Learning Arabic at Lincoln High School

 Nadene Goldfoot                                       

 Arabs in Israel playing my favorite game, Sheshbesh (Backgammon) 

Israel has about 1.4 million Arab citizens who have all the rights as Jews do in this very tiny state. 

 Israel is bordered by Judea and Samaria,  heavily populated with Muslim Arabs of Fatah, former PLO terrorists, as well as Gaza's Muslim Hamas terrorists.  Both Hamas and Fatah have joined up for one purpose, to drive Israel into the sea, or in other words, to destroy Israel and make it a Muslim state.  This was confirmed at their meeting in Africa in Khartoom in 1967 after the Six Day War of 67.  

The fight from the Muslims is coming in all way; rockets and missiles raining down from Gaza into southern Israel as well as the "Palestinians" getting into the UN through UNESCO and attempting to use this group to destroy the Jewishness in Israel. To this day, Hamas continues to rain rockets on Israel.  (I wrote this several years ago way before COVID 19 when I heard about it but didn't publish.) 

It had been using some Arab high-schoolers from Israel before COVID 19  to go into American high schools and spread their hateful propaganda against Israel. 

                                                   

 Lincoln High has experienced such a program through the Qatar Foundation International, who has sponsored DAM, a three brother rap group's visit to the high school.  It was at first found to be presenting to only the Arabic language class, then was found to spread to other classes as well as in a student assembly given on November 4th and again that evening at a concert sponsored by Portland State University's Middle East Studies Center.  They also included a film apart from their rapping  depicting Israel as an Apartheid, fascist state.  Marcia Weiss, a Lincoln parent and JFGP board member as well as Becky Davidson, a Wilson High School student, co-president of the Jewish Student Union at Wilson, agreed that anyone not understanding the issues in Israel would be swayed by DAM's opinions.  Even the teachers and principal at Lincoln seem to not understand.  I personally feel that Cain would do a better job of understanding Israel's situation than he did with Libya. 

The group used rap to show their dislike of being treated like someone different in Israel like having to show ID at certain places.  They neglected to admit that everyone, Jew and Arab must do this and they were not alone.  This is due to the terrorism that has occurred and must happen in order to protect all citizens.  I myself had to show the contents of my purse and bags when I went into any store from 1980-1985.  They hate to speak in Arabic on buses and get angry if people look at them for it.  Otherwise, they do blend into society, not being different in other ways.                                                   

They neglect to mention that signs all over in Israel are in 3 languages; Hebrew, Arabic and English.  They shouldn't feel oppressed but may from the influence of their parents, and of course, Hamas.  Their lyrics are crossing a line to hate.  What they present is an extreme and mendacious portrait in which Israelis are Nazis.  They think that Jews murdered by terrorists is what they deserve.   Their differences, though small, are being played on by Hamas, I'm sure, whose goals are well known in wanting to destroy Israel and who rain missiles on southern Israel constantly.  The only reason they haven't hit the rest of Israel is because they haven't procured the missiles that can reach that far-yet.  

The school principal and the superintendent of schools so far see nothing wrong in bringing this group to the school while much of the Jewish community including their children are upset by it.  Lincoln High, formerly heavily populated by Jewish students as it is the school within the borders of the old Jewish neighborhood of South Portland, now have Jewish students afraid.  The non-knowledgable teaching community feel they are just giving students the opportunity to hear another perspective on a controversial issue, the Israel-Palestinian conflict to young students completely uneducated in the points.  

How Spreading Propaganda Has Affected a Portland Public School

Nadene Goldfoot
"When peace comes, we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons. " Golda Meier, former Prime Minister, Israel, 1969-1974; Foreign Minister 1956-1966

Israelis, which is meant indirectly to be Jews as it was created to be a Jewish state by Jews, and whose population is 80% Jewish,  are being crucified for defending themselves in the 64 year old attack of trying to destroy Israel and  now, all Jews everywhere are under attack.

