Seattle-area school district replaces Israel with Palestine in hallway display for ‘Arab and Middle Eastern Heritage Month’

A parent at the Kellogg Middle School in the Shoreline School District sent The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI a picture of the display in a hallway featuring the colors of the Palestinian flag.

The display was created in April for Arab and Middle Eastern Heritage Month and featured every Arab country in the Middle East and North Africa but removed the Jewish state of Israel and replaced it with Palestine, which is not a nation. In the display, unlike other Arab states, Palestine has no cultural or historical information attributed to it.

The one token mention of Israel came from noting that Hebrew was one of the top-spoken languages in the Middle East. The display has not been updated for May, which was designated Jewish American Heritage Month by President George W. Bush in 2006. Last week, annual proclamations were issued by local leaders declaring Jewish American Heritage Month.

The parent told Hoffman that the display was created by the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) staff at the school.

Rachel Belfield, public information officer for the district told The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI in a statement, "The display will be updated to more accurately reflect the intent of the countries listed on the left, which are middle eastern countries where Arabic is the official language."

However, in an email to upset parents obtained by Hoffman, the school's principal Becca Whitney said, "After receiving concerns, the display was reviewed in collaboration with District administration and it was determined that the display contained an inaccurate description. Namely, the display had a list entitled “Countries where Arabic is spoken,” followed by a list of 22 countries that did not include Israel (one of the listed countries was Palestine, which is recognized as a state by many countries around the world, but not by the United States)."

Whitney failed to mention that the US is joined by most of Europe and North American countries in not recognizing Palestine, which is controlled by the terrorist organization of Hamas, as a state. Whitney added, "We have determined that the actual intent behind the list was simply to list those countries where Arabic is recognized as an official language of the country."

Whitney then incorrectly stated, "Because Israel does not recognize Arabic as one of its official languages, to our understanding, it was appropriate for a list focused on countries that have officially adopted Arabic as a language to not include Israel."

Arabic is one of Israel's recognized languages even though Hebrew is the national language. Arabic is recognized as a language with "a special status in the state" whose use "in state institutions or by them" was "set in law," as part of the country's 2018 Nation State Law.

Whitney continued, "That said, the list’s original mislabeling understandably caused confusion, which we regret. As a result, we plan to change the list’s title to more accurately reflect that the list represents 'Countries Where Arabic is the Official Language.' We will also include a notation that Palestine is recognized by many countries, but not by the United States."

The display will remain, and no display has been put up for Jewish American Heritage Month. One parent told Hoffman that the school's diversity, equity and inclusion staff members were responsible for the display and its contents. This is not the first time the district has been accused of anti-Israel bias.

In February, it was revealed that teachers at Syre Elementary School in the district showed a video to children as young as 7, encouraging them to chant “Free Palestine” and “From the River to the Sea," a call for genocide against Jews.

The accompanying lesson also taught kids how to hold anti-Israel protests.

Israel advocacy group Stand With Us detailed the lesson in a letter to the school and district and asked what would be done about it, but has yet to receive a response.

In January, a high school in the district honored notorious dictator Fidel Castro as a hero who was “martyred” for fighting for civil rights during a candlelight vigil for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

A student presenter for the assembly read from a script, “Now we are continuing a tradition today to have a candlelight vigil to pay solemn tribute to a selection of the people who were martyred while working on behalf of advancing civil rights, social justice, and decolonization. This year we are selecting Black American civil rights leaders as well as leaders of developing nations who valiantly sought to liberate themselves from the shackles of Western imperialism, capitalism, and a specter of war crimes.”

The script also claimed that the vicious dictator ushered in “a new era of social justice” and that “his politics promoted antiracism.”