Palestine people."
Israel a 'threat to socialism'
When far-left protesters brazenly condemned Israel and defended Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack, some political observers said the reason goes back to the 19th century: Israelis versus Palestinians mirrors the communist story of brave resistance fighters pushing back against a stronger but immoral oppressor.
According to Stein, the Far Left is envious of Israel and its success as a powerful democracy.
“There is a strange coalition on the far left of groups that believe in socialism,” he says. “I think they see Israel as a capitalist country, that has been successful, and that's a threat to socialism."
In a LinkedIn post by Ann Battaglia, the second teacher, she says her job as an educator is to "address the dynamics of oppression and privilege," the Post reported.
