"Your news article highlights the shameful incident at Park West School in Halifax where Palestinian students were reproached for wearing the Kufiyah by the school’s principal. I commend you for your thoughtful and inclusive coverage of this incident. I especially appreciated your interviews with members of the local Palestinian community, including the President of the Atlantic Canada Palestinian Society."
March 7, 2023
Dear Ms. Lau and Ms. Joseph,
I’m writing to you on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME, https://www.cjpme.org) to express my appreciation of your recent article (“Palestinian scarves controversy at Nova Scotia school prompts calls for public apology”) published by Global News on March 6, 2023.
Your news article highlights the shameful incident at Park West School in Halifax where Palestinian students were reproached for wearing the Kufiyah by the school’s principal. I commend you for your thoughtful and inclusive coverage of this incident. I especially appreciated your interviews with members of the local Palestinian community, including the President of the Atlantic Canada Palestinian Society.
My organization has been following the situation closely and has links with the Atlantic Canada Palestinian community. We issued a press statement last Friday and have had multiple interactions with the Halifax Regional Council for Education and Park West School.
It is important that Canadian audiences are aware about such instances of anti-Palestinian racism in our education system and how they affect the Palestinian-Canadian community. I hope to see more coverage of issues affecting the lives and perceptions of Palestinians in Canada, especially those expressing Palestinian viewpoints.
I would also like to draw attention to a report published by the Arab Canadian Lawyer Association (ACLA) in 2022 on anti-Palestinian racism. Suggestions that they are inherently violent, or “terrorist” are among the racist attitudes that Palestinians must frequently confront. The ACLA’s document highlights this and other forms of anti-Palestinian racism. If you have not already seen it, I recommend that you download a copy and review it. My organization would like to see our various educational institutions take a zero-tolerance attitude toward anti-Palestinian racism, and adopt this stance in their equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) frameworks.
Should you wish, you can contact me at 438-380-5410 for more information.
Sincerely,
Tayla Shair
Media Analyst, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East