Parents Circle has claimed consistently over the years to hold “a thousand” presentations annually at some unspecified mix of Israeli and Palestinian Arab schools, addressing a fairly constant “25,000” students. If this is accurate, it means twenty assemblies a week, 52 weeks per year and no time off for religious holidays or summer break. Might it be that this is oversold in the organization’s marketing?
Parents Circle activists do speak in Israeli schools. When they do, from the reports we have seen, their message is heavily political, made more powerful and palatable because the speakers are a seemingly-balanced Israeli and Arab pair. (That factor also helps them get past Israeli Ministry of Education guidelines.) That these pairs are given essentially unfettered access to rooms filled with Israeli pre-army high schoolers, and thus able to convey a message that undermines the case for Israel, is a concern for those Israelis who know about it.
And if in fact they are speaking regularly in front of Arab school groups, as their marketing materials strongly imply, then we have two questions. (a) Why is there little to no evidence of this on their website and in their materials. And (b): What message do they deliver to those audiences? Does it advance peace, reconciliation and tolerance? How well does that work inside PA-controlled schools? About Hamas schools we won’t ask, for reasons every reader understands.
If we could reach the audiences whom Parents Circle addresses, our daughter Malki and her beautiful life. We would tell them that Malki did not die because of the “occupation” or a disagreement on narratives. She was murdered for being Jewish by unrepentant Palestinian terrorists who declare proudly that they meant it and are glad they did it.
We can and should discuss real peace options based on mutual understanding and eventual reconciliation with the Palestinian Arabs along with the rest of the Arab world. But first we must secure our families and our communities. To this, bitter experience teaches,there is alternative.
Visit This Ongoing War. / Frimet and Arnold Roth