Popular mob-like thinking in the USA is becoming the denial of Israel's right to exist.  The BDS movement judges against Israel just for this defending itself in the face of constant attacks. 

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign is the new form of an old attitude.  They try to make Israel conform to their way of thinking by not buying products from Israel, which is to allow Hamas and Fatah terrorists living in Gaza, Judea and Samaria to put an end to Israel.  This  is what their doctrine calls for. 

One window to this growing attitude is what happened in Portland's Lincoln High on November 4, 2011.  Director Paul Beran, promoting this BDS campaign,  managed to be the person who had vetted the DAM hip-hoppers that came to Lincoln High who in their chanting and video  performance were calling for the end to Israel.  A student was heard by others calling out, "Oh, how I hate Israel!  It so sucks!"  I feel  this reflects the lack of preparation some students had in the history of the conflict.  I know that other teachers managed to get in a little background.  Take it from me; this is a complex situation and takes  quite a bit of background for understanding, even for adults.   This student was sucked into the powerful negative presentation in which Jewish students at the school felt frightened and upset by as some even had parents born in Israel. 

Of course the schools's excuse in doing so is that they had been vetted.  Of course, the director gave his thumbs up on the trio.  The school staff felt it was all a matter of freedom of speech.  This freedom of speech was calling for the destruction of a state and its people, however.  The principal also said they take on some difficult issues and talk about them.  After requesting,  a Jewish instructor in the community was allowed to make a postive presentation to a few classes much later in the next month, after all the damage had been done.  The Jewish students and families felt it was an educational issue as the lyrics of the songs promoted terrorism which in their eyes was inappropriate to bring to the high school. They presented an extreme and mendacious portrait in which Israelis were shown to be like Nazis, and that murdering Israelis "is the Israelis' just desserts and that Israel is a racist and criminal enterprise.   Feeling oppressed is not a license to strap on a bomb.  Whatever, there's no excuse for terrorism.  Their lyrics condoned or justified violence.   The Arabic studies teacher who invited the hip hoppers in retorted that they had used art to non-violently express their views."  On her website she wrote that DAM is critical of actions taken by the Israeli government; however, they do not criticize or insult Jewish people as a people."  No-they were just calling for the destruction of Israel, which is a Jewish state, what was to be the Jewish Homeland, that's all.  Some of us took that rather personally. 

I had received an email from one of the Arabic language students who had made no connection to Jews with Israel.  Since the Christian "Palestinian" students at Lincoln were not upset, he didn't understand why the Jewish students were.  Does this go for several of the staff as well?  That tells me he hasn't been educated as to why Jews had the need for Israel in the first place.
The problem is compounded by the fact that the $70,000 and teacher of the Arab language program is a bequest from the foreign government of Qatar out of Qatar Foundation International and not a part of the regular curriculum.  The chief religious personage of the Muslim Brotherhood, Qaradawi,  lives in Qatar, and  has called a fatwa to kill all Jews everywhere.  For that matter, so has Ayatollah Kohmeini of Iran. 

The relationship of Israelis and "Palestinians" (there has been no such nation, but they bought the tag) is complex and takes lots of studying to understand.  DAM is either just expressing grievances about the social and political climate in which they live according to Lincoln's staff or they are spreading negative messages of untruths and hatred according to the Jewish students, parents and many friends."  One Jewish student feels like they hate Jews and hate Israelis and now does not feel emotionally safe knowing that these people-who hate her without even knowing her, were allowed to come into her public school spreading their message instigating her friends to possibly hate her as well.. 

It looks like some non-Jewish staffers at Lincoln have no idea of what the conflict is about.  They  brought in a very one sided group and even gave extra credit to students who attended an evening rap concert  and documentary screening at the Salmon Street Studio on  the same night of the school's performance if they wrote a 300 word essay about the experience.  I wonder if students were given extra credit along with a 300 word essay about the positive Israel  presentation.

Here's the biggest problem.  The Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems to have become a central part of the Portland Public School curriculum, at least at Lincoln, and that the Jewish community and parents of schoolchildren have only a vague idea of how it is being taught, by whom, and for what purpose, especially with a person and materials provided through the Qatar Foundation International and their viewpoints. 

