AB 715: The Weaponization of Antisemitism in California Public Education
There are many lessons that can be learned by the attempt to weaponize antisemitism in K-12 education in liberal California.
Last week, AB 715 was introduced during the Assembly Education Committee hearing (full video of the hearing) in Sacramento. At this hearing, Assembly Bill 1468, a bill designed to censor Palestine and Palestinian narratives from California’s Ethnic Studies curriculum, was withdrawn after facing strong opposition from a coalition of more than 30+ organizations representing constituents, educators, labor, and a diverse array of religious and identity groups.
Originally introduced in February, the resulting opposition that organized in the months and errors made by the authors of the bill since its introduction, resulted in AB 1468 becoming a toxic and unsalvageable bill that had no chance of being voted out of committee. One of the primary obstacles that bill faced was that the California Teachers Association (CTA) came out in opposition to it.
While the withdrawal of AB 1468 was a win in the battle against censorship in Ethnic Studies, the introduction of AB 715 represents a dangerous new chapter for public K-12 education in California.
AB 715, expands beyond the focus of Ethnic Studies to the entire K-12 educational system. And while the bill is pitched as an effort to combat discrimination in the form of antisemitism in California public schools, the reality is that the bill and its authors are seeking to weaponize antisemitism to 1) stifle any criticism of Israel and 2) censor Palestine within California public education.
AB 715 is directly from the Project Esther playbook which is designed to dismantle pro-Palestinian advocacy and activism within the United States by weaponizing antisemitism.
The underhanded politics behind why AB 715 was unanimously (9-0) voted out of committee last week are detailed below.
The Politics of AB 715: Backroom Deals, Intentional Chaos & Selling Out on Palestine
Problems with the Bill: The Weaponization of Antisemitism
Let’s start off with what is wrong with AB 715 (full bill text available here):
Fails to define antisemitism. It intentionally fails to define antisemitism which has resulted in the weaponization of antisemitism when it comes to the criticism of Israel. Recent examples include the actions taken by the Trump administration to deport student protestors based on their advocacy for Palestinians and criticism of the Israeli government. The weaponization of antisemitism is a strategy outlined in Project Esther, the Heritage Foundation’s plan to dismantle the pro-Palestian movement here in the U.S.
Under definitions of antisemitism which conflate that form of discrimination with criticism of the state of Israel (such as in the case of both the IHRA and ADL’s definitions).
For example, identifying Palestine as a state, showcasing a map of historic Palestine or the Palestinian flag, and/or referring to Palestinian people as ‘Palestinian’ instead of ‘Arab’ could result in a complaint of discrimination which is considered valid under this bill
Changes the definition of ‘nationality.’ It changes the definition of nationality to include “residency in a country with a dominant religion or distinct religious identity” (i.e. Israel).
Creates an exclusive role that doesn’t exist for any other type of discrimination. It creates a new role, an Antisemitism Coordinator, specifically, a role that does not currently exist for any other ethnic or religious group. As outlined in the text of the bill, this role is not inclusive of other forms of hate and discrimination, such as but not limited to anti-Black, anti-Latino, anti-Muslim, anti-Asian, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-Palestinian hate and racism, etc. Additionally, depending on the political ideology of the person appointed into this role, there is a high risk of antisemitism being weaponized and cases being evaluated from the lens of ideological bent.
Employs the mechanism for right-wing style book bans. It prohibits “textbook, instructional material, supplemental instructional material, or curriculum for classroom instruction if the use of the textbook, instructional material, supplemental instructional material, or curriculum” that a student may find discriminatory.
Targets teachers and school boards, specifically. Finally, the bill includes language to "strengthen the Uniform Complaint Process (UCP)” and expands it to include school board members which will result in a literal witch hunt of teachers due to all of the problematic components of the bill flagged in the bullets above.
Additionally, an analysis of the bill by the Assembly Education Committee consultant noted that almost everything in AB 715 is already covered in existing state law — effectively rendering the bill redundant and a waste of resources when California is already facing a massive $12 billion budget deficit.
How We Got Here: A Losing Battle, Intentional Chaos & Underhanded Tactics
The road to AB 715 was intentionally chaotic and cloaked by design to get it fast tracked through the legislative process as soon as possible. After the strong opposition that had been registered against AB 1468, and scrutiny that bill had received from the press, the drivers behind AB 715 fast tracked the bill as much as possible to minimize opposition despite having worked on it for weeks ahead of its announcement on May 10.
