A Muslim elementary school teacher in Maryland has filed a discrimination complaint after being suspended for using the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as her email signature. More on the outraged, and outrageous, Hajur El-Haggan, can be found here: “Muslim school teacher says she’s victim of racism after being suspended for using ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ as her email signature,” by Emma Richter, DailyMail.com, February 2, 2024:

A Muslim school teacher in Maryland said that she is a victim of racism after she was suspended for using ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ as her email signature.

Hajur El-Haggan, a math teacher at Argyle Middle School, was placed on administrative leave in November after she was told that her chosen signature was not allowed.

This was her school email, not her personal account. Students, parents, and fellow teachers would all be subjected, in their email correspondence with her, to this message: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

This phrase is a call for the establishment of a Palestinian state on all the land from the river Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea, and for the disappearance of the Jewish state. All of its Jewish inhabitants would be expelled or killed. Rightly understood, it is a call for ethnic cleansing, and the replacement of the only Jewish state by a twenty-third Arab one. It is understandable that the principal would not want one of his teachers displaying such a sentiment on a school account.

The Muslim and Arab-American teacher has since gone on to file a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Maryland Commission on Human Rights against Montgomery County Public Schools.

‘I have co-workers who have “Black Lives Matter” in their email signatures, or links to their pronouns and what they mean. My quote does not fall into a different category,’ El-Haggan told KUTV.

She is wrong. Her quote is in a different category. “Black Lives Matter” does not call for ethnic cleansing or the destruction of a state and its people. Phrases about pronouns that have to do with self-identification as non-binary, similarly, are not a threat to the existence of anyone. “From the river to the sea” is such a threat; it means politicide accompanied by ethnic cleansing.

The complaint stated that after she was reprimanded by the school’s principal about her email signature, she offered to take it down, but they [sic] proceeded to tell her that she would still be suspended.

Even if El-Haggan had taken down that email signature, that would not have changed the fact that she supports the disappearance of Israel, and the removal of all of the Jews living now “between the river and the sea.” Isn’t that the real “racism” that is involved here, and not her suspension? She was not suspended because she is a Muslim Arab, but because of her support for the ethnic cleansing of Jews “from the river to the sea.”

The discrimination complaint, which has also been filed with the local Fair Employment Practices Agency, said that El-Haggan and her colleagues at the school ‘hold certain personal and political views regarding various social injustices.’…

Would a teacher who had made known his, or her, support for the KKK, or for neo-Nazi groups, be allowed to continue as a teacher? El-Haggan’s views are not merely “political,” but rather, a call for the destruction of a country and the ethnic cleansing — some might even say the attempted “genocide” — of its people.

The complaint also noted that besides El-Haggan, other teachers in the middle school ‘expressed opinions about various political and social matters.’…

But none of her fellow teachers called for what amounts to ethnic cleansing. 

‘Just like here in America, we have “From sea to shining sea,” it’s no different. It’s a call for freedom, peace, basic rights, and humanity and coexistence,’ El-Haggan said….

No, Ms. Al-Haggan. They are not the same. “From sea to shining sea” is merely the geographical description of a country — America — that is being celebrated as “beautiful/from sea to shining sea.” “From the river to the sea” is not a call for “freedom, peace, basic rights, and humanity and coexistence,” but rather, a malevolent call for the destruction of a state and its people.

The complaint also said that that three days before she was placed on leave, the Palestinian flag in her car that said ‘Free Palestine was cut off of her vehicle and written on….

Did she promptly report this act? It would be strange – should raise a skeptical eyebrow – if she had not done so. Or was this claimed attack dreamed up later to support her lawsuit, suggesting that she was living in a hostile, anti-Palestinian, racist environment?

The phrase ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ has long been seen as a call for destruction by the Jewish population, but for the Palestinian community and their supporters, it has been seen as a peaceful call for liberation.

No, that phrase is not seen as a “peaceful call for liberation” by the Palestinians. They know exactly what it means — the destruction of the Jewish state and the expulsion, or killing, of its Jewish population. In this hoped-for future state of “Palestine,” only Israeli Arabs would be allowed to remain.

There is speech that is beyond the pale. Calling for the destruction of a state and its people, because of their religion, is such speech. It is reasonable for the Montgomery County School Board to want to protect its students from such speech, directed at the only Jewish state, just as it would want to protect them from teachers found to endorse the KKK or neo-Nazis. El-Haggan and her lawyer hope to convince the judge that “from the river to the sea” is an innocuous call for “peace and liberation.” It is not. And the lawsuit will be determined by whether or not the judge, or possibly members of a jury, understand its malevolent significance.