My thoughts went to the Arabic language program itself with textbooks printed in Egypt, even though written by the Arabic language instructor at American University in Cairo.  Who knows what slant he is taking?  Not many adults here read Arabic.  Portland State U has access to al-Jazeera TV of which is used by Qaradawi in his weekly sermons where he has ranted against Jews and Israel.  Are these programs making their way into the high school classroom ?  My hopes are that even with most classrooms having TV sets, this program would take a special hookup to be received. But this remains only a hope.

 The principal assures me 100% that there are absolutely no anti-Semitic materials in the curriculum or classroom,  yet DAM walked in without anyone identifying them as being anti-semitic.  What is taken as anti-semitic to many Jews is not seen as such by many others as this case in point.  People, including many Jews themselves, can complain about Israel, but surely they're not calling for its destruction.   I think they stepped over the line into the anti-semitic realm when they saw no problem bringing in DAM. 

The principal and the language teacher are both too busy for a 20 minute visit by concerned citizens to see the materials used after classroom hours.  A too-busy reply was given to a Jewish parent with children attending the school.   Two retired retired teachers were stonewalled.    It only makes them even more alarmed as to the contents that might be involved. 

If there is no Jewish state, then that means there will be no Jews in the Middle East at all, as they are not allowed in other countries. Hamas-Fatah will have a state without Jews, whereas there are 1.4 million Arabs citizens of Israel.   We have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon — no alternative. The Egyptians could run to Egypt, the Syrians into Syria. The only place we could run was into the sea, and before we did that we might as well fight.-Golda Meier.  The staff must have let this fact go over their heads in their defensiveness about their actions and beliefs.  There are 48 Muslim majority states in our world of which 22 are right in the Middle East.  There is only 1 teeny tiny Jewish state struggling against all odds to survive in their midst.   Besides being surrounded by terrorists, Israelis now see just how hatred has seeped into America as well. 

So here we are: on a high state of security with a fatwa to kill us all, and an Israeli issue with Hamas/Fatah at an American  high school that has not been resolved and has not been brought to closure.  But we can rest assured:  "there's no anti-semitism at Lincoln". 

Resource: Jewish Review-November 15, 2011 Lincoln students react to Palestinian music; Panel: Feelings of oppression valid, but lyrics cross line to hate,
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/State/Golda+Meir.htm
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Controls/Sendfriend.ashx?print=1&type=0&item=152 Anti-Semitism in Presbyterian Church, Again from Arutz Sheva

A Connection Between Qatar Foundation and DAM hip-hop and Terrorism

Nadene Goldfoot　                                    

Yusuf al Qaradawi, now in a wheelchair,
but ready to kill Jews with his own hands, he said.

Lincoln High is very happy that the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, established in 1995 by the Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa, and now chaired by his 3rd wife, Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned., has sent them an Arabic language teacher, and it most likely isn’t costing them a penny, plus it gives them the distinguished fact of offering Arabic in their high School.

It’s fine to study Arabic. In Israel, students take Hebrew just like we study English, but besides that they also take English, and have a choice between Arabic and French. I saw Arab and Jewish students helping each other out with their homework in Safed’s junior high. If you live in Israel, you find that Arabic is most helpful to know since there are 1.4 million Arab citizens of Israel. All street signs are in Hebrew, Arabic and English.

Three Palestinan Israeli citizens, however, have formed a hip-hop group called DAM, and are using this talent that they learned from Jewish rappers and were encouraged by Jewish friends when younger, who are now telling listeners to damn Israel and their lyrics promote terrorism and the destruction of Israel.

