Anzac, the best of nation’s spirit

Cartoon: John Spooner

Teachers indoctrinating students with ideology that debases Australia’s history and heritage, who clearly hate the nation and its values, should have no place in classrooms. On the eve of Anzac Day, the Teachers and School Staff for Palestine group called for the Anzac legend to be dismantled and linked the actions of World War I Anzac troops to the current Hamas-Israel conflict. The radical group, which has connections in hundreds of schools, has produced a 40-page booklet to “enable rigorous, critical and empowering education” to redress understanding of the Anzacs. They have been condemned, rightly, by the Albanese government and the opposition.

The group is focusing on the Palestinian village of Sarafand al-Amar where, according to New Zealand war records, New Zealand, Australian and British soldiers killed about 40 Arab civilians in 1918 in retaliation for the murder of a New Zealand soldier. After gaining a good understanding of Australia’s contribution at Gallipoli and on the Western Front, and the history of World War II and other wars, there is no reason events at Sarafand should be kept quiet. But the teaching must be factual, not ideological. The Sarafand incident does not exonerate Hamas in any way.

Young people, who have voted with their feet in recent years, turning out en masse to dawn services and Anzac Day marches, have a right to know the details of the Gallipoli landing in 1915 and the heroism of its participants. They also deserve to understand how and why the war changed the nation when, out of a population of about four million, 320,000 Australian volunteers fought overseas, of whom 60,000 were killed. They also deserve to know why places such as Villers-Bretonneux, the Somme, the Menin Gate, El Alamein, the Burma-Thailand Railway and Kokoda are part of our national pantheon and why almost every Australian town, as well as our cities, has its war memorial.

Anzac commemorations are not about glorifying war; they are about remembering the sacrifices of those who gave their lives and health and served others, and to acknowledge the losses of the parents, spouses and children who missed the fallen for decades afterwards. In highlighting the horrors of war, Anzac Day underlines the value of peace. For veterans, Victoria Cross winner Keith Payne, 90, tells Jamie Walker, Anzac Day “means everything … a show of respect each year for those who made the supreme sacrifice in carrying out their duty against an enemy of our nation. That’s why the general public stands and watches the old Diggers marching up the street. It’s a day when the country says thank you.”

Whatever their warped motivation, Teachers and School Staff for Palestine need a deeper and broader understanding of the nation before they can teach.

Like the guilt tripping of young people about British settlement in 1788, the push to undermine our most important national day is intolerable. Such activism must be rebutted by parents, principals and school authorities. Efforts by the academic left in the 1970s to tear down “the one day of the year” crumbled. So will the malcontent teachers’ contemptible foray into self-loathing. Lest we forget.