Beersheba girl suspended from school after voicing concern for Gazan kids
Middle school, Education Ministry claim 13-year-old suspended for 3 days to protect her from harassment during probe into incident; girl says other students verbally abused her
A 13-year-old girl was suspended from school last week after she expressed concern for Palestinian children in Gaza during a class discussion on Hamas’s October 7 massacre, according to Hebrew media reports.
According to Channel 12 News, when it was her turn to speak, the girl, a member of the Arab Bedouin community, mentioned that innocent children were killed in Gaza. “There are hungry children in Gaza, there are children without a home,” she reportedly said during the discussion.
Following a heated incident after the class in which dozens of other students cursed the girl and threw things at her, she was suspended for three days.
She also said that since October 7, students have repeatedly asked her if she supports the Hamas terror group because she wears a hijab headscarf.
“I don’t answer them, I just walk away,” she was quoted as saying by the Haaretz daily.
Videos posted to social media showed students celebrating the girl’s suspension, together with chants of “Am Yisrael Chai (the nation of Israel lives).”
“The students started telling me: ‘Our soldiers are not murderers,’ even though I didn’t say that… and others cursed me,” the girl told Haaretz. “They asked me if I supported Palestine, and I said no and that I only support the small children in Gaza returning to their homes.”
The girl’s father told Haaretz that the teacher did not try to calm the discussion, but rather left the girl to manage the confrontation on her own. Eventually, another teacher noticed the ruckus and took her to the principal.
“It is ridiculous that during a discussion initiated by the school, in which children were asked to express their opinions, a child gets attacked for saying something,” attorney Shahada Ibn Bari was quoted as saying by Channel 12.
Ibn Bari charged that the school’s decision to suspend the girl was “extreme and even illegal,” adding that the other students had chanted, “May your village burn,” and accused her of disrespecting Israel Defense Force troops serving in Gaza after she expressed concern for Palestinian children.
Channel 12 reported that Arab students at Zilberman Middle School, which has both Jewish and Arab students, have been afraid to go to school since the incident for fear of verbal attacks.
“They are afraid to go to school, and those who came were cursed and slandered,” Ibn Bari was quoted as saying.
Both the school and the Education Ministry were quoted as saying that the girl was suspended to protect her from harassment until the incident had been investigated.
According to Channel 12, a discussion regarding the case is scheduled to be held at the Beersheba municipality on Tuesday.
