TEL AVIV – A Canadian teacher is being investigated after speaking at a rally urging Palestinians to fight back against Israel and praising terrorists, CBC News reported.
Nadia Shoufani, a teacher at St. Catherine of Siena Separate School in Mississauga, Ont., is being investigated by the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board for expressing support for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and praising martyrs.
“Palestine will be liberated. Glory to the martyrs,” she said to a crowd (see video above) at the International Al-Quds Day rally on July 2 behind Queen’s Park in Toronto. “We have the right to fight back. We have the right to resist.”
Shoufani criticized the detention of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a Lebanese terrorist imprisoned in France for killing two U.S. and Israeli officials, the report said.
Bruce Campbell, general manager of communications and community relations for the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, said Wednesday that the matter was brought to the board’s attention through a number of sources, including the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center and B’nai Brith Canada.
“The board was made aware of this issue last week and is investigating,” Campbell said. “Given the serious nature of the issue, we would look to reach a resolution as quickly as possible.”
Amanda Hohmann, national director of the League for Human Rights for B’nai Brith Canada, called out Shoufani for publicly supporting violence and terrorism. She added that it was especially inappropriate for a teacher to be expressing such extreme views.
“We’re obviously very concerned about the potential for radicalization, the messaging, and the ideology that someone is spreading when they are involved in educating children,” Hohmann said.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is considered a terrorist entity by Canada. The chief goal of the group, formed in 1967, is the destruction of Israel.
The report cites Public Safety Canada, which outlines a history of the group’s terror attacks beginning with the hijacking of three civilian airliners in the 1970s and the use of suicide bombers, guerrilla tactics, car bombings, and mortar strikes to further its aims since 2000. PSC also notes the group as being responsible for the first assassination of a cabinet minister in Israel’s history, killing Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi in 2001.