They have been on Al-Jazeera’s TV program, who have promoted and backed them. This Palestinian hip-hop group from Lod, Israel, now is stating that Lod is in Palestine, not Israel. The brothers Tamar and Suhell Nafar plus their friend, Mahmoud Jreri, relate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and poverty. This is what  rapping does, complain about conditions.  Their lyrics often deal with the frustration at the feeling of being 2nd class citizens in Israel and other issues, including drug-related violence.  The group's live performances feature images of Israeli soldiers clashing with stone-throwing Palestinians.  These men are telling outright  lies in many cases.  They rap in English, of course as well as Arabic, so Qatar Foundation, who sent the teacher over here, is indirectly responsible for her bringing in this DAM hip-hop group as well. Actually, Al-Jazeera is owned by the state of Qatar and headquartered in Doha, Qatar. It gained worldwide attention following the 9/11/attacks as it was the only channel to cover the war in Afghanistan live from its offices there. They’re known for their slanted coverage favoring the Hamas terrorists in Gaza. I’ve also personally seen horrid children’s shows on this station teaching little Arab children to hate Israel.

In February 2009, Israel imposed sanctions on Al Jazeera after Qatar closed the Israeli trade office in Doha in protest to the Gaza War. Israel was almost to the point of declaring Al Jazeera a hostile entity and shutting down its Israel offices, but instead imposed limited measures to restrict their activities in the country. In 2011 the TV stations Afghanistan bureau chief, Samer Allawi, was arrested on charges of being a member of Hamas. Al-Jazeera hosted a conference on religion, sponsored by the Emir, where Israel was criticized. Israel has also banned all activity by the Qatar Foundation. The Foundation has promoted such attitudes shown by writer Jihad el-Khazen, that "Israelis are immigrants to Palestine, descended from murderers and thieves, while the Qataris are sheikhs from a family that has ruled its country for hundreds of years."

The Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development has a Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies. They have instituted the Sheikh Yusuf Al Qaradawi Scholarships. It also named its newly established research center "The Qaradawi Center for Islamic Moderation and Renewal after him. This sheik is a religious leader in the foundation who is a bigwhig in the Muslim Brotherhood. He was from Egypt, but was thrown out because of that and so he moved to Qater, where the Emir loves him.

He is famous for his speeches on Al Jazeera TV, and writings that give consistent support of terrorist groups that seek to undermine a peaceful resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. No doubt this is one reason why Abbas has refused for so long to sit down and talk peace terms with Netanyahu. He has expressed his desire to see Jerusalem conquered, and on January 24, 2011, gave a fatwa where he negated Jewish attachment to Jerusalem and stated that it is the duty of Muslims to "defend" Jerusalem with their lives, money and all they possess or else they will be subject to Allah’s punishment." This is but one fatwa inciting violence against Jews and Israel. On Al Jazeera TV January 28, 2009, he said that he would shoot Allah’s enemies, the Jews, .....where he would give his life in martyrdom. In another on January 9, 2009, he lashed out at Jews, including calling on G-d to "kill them," down to the very last one." This evil man endorses Palestinian suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. He chastises Muslims who do not observe jihad as an obligatory duty. His people are told that the "Zionist massacres of today" are a continuation of alleged Jewish calls to genocide in the Old Testament. It sounds to me like tit for tat, what happened 4 thousand years ago to the Hittites is the reason why they can go after Jews today.

Out of Qatar’s foundation is an umbrella organization for Hamas and Muslim brotherhood-affiliated Islamic charity funds called The Union of Good. The chairman is Sheikh Yousef Moustafa Al Qaradhawi. It is a Charity Coalition and was started in May 2001 due to the 2nd Intifadah. Hamas has also taken over the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development since the early 90's. The Union of Good coordinates all of Hamas-supporting funding activities.

Sheikh Al-Qaradawi has been barred from entering the US since 1999. From February 2008 he was barred from entering the UK.. He is most grateful to the Emir for including him in his plans in Qatar as he knows the Americans were ready to put him on a list of terrorists, but the Emir stood fast courageously, pitting his determination against theirs, and as a result he has stayed off the list. It was announced that the Center will create a library of Qaradawi’s works as well as articles about him. They will also train preachers and imams and translate books on Islam to reach out to Western readers, (maybe like the high schoolers at Lincoln?) His Al-Qaradawi Center will serve as a think tank and offer advice on issues important to the Islamic nation. They will help reach on-Muslims the truth about Islam, in addition to disseminating a proper understanding of Islam and its values. In the past, he called for the Islamic conquest of Rome, and this spring he made more negative headlines in Europe.