Bill announced over Mother’s Day Weekend to avoid press and opposition scrutiny. The bill was announced via a press release by the Assemblymembers who introduced it - Rick Zbur and Dawn Addis - on Saturday, May 10, the day before Mother’s Day. Zbur intended to gut an existing bill related to attorneys and amend it with new language to address antisemitism in California public education.
Bill fast tracked at the discretion of the Assembly Education Committee Chair despite missing the deadline. Monday, May 12, the bill was assigned to the Assembly Education Committee at the discretion of the Committee’s Chair, Assembly Member Al Muratsuchi (who exhibited bias during the hearing - see below). The text of the bill was made available midday Monday, approximately only 48 hours before it was set to be considered in committee. This was a special exception made for AB 715; if the bill was subject to the typical deadlines of Assembly procedure, it would not have been heard in the Education Committee Hearing on May 14.
Due to the timing of when the bill text was made available (Monday, May 12) and when it was heard in committee (Wednesday, May 14), it was procedurally impossible for organizations that had been opposed for AB 1468 to review the details of the bill, convene their leadership teams and/or boards, take an official position on the bill, and submit a letter of opposition to be considered by the Assembly Education Committee ahead of the hearing.
As a result, an analysis of the bill by the Education Committee consultant notes no opposition (page 8) due directly to the underhanded manner this bill was pushed into committee.
Backroom Deals to Fund Ethnic Studies by Selling out Palestine
Despite the dangers of this bill, diversity caucus chairs from the Black Caucus (Asm. Akilah Weber Pierson), Latino Caucus (Senator Lena Gonzales), and Asian American & Pacific Islander Caucus (AAPI) (Asm. Mike Fong) all signed on as Principal Co-Authors of the bill after firmly opposing AB 1468 behind closed doors.
AB 715 is being championed by the Jewish Legislative Caucus (JLC), the same Caucus which authored and tried to push through AB 1468 and gut Ethnic Studies without buy-in from the Ethnic Caucuses, namely the Black, Latino, and AAPI Caucuses - the main identities and narratives represented in the Ethnic Studies core curriculum. As a result, despite the JLC’s ability to get 31 legislators, 25% of the state legislature, to ignorantly sign onto AB 1468, the Ethnic Caucus chairs did not sign onto that bill.
Why did the Ethnic Caucus chairs sign onto AB 715? Multiple people have confirmed that in order to fund Ethnic Studies, the Diversity Caucus chairs made the decision to sacrifice Palestine and Palestinian stories.
Confidentially, multiple legislators' offices shared with organizations opposed to 1468 that Ethnic Caucus leadership cut a deal with the JLC to sign onto AB 715 in exchange to fund Ethnic Studies, which is currently not funded.
Both Senator Scott Wiener and Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel are Chairs of their respective legislative chamber’s Budget committees, Principal Co-Authors on both AB 1468 and AB 715, and Co-Chairs of the JLC. Due to their respective roles as Budget chairs, both Wiener and Gabriel work directly on the state legislature’s budget and weigh in on deciding which bills get funded.
The Problematic Track Records of the Legislators Behind AB 715 on Palestine & Israel
Three legislators have been the primary champions behind both AB 1468 and AB 715, and their record on demonizing Palestinian advocacy, conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism, and attempting to get people fired or cancelled over both speech critical of Israel and attempting to divest from Israel must be examined to understand how AB 715 could potentially be weaponized.
Assemblymember Rick Zbur (Introduced both AB 1468 & AB 715): Ahead of President Trump’s targeting of pro-Palestine activists on college campuses in 2025, Asm Zbur helped set a precedent for the Trump admin to follow as the leading voice demonizing pro-Palestine protestors at UCLA in April 2024. He accused these protestors of “praising Hamas leadership” and misconstrued pro-Palestinian avocacy as antisemitism, and after a Zionist mob attacked the UCLA encampment for five hours on April 30, 2024, an attack that was extensively documented in the media and on social media, Zbur issued a statement condemning violence which did not identify the mob as Zionist and only noted the assault of one Jewish student even though 25 members of the encampment were hospitalized that night. Victims of that 2024 Zionist mob attack are now suing UCLA.
Additionally, Zbur has a track record of labeling criticism of Israel and Zionism as antisemitism on numerous occasions (example 1, example 2, example 3).
Senator Scott Wiener (Principal Co-Author on both AB 1468 & AB 715): Senator Wiener’s track record includes hyperbolicly smearing pro-Palestinian advocacy as “endorsing Hamas” or calling for the “destruction of Israel” (example 1, example 2, example 3); attempting to undermine the Ethnic Studies program by weaponizing antisemitism (prior to AB 1468); and pressure campaigns against people critical of Israel and Zionism — 1) Sonoma State President Mike Lee lost his job as a result of a pressure campaign Senator Wiener participated in over Lee agreeing to student demands to divest from Israel and 2) multiple rounds of attacks against UCSF professor Rupa Marya.
