Anti-Israel posters jeopardise Herzlia’s tikkun olam project

ANT KATZ

Vista Deputy Principal Ishmail Esau and some of his colleagues had placed four offensive posters on the inside of Esau’s classroom windows – facing onto the playground, where the Jewish children were sure to see them. Two of the posters read: “Yes to Judaism, no to Zionism” and “Israel is a terrorist state guilty of ethnic cleansing in Palestine”.

This act of defiance by BDS-supporting Esau may well scupper the largesse that has been built up over years between Vista and Herzlia.

Herzlia has had an ongoing outreach programme with Vista, in which Herzlia High School pupils tutor Vista pupils on a weekly basis. This took place at the Vista campus in 2016, and at Herzlia this year.

As an extension of this programme, Herzlia grade 11 pupils and teachers, invested much time and effort in organising this ambitious project to enhance Vista School that included planning and fundraising. 

This was the pupils’ way of trying to “enhance the existing relationship”, explains Herzlia’s director of education, Geoff Cohen.

This helped Herzlia pupils, says Cohen, in that “it epitomised the values that we espouse. They have shown the true essence of tikkun olam.”

Once the pupils and staff – between 30 and 40 of them – arrived and were faced with the posters, they were unnerved and upset, but did not make a scene.

Cohen arrived a short time later and was briefed by the teachers. The posters, he says, were “clearly designed to offend, resulting in our pupils and staff feeling extremely uncomfortable.” However, “to the enormous credit of our pupils and teachers, they got on with the job”, said Cohen.

“I demanded to see the school principal, Mrs Charline Little, to get an explanation.” 

Little made it clear to him that she, her staff and pupil body, were fully supportive and appreciative of the Herzlia/Vista project. She told him that the anti-Zionist poster protest was initiated “entirely against school policy” by her deputy principal and two of his colleagues.

Cohen found out that Little instructed her deputy to remove the “offensive and thus illegal” posters, but that he had “summarily ignored this instruction”.

The Vista principal said she was devastated by this. She told her deputy how important the relationship with Herzlia was, but he refused direct orders to remove the posters. He first said it was part of the Middle East syllabus he was teaching, which was not true, and then said he was a member of BDS and other political groups.

Little took the matter to Vanessa Minnaar, the circuit manager of the Metro Central Education District, which oversees both schools. Minnaar addressed the matter with Marna Knoetze, manager of labour relations at the Western Cape Department of Education, who is investigating the matter.

Among the possible infringements are hate speech, pollical activity at schools, gross insubordination and others.

“At no time did we feel there was any physical danger to our pupils or teachers and on this basis, I made a decision to let them finish the work planned for the day,” says Cohen.

On Monday night, Cohen received numerous phone calls and messages from grade 11 parents and stakeholders concerned about the situation.

“They questioned our involvement with Vista High,” says Cohen, who told parents that he wanted “to state that Herzlia is a proudly and unashamedly Zionist school and that we do not tolerate malicious and mischievous anti-Zionist rhetoric”.

This hateful ideology is “absolutely not reflective of the position of the Vista School principal, staff, pupils or the Department of Education”, he said.

Cohen called a grade 11 assembly on Tuesday morning and gave all pupils a chance to air their views and to “mutually agree on a way forward”.

As a result of this meeting, Cohen said, there was agreement in that the Vista High School grade 8s would still visit Herzlia (on Tuesday) for their day of learning enrichment. However, Herzlia pupils would not go to Vista to complete the building project until the following actions have been taken:

•           Herzlia receives an unreserved written apology from the Vista principal.

•           The offensive posters are removed by the deputy principal.

•           Herzlia receives a letter from the Vista principal affirming the complete endorsement of this project by her pupil body and staff.

“I have made it clear to the principal, Mrs Little, that if these three steps are not taken, we will have to abort the project,” Cohen said. He was adamant that unless the matter is resolved, it could put the entire Herzlia/Vista programme in jeopardy.