With such a background and reputation, Hillary Clinton participated in an official al-Jazeersa town hall interview at Carnegie Mellon U’s branch campus in Qatar’s Education City and was introduced by Sheikh Abdallah Aal-Thani, and she responded favorably about all she had heard about the progress of Education City. Just a short walk from this CMU branch is the Al-Qaradawi Centre for Research in Moderate Thought. The Foundation has established branches not only at Carnegie Mellon, but Northwestern U., Texas A &M, Georgetown , Virginia Commonwealth U, Cornell Medical College, and Rand Corporation’s Education City branch. In 2008, 122 students graduated from these Education City branches.  Sheikh Qaradawi attended where they announced the establishment of his Al-Qaradawi Centre for Research in Modern Thought. 

Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi is Qatar Foundation’s Theologian of Terror. The Foundation and all the good it might be doing is a front for Hamas who is to destroy Israel and remake it into Palestine. This man is spouting words like Hitler did. His words reach the American public via satellite TV and the internet such as IslamOnline which is in Arabic and English. It supports violence against non-Muslims as well as anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and anti-American content. Now we see an inroad through hip-hop artists and their in-person appearances. After the assembly for DOM, in which students were given extra-credit for attending, one girl was heard to shout, "Oh, my G-d, I hate Israel! It so sucks."

Here in Portland, Oregon we have Lincoln High School with the staff and school board insensitive and noncaring about what they have introduced into their schools and what havoc it is causing in their Jewish students. They all feel that this is a matter of "freedom of speech.", which it isn't.  We feel it's a matter of content that is spouting hatred and terrorism.   Look what Hitler’s speeches caused. Death to Jews. Well, Sheik Qaradawi intends to do a better job than he did. In his speeches he has said so. "Oh Allah, take this oppressive, Jewish, Zionist band of people...do not spare a single one of them. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them, down to the very last one." He "supports the Palestinian cause, the resistance and the jihad, Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah. He opposes a much needed peace that Israel and America wish to bring about. This peace to him is an illusion, so he supports martyrdom operations."  Evidently there are no homosexual students attending Lincoln as he said that the punishment of homosexuality is the death penalty. What kind off material will these students soon be reading in Arabic, by the way?
References:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJumYZ0jL9M&feature=youtu.be  7 students at school board.29 minutes long
http://www.cbsnews.com/2102-505123_162-42746911.html
http://www.adl.org/NR/exeres/788C5421-70E3=4#4D-BFF4-0BE14E4A2E58,DB7611A2-02CD-43AF-8147-649E2681357i1,frameless.htm
http://www.memri.org/image/IA_Qaradawi.pdf
http://www.shabak.gov.il/english/enterrordata/reviews/pages/coalition.en.aspx
http://www.hziegler.com/locations/middle-east/qatar/articles/qatar-foundation.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar_Foundation
Jewish Review Newspaper November 15, 2011
http://hiphopdiplomacy.org/2011/04/22/arab-rappers-in-solidarity/

Portland School Faces Anti-Semitic Presentation on Heels of UNESCO Accepting Palestine

Nadene Goldfoot
Israel had to go along with the demand that they release 1,000 Arab prisoners that they held; many of which were mass murderers of many Israelis in order to get one IDF soldier back, Gilad Schalit.

The war going on is one of the so called "Palestinians" raining Israel with rockets, missiles and mortars which fall in residential areas. For a long time Israel did not retaliate, held back by the USA's guidance, but now after seeing that this has not stopped it but instead has encouraged the attacks, have decided to react everytime they are bombarded and their air force pin points targets of terrorists engaging in the shootings.

