The Israeli-American Council (IAC) recently published an extremely disturbing report of an increase in the number of antisemitic incidents against Israel-American students in US schools, Ynet reported.
According to the Council, it receives at least four complaints every week from Jewish parents or student about antisemitic incidents, including verbal abuse, mocking gestures, defacement with swastikas, and violence.
In one especially disturbing incident, a non-verbal Jewish 17-year-old with autism who wears a yarmulke returned from a Las Vegas public school with a swastika carved on his back. Following the IAC’s intervention, the FBI is investigating the suspected hate crime.
Ido, a 14-year-old Israeli-American from Colorado, said: “When I transferred from a Jewish school to a public school, suddenly I began to be exposed to antisemitic incidents directed at me and my friends. A girl I know was called a ‘Holocaust bitch’ and another boy said to me that he would ‘finish what Hitler started.’ A student from my school approached me and told me that I don’t belong in the school and should be expelled because I’m Jewish, and two other students made Nazi salutes and derogatory gestures towards Jews in the school hallway. Swastikas carved in the school have become a daily occurrence.”
An Israeli-American high school student from New Jersey who was afraid to identify herself, said: “A friend and I were talking about a football game and when I joked with him that I was faster or better than him, he started sending me messages that he would kill me like Hitler killed the Jews and that I would escape from him as the Jews fled from the Germans in the Holocaust. The situation was very disturbing.”
“It’s becoming more and more common for Israeli children to be attacked by teachers and students,” said Shoham Nicolet, the founder and CEO of IAC. “History and civics teachers turn to Israeli students and shamelessly ask them: Why is Israel an apartheid state? This happens in high schools and middle schools. It’s also starting to happen in elementary schools, with teachers saying inappropriate things.”
“Seventy-five percent of Israeli-Americans encounter antisemitism in schools. Children are afraid to wear IDF shirts and Magen Dovid jewelry. There is no distinction between Israeli and Jewish – there is hatred and it has become the norm.”
“Children are being humiliated. In the past two years, we have heard horror stories, and half of the children don’t report it to their parents. Parents are afraid to complain for fear of being accused of slander. Our approach is to threaten administrators with the removal of our children. So far, 100% of cases have been handled well and the school receives training on how to deal with antisemitism,” Nicolet concluded.
Source: (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