In many cases, Senator Wiener has conflated criticizing the political ideology of Zionism and the state of Israel with antisemitism (example 1, example 2, example 3, and example 4). For more on Senator Wiener’s track record on Gaza and Palestine, please see my endorsement write-up from the November 2024 election cycle.
Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (Principal Co-Author on both AB 1468 & AB 715): Asm Gabriel has said that cutting ties with Hillel is antisemitic, and he participated in the pressure campaign that resulted in the removal of Mike Lee from Sonoma State over divestment from Israel.
Finally, as Co-Chairs of the Jewish Legislative Caucus, Senator Wiener and Assemblymember Gabriel jointly issued a series of problematic statements - including after the Zionist mob attack at UCLA which failed to mention the Zionist mob committing the violence; labeling pro-Palestine protestors as “anti-Israel” and demonizing Palestinian liberations chants such as “from the River to the Sea” as calling for “the eradication of the state of Israel;” and perhaps the most damaging, the groundwork laid to weaponize antisemitism at California’s colleges and universities in 2023 and 2024 (example 1, example 2, example 3) which contributing directly to the precedent that the Trump administration escalated in 2025 by illegally arresting pro-Palestinian advocates and attempting to cancel visas of international students for Palestinian advocacy on the basis of weaponized antisemitism.
Bias Towards Supporting the Bill Demonstrated by the Assembly Education Committee
During the May 14th hearing, Assemblymembers Zbur and Addis pitched AB 715 as a “civil rights and social justice bill,” and repetitively employed the terms “misunderstandings” and “misrepresentations” to describe the opposition to the bill.
Zbur went as far as to question the motivations and intent of the people opposed to the bill, and Addis went as far as to say those who opposed the bill were using “tropes” - both Assemblymembers hinting at antisemitism from the opposition, which in the hearing that day, was composed primarily by non- and anti-Zionist Jews.
David Bacarsly, Executive Director of the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California (JPAC), the main sponsor of the bill, cited stats from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a source which has been deemed to be so unreliable that Wikipedia now labels the ADL as an “unreliable” source (read more about the ADL’s flawed methodology here).
The California’s Teacher Association (CTA) spoke to the organization’s concerns about AB 715, going as far to say that CTA is likely to oppose the bill if their concerns are not addressed. CTA’s concerns included young people being targeted while they are figuring out their political views, the bill creating confusion and scapegoating teachers, and limiting critical thinking and open dialogue.
A representative from the ACLU was also present and spoke to the organization’s concerns that AB 715 would impact freedom of speech.
For public comment, approximately 74 speakers turned out in support of AB 715, and approximately 138 speakers turned out in opposition of the bill. In a brazen display of bias, Chair Al Muratsuchi abruptly cut off the mic for commenters who elaborated on their "oppose" position after entertaining long statements from commentators on the "support" side. Muratsuchi went as far as to say “you object, we got the point” to one person opposing the bill. This behavior and rhetoric was disrespectful and unbecoming of an elected official.
Many in attendance on the opposing side felt the Assembly Education Committee hearing was a “farce,” and that all nine committee members knew they would be supporting the bill despite the significant turnout speaking in opposition of the bill. Outside of Asm Bonta’s questioning, most of the questions seemed to be soft balls and/or canned instead of critically thought out.
However, in a win for the opposition, the committee did concede the bill was “incomplete” and had “a lot of shortcomings” and that it needed a concrete definition for what constitutes antisemitism. As supporters of the bill were trying to push the bill through without defining antisemitism to allow for maximum weaponization, both Zbur and Bacarsly were at a loss and did not respond definitively when asked about the definition.
As the hearing drew to a close, Bonta was clear about the need of defining antisemitism before the bill returns to the Education Committee for a final vote.
Next Steps for AB 715
AB 715 continues its journey through the Assembly, with its next stop in the Assembly Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, May 21 at 9AM.
It is anticipated that the bill will have to be voted on by all Assemblymembers no later than Friday, June 6, in order to be passed on to the Senate during this legislative year.
There is the potential that AB 715 could become a two year bill which extends into 2026, but due to the pattern that has been exhibited so far of legislators rushing AB 715 through the legislative process with special procedures and obvious bias and opportunism, we cannot rule out that they are trying to get it passed and signed into law this year.
More updates to come.
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Looks like AB 715 passed the Assembly today unanimously.