‘Distressed’ parents want EMSB to apologize after statement about Israel-Hamas conflict
Global News
The English Montreal School Board received comments commending the its initial message, while others called on the school board to remove the post entirely.
Quebec’s largest English-language school board is facing backlash and calls by some parents to apologize over its initial statement about the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
The English Montreal School Board (EMSB) first published a message last week in which it offered its heartfelt condolences to those who lost loved ones in Israel during the multi-pronged and surprise attack by Hamas militants on Oct. 7. More than 1,400 Israelis were killed and some 200 others, including children, were taken hostage.
Since then, Israel launched its own airstrikes in the Gaza Strip while also cutting off essential supplies and power to the territory. The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry has said that more than 2,800 Palestinians have died to date.
The EMSB’s initial post on its website on Oct. 12 — five days after the initial attack in Israel — did not mention Palestinian victims. It was also accompanied by a photo of the Israeli flag, which a spokesperson confirmed was later removed.
“Nowhere in that email did it mourn the Palestinian lives that were killed,” Lamia Tatari, a mother of three children at EMSB schools, told Global News on Wednesday.
The statement garnered a flurry of reaction on the EMSB’s Facebook page, with some commending the message, while others criticized the school board.
“As parents, we felt extremely distressed so we came together to put an email and send it back to them and we didn’t get a response from them,” Tatari said, adding the parents were from various backgrounds.
Fellow parent Jahan Peerally also believes the statement wasn’t neutral, saying “the social media post by EMSB clearly ignores the existence of Christian and Muslim, Arab and Palestinian parents within the EMSB community.”
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