A California school district is considering a proposal to display the Israeli flag on all campuses and district facilities in recognition of Jewish Heritage Month next year.
The Beverly Hills Unified School District's Board of Education will vote Tuesday night on the proposal, which is part of a resolution to combat antisemitism, according to the meeting's agenda.
Besides flying the Israeli flags in May, the proposed resolution calls for educating students about Jewish history and commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and Oct. 7 as a day of remembrance of the 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.
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During an Aug. 5 meeting of the BHUSD Board of Education, public speaker Tal Lavi expressed strong support of the proposal.
"Since Oct. 7, there was a huge raise in antisemitism," Lavi said. "I feel this resolution is very much needed in order to create that safe environment."
At the meeting, all five board members expressed support for the resolution but chose to revise some of proposal's wording before voting on it Tuesday.
Wording was changed to say the purpose of displaying the Israeli flag is to signify support for the Jewish community and not the Jewish state.
"In the end our job is not to solve geopolitics," board member Russell Stuart said during the meeting. "Our job is to make sure that our students in our school district come to school and feel safe."
One public speaker at the meeting suggested the proposal could generate backlash.
"It is my firm belief that this resolution will ignite rather than discourage antisemitism," said Andrea Grossman, who attended BHUSD schools and sent her three children to schools in the district.
Anti-Israel public speakers criticized the resolution by citing the war in Gaza.
One public speaker said it was unfair to focus so heavily on the atrocities faced by the Israeli people and not provide the same recognition to other persecuted groups such as Armenians, Uyghurs, and Blacks in the U.S.
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Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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