Jewish Paper: Portland High School Welcomes Anti Israel Rap Group

November 25, 2011

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UPDATE COMING SOON WITH DAVID HOROWITZ REACTION.
JewishReview.org reports Portland’s Lincoln High School welcomed an anti-Israeli pro-Palestinian rap group to perform at a school assembly on November 4th. The group DAM was brought to town Portland State University Middle Eastern Studies Department  DAM was scheduled to make a special appearance at the school and give a special concert/assembly during school hours. A check of the school calendar notes an optional assembly but doesn’t provide details.
According to the Jewish Review:

Lincoln’s Arab Studies Program funded for the second year by Qatar Foundation International, sponsored the rap group’s visit to the high school. The school promoted the assembly as an opportunity for students to hear another perspective on a controversial issue, in this case the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. [emphasis mine]

Buying access has its privileges. In fact, the students might actually understand the words of the Arabic language raps calling Jews killers and Nazis since the school now offers Arabic classes thanks to the same foundation! 


Some Jewish students at Lincoln students learned of the planned assembly and called on the school to re-think the invitation. Instead the school held a ‘listening session’ on November 1st for parents, Rabbis and students to vent.

According to the Jewish Review:

Michael Cahana, senior rabbi for Congregation Beth Israel, attended the panel discussion as the rabbi of many families whose children attend Lincoln. He said, “This is not a free speech issue; it is an educational issue. Certainly from a Jewish perspective the lyrics of DAM’s songs promote terrorism, which strikes me as really inappropriate to bring them to a high school. To have a vibrant discussion [outside of a school] makes sense. But when you bring a group into a classroom” or, in this case an assembly, “it carries a certain responsibility. And I don’t see that responsibility being met.”

DAM with Fans at PSU

The school’s Arabic teacher, who offered extra credit for Lincoln students who attended and wrote about the group’s evening concert at PSU, claimed the group didn’t encourage terrorism.
While sounding quite talented, some lyrics of their songs refer to Jews being Nazis and killers.

Assessing the situation, Marcia Weiss, a Lincoln parent and board member for the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland said, “I want [DAM’s] voice to be heard. I want them to be able to complain about their situation. On the one hand [the trio] feels oppressed. That’s what they were trying to say” in their lyrics. “But DAM, in the medium of hip hop, said it in a very shocking, bad way that has our hackles up. But the message that they feel oppressed is still valid.
“From a Jewish perspective, feeling oppressed is obviously not a license to strap on a bomb. There’s no excuse for terrorism,” she said.

Imagine if a white supremecist rap group came to a school.
From the Review:

Another line from “Who Is the Terrorist?” compares Israeli democracy to the Nazi regime.
You’re [Israel is] a democracy? Actually, it’s more like the Nazis.
From the sidelines Peyton Chapman, Lincoln High School principal, jumped in with, “If the word ‘Nazi’ comes up at the assembly, we’re going to discuss it.” The Holocaust “was an incredible horror. We don’t want to have it repeated.”

I expect if lyrics about enslaving blacks, white superiority and the like came up, Principal Chapman would take a moment to ‘discuss it.’ 

Still, I think this kid has taken the best measure of the situation. She was quoted in the Review:

Audrey Weiss, freshman, and Marcia Weiss’s [Jewish Federation of Greater Portland board member] daughter, said her non-Jewish “friends have no idea what the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict is about. They don’t watch the news. So bringing in a group that is so one-sided doesn’t make sense to me. It doesn’t promote anything positive. It just promotes anger. I understand it’s free speech. It’s not necessarily hate, but it doesn’t do anything good. Many students haven’t been introduced to any other opinion. So the only thing they will know is what these people say.”

Audrey’s a smart kid. She understands what’s afoot even as her instructors bury their heads in the sand. It’s pretty simple calculus. Political groups buy a school program; preach their particular, distasteful message; inculcate as many students as they can with their beliefs; give them extra credit for it and wait for the next wave of anti Jewish fervor. Rinse. Repeat.

Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com