Copenhagen’s City Council is set to consider a proposal to develop materials supporting debate and dialogue about Palestine in schools, potentially for use in the upcoming school elections, despite concerns raised by the Parliament’s Presidium. The proposal, initiated by the Red-Green Alliance, aims to ensure students’ freedom of speech on the topic and is scheduled for a vote on June 19.

The Red-Green Alliance, backed by the Socialist People’s Party, the Social Liberal Party, and The Alternative, collectively holding 29 of the 55 seats, champions the initiative. They argue that restricting students’ freedom of speech, as perceived in the Parliament’s Presidium’s decision, is misguided. Technical and environmental mayor Line Barfod emphasizes the importance of allowing schools to freely choose discussion topics.

The Parliament’s Presidium had previously decided against including the recognition of Palestine as an independent state as a debate topic in school elections. Their reasoning was that the sensitive issue couldn’t be adequately discussed within the allotted 20 minutes, potentially leading to a superficial understanding of democracy.

Speaker of the Parliament, Søren Gade, expressed concern over the “violent politicization” of the school elections. He emphasized that the program aims to provide insight into democracy and processes, with topics serving as a means to that end. Gade believes focusing intensely on a single topic could skew the educational goal.

Barfod counters that the Palestine topic is already discussed among students and structuring a democratic debate would provide a more productive format than informal discussions. She insists that schools should have the autonomy to decide whether to utilize the prepared material as a supplement to school elections or in other educational settings. The school elections are a collaborative effort between the Parliament, the Ministry of Children and Education, and the Danish Youth Council.