Brooklyn, NY – Activists with ties to the principal of the city's controversial new Arabic-themed school are hawking T-shirts that glorify Palestinian terror.
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The inflammatory tees boldly declare "Intifada NYC" – apparently a call for a Gaza-style uprising in the Big Apple.
The organization selling the shirts, Arab Women Active in Art and Media, shares office space on Brooklyn's Third Avenue with the Saba Association of American Yemenis, where Dhabah "Debbie" Almontaser, principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy – which is scheduled to open in Brooklyn next month – is a board member and spokeswoman for Saba.
Almontaser downplayed the sig nificance of the T-shirts.
"The word [intifada] basically means 'shaking off.' That is the root word if you look it up in Arabic," she said.
"I understand it is developing a negative connotation due to the uprising in the Palestinian-Israeli areas. I don't believe the intention is to have any of that kind of [violence] in New York City.
"I think it's pretty much an opportunity for girls to express that they are part of New York City society . . . and shaking off oppression."
Almontaser, a community activist and Muslim, has said the new grade 6-12 public school will be modeled on other dual-language city schools and have no religious component.
But the shirt sales are giving new ammunition to critics who fear Almontaser's school will teach a biased view of Middle Eastern history.
A Department of Education spokeswoman defended Almontaser, saying her link to the T-shirt was tenuous. [NY Post]
Why am I not surprised. Intifada my butt. This is like when the the protestors in Denmark who were offended that Islam was portrayed as being violent, held posters stating “Death to those who insult Islam!”
Scientists will yet isolate the “stupid gene” amongst Moslems. The only puzzle they will have is figuring out how people who converted got it.
An Arab public school and yeshivas only get money for books & buses?
what’s wrong with this picture?
Bombing of city buses and blowing up supermarkets & restaurants isn’t
provocative, either. It’s all a matter of perspective. Depends who the victims are, and the perps.
Let’s not get hysterical. Dep’t of
Ed spokesprsn. is right……
8:45 – That’s why I asked the question with such surprise! They claim we don’t want such a school because of Islamaphobia. They’ve hardly even begun, and this is the message they are portraying!
To anon 7:53. Can you kindly cite an example of a Hebrew speaking school that condones terrorism the way this tee shirt does?
What a lame excuse, the meaning of intifada is ‘shaking off’. Who cares what the root of the word is. We see exactly its meaning when its applied to carry out cowardly brutal terrorist acts. I’m sure the liberal left pushing this terrorist school’s agenda is content with this absurd explanation.
I didn’t know that moslems could weat T shirts. Maybe they have a heter if the shirt carrys such a message.
And a Hebrew speaking school would be racial and provocative?!?!?!