In his speech after the release of the prisoners, Abbas praised them, referring to their prison terms as:

"...enforced absence which was imposed on you because you are people of struggle and Jihad fighters for Allah and the homeland... Your sacrifice and your effort and your actions were not in vain. You acted and struggled and sacrificed."[PA TV (Fatah), Oct. 18, 2011]

While Israel is a state accepted by the UN in 1948, it has national issues to deal with such as the economy, job, housing, and national security. They have to do all these things we do while half of their country is under attack from missiles, mortars and such. We use umbrellas in Portland to protect us from the constant rain. That doesn't work in southern Israel for protection from missiles. The population has 12 seconds between a siren of warning of incoming missile and getting to a bomb shelter. One of the new industries that has developed are portable bomb shelters for the schools that had none.

All the while, we see the "Palestinians" and their Muslim cohorts such as Syria and Iran and others plot and scheme to destroy Israel as they will not even accept a Jewish state in their Muslim midst. However,

"The Arabs cannot say that the Jews are driving them out of their country. If not a single Jew had come to "Palestine" after 1918, I believe that the Arab population of Western Palestine today (over a million in 1938, would still have been around about the figure at which it had been stable under the Turkish rule."
Malcolm Macdonald, British Secretary of State, 1938

Thus, the territory known variously as "Palestine," as "South Syria," as "Eastern and Western Palestine," or as part of "Turkey" had been designated by international mandate as a "Jewish National Home," concerning which the United States declared that this be established...that the Jews be invited to return to Palestine and settle there....and assured that it will be the policy of the League of Nations to recognize Palestine as a Jewish state as soon as it is a Jewish state in fact. England can be relied on to give the Jews the privileged postition they should have without sacrificing the religious and property rights of non-Jews.

Do we see the UN upholding the League of Nations' decisions in regards to the Jewish state of Israel? Do we see respect for Israel as a Jewish state that is accepted by the members of the UN? There are 47 countries that have a majority of Muslims yet they cannot accept one Jewish state? Christianity has 120 countries including the United State that are of a Christian majority. 16 nations make Christianity their state religion. That the one Jewish state in the whole wide world is being attacked constantly without anyone stepping up to the plate and saying STOP ATTACKING ISRAEL OR ELSE does make me feel that there is a huge amount of anti-semitism still going on in the world.

In the day and age where we have a body of supposedly superior people keeping one country from being picked on by another and they stand by and just let it happen, and then have the chutzpa to reward the bombers with admission to their group anyway is just simply appalling! The UN has long lost the purpose of its creation.

So what is happening Friday at Lincoln High in Portland, Oregon? A teacher has invited a Palestinian hip-hop group, DAM, who will be presenting to certain classes their very extremist views depicting Zionists as racists using videos they have on their website. They are there to spread their message of violence and hate. Parents and adults in the Jewish community are most concerned. This is the only perspective that will be represented.

 The question now remains of allowing guest speakers who promote messages of violence toward any group to do so in a public high school. There is no balance here. Lincoln has a history of having Jewish students in attendance, being they were very close to the older Jewish Community Center and the Jewish neighborhood of South Portland. Anti-semitic activities happen in Portland, and the "Occupation Portland as well as Occupation and demonstrations against Wall Street all over the USA have seen their anti-semitism involvement already. Now this "lesson of violence" on teenagers.

If the teacher is trying to show absurd negativity and what it leads to, she may need help. In the late 70's I was invited to speak to a class of college graduates working on their masters' in business at Boise State University about how Jews feel about phrases such as "Jew you down." One of the students was my friend and this was his presentation. When I as nicely as I could explain why I, a professional elementary teacher didn't like it, they almost attacked me! The professor, a male, could hardly get back any control. They were incensed to think that their favorite saying was an affront to us! I went home in shock and most disappointed in the future business community of Boise!

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_by_country
 Book:     From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters p 234-235
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/10/31/rockets-hamas-gaza-palestinian-state/#more-772844 by Jonathan Tobin (read after I wrote mine-our minds running in same vein)