Brattleboro Middle School guest speaker: Israel arrests 13-year-olds, tortures them in prison for playing in the street

This article by Bob Audette originally appeared May 8 in the Brattleboro Reformer.

BRATTLEBORO — A recent presentation at local schools on having difficult discussions has stirred the ire of some members of the local Jewish community.

“The plan was to have an assembly about having difficult discussions, to set the tone for future assemblies to go into whatever the conflict or social justice topic was under discussion,” said Keith Lyman, principal at Brattleboro Area Middle School.

However, said Lyman, one of the speakers, a Palestinian who grew up in a refugee camp, “went off topic. He gave a little bit of his perspective on the history of Israel and Palestine from his experience. That was not something that was expected of this assembly.”

Zeiad Shamrouch, a Palestinian from the Middle Eastern Children’s Alliance, and Jody Sokolower, the founder of Rethinking Education, were the presenters.

At least one observer to the BAMS presentation took it as an attack on Jews and the legitimacy of Israel as a nation.

Read full story at the Brattleboro Reformer.

(Fair use with written permission from the New England Newspapers Inc.)

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Tiia Monto

7 thoughts on “Brattleboro Middle School guest speaker: Israel arrests 13-year-olds, tortures them in prison for playing in the street

  1. The scariest part of all this is that it is allowed, condoned, and fostered in a public school system in our state. Time to take back Vermont Education, folks.

  2. Home-school your children if at all possible. Public schools have become Leftist propaganda mills.

  3. What in the world is in the drinking water in Brattleboro? These teachers….these schools…are INSANE! Get your kids out of these cesspools of indoctrination, folks. They are POISONING your children’s minds!!! This is dangerous, dangerous stuff. Wake up parents!!!

  4. I’m a Vermonter, living in Israel for almost forty years.

    These lies about Israel treating local Arabs harshly — we won’t call them Palestinians, because of factual reasons — are insulting to any informed mind.

    The opposite is true. They, unfortunately, use violence daily against innocent Israeli men, women and children.

    I’m embarrassed that this type of behavior is being tolerated in my beloved Green Mountain State.

  5. Why does this report not surprise me? Liberals and many in the media tend to forget anything bad the Palestinians do, but exaggerate anything that Israel does, often without doing accurate reporting or even lying to get more press and support for their point of view. The Palestinians and their supporters should have recognized Israel’s right to exist decades ago instead of causing death and destruction to their own people with this constant harangue about Israel and the Jews needing to be destroyed. I’m surprised that the Palestinian people having screamed for peace with Israel long ago. Then both sides could have enjoyed economic progress and peace for years and years. It’s very very sad.

  6. Presenting the reality of how the Israelis treat Palestinians is not anti-semitism. It’s easy to deflect legitimate criticism and avoid facing the truth by accusing people of being anti-semitic. That way there’s no need to have a discussion about the difficult subject of Palestian suffering under Israeli occupation. Just accuse anyone who tries to talk about it of being an anti-semite, and that’s it, no need for further discussion.

  7. Looking at some old maps and I can’t seem to find Palestine on them. I’d love the map that shows it, but also the map showing where they make the misslles and bombs that they make to throw over the border at Israel daily. I’ll keep looking tho, it must be around here somewhere.

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