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What’s Happening in North Carolina’s High Schools About Israel?
An antisemitic banner hung over the US 1 highway in Cameron, North Carolina in December 2022. Photo: Screenshot
In May, the Zine club at North Carolina’s Carrboro High School made a post on social media celebrating their display in the school’s library that included the Do-It-Yourself Occupation Guide, which reads as a training manual for criminality and domestic terrorism.
The guide provides advice on how to disable alarm systems, break into buildings, and barricade doors. It calls for “organized looting” and “the seizing of buildings.” With accompanying pictures, the guide explains how to use tools such as an angle grinder, bolt cutters, and a crowbar to break into buildings. It advises, “A group may decide it is better to destroy or vandalize a space than to return it to its usual role in good condition.” In its first paragraph, the guide accuses Israel of “genocide” against the Palestinians.
The guide was removed from the library.
Andy Jenks, Chief Communications Officer for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, told me via email: “The material that appeared on what seems to be a student’s Instagram account was neither allowed nor featured by the school or district, and it was addressed quickly once it was brought to the attention of the administrative team.”
This is at least the second time this school year that the Carrboro High School library has had hateful and disturbing materials on display and then removed.
Two months earlier, in March, I reported that the Zine Club and the Student Socialist Alliance at Carrboro High School were responsible for an anti-Israel display in the library that — to many people — appeared to condone Hamas’ use of terrorism, hostage taking, and murder with the slogan: “RESISTANCE IS JUSTIFIED WHEN PEOPLE ARE OCCUPIED.”
A student created zine (or magazine) that was included with the display referred to Israel as “racist,” “colonial,” and an “apartheid” state, and accused Israel of “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing.”
Parents and community members are frustrated by how long it took to have the anti-Israel display removed, and that just a few months after this incident, the occupation guide was then briefly on display in the library. In addition, after the anti-Israel display was removed, anti-Israel flyers were posted in the school and these were also removed.
Public records now shed more light on this situation. In February, a Jewish parent visiting the school took photos of the anti-Israel display. A school staff member emailed the principal, “I was uncomfortable with her [the parent] taking photos considering the questions she was asking and her visible irritation with the display.”
Shouldn’t the staff member have expressed concerns with the hate speech on display in a public school library rather than that a parent was documenting hate speech?
On Feb. 8, students at Carrboro High School and nearby Chapel Hill High School held a well-advertised protest, “For A Free Palestine: WALK-OUT AGAINST GENOCIDE” that took place during the school day.
Two days before the walkout, public records reveal that a person who appears to be a member of Chapel High School’s School Improvement Team (SIT) emailed fellow SIT members, which included the school’s principal and other school administrators.
She voiced concerns about both the planned walkout and a related anti-Israel social media account: “The site is causing concerns for Jewish students, who are being called white supremacists in comments of posts, and seeing posts advocating for the destruction of all Jews.”
Referring to the upcoming walkout, she wrote, “This is a huge safety issue” and the school needs “to have a plan for our Jewish students who are feeling very unsafe at school right now.” She added that on the day of the planned walkout, “We may need a safety presence at school.”
“These are complicated questions concerning no tolerance for hate speech but also of protection for protesting,” she wrote. “I am hoping that we can pay attention to this and figure out what is right for our campus.”
The schools received many concerns about this walkout from parents and some staff. For example, the night before the protest, a parent wrote to one of the principals: “I do not feel safe having my children in a school district that allows this … There is no way that this walkout is not going to negatively affect Jewish students … I am sickened, hurt, and appalled.”
A staff member sent an email to the principal of Chapel Hill High School, to other school administrators, and to security officers the morning of the protest: “It has been brought to me by several students and some parents that if a student did not actively participate in the protest today, they might possibly be ‘singled out’ for not engaging or be accused of complicity.” He added, “I would like to offer my room as an added option for those students who feel uncomfortable or unsafe during that time period.”
While I appreciate the staff member advocating for students, children should not need a safe room to attend school.
The night before the protest, a parent emailed one of the principals: “While I respect free speech for all, school should foremost be a safe place for all students. The permitted ‘walkout’ is compromising student safety.”
In the end, the administration met with student organizers and allowed the protest. And as a result, many Jewish parents — concerned for their children’s safety and well-being — kept their children home that day.
It is outrageous that a protest was allowed to occur during the school day after it was acknowledged that it may be “a huge safety issue” for Jewish students.
Would the district ever allow protests to occur that posed a huge safety issue for Black, Muslim, Asian, or LGBTQ+ students? I highly doubt it.
There are some additional challenging aspects of this situation. In an email sent the day before the walkout, a teacher at Chapel Hill High School shared with the principal, “Some of the protest organizers are Jewish” and the larger group of protestors “relies on those Jewish students for guidance.” I do not envy administrators and staff who have to navigate this.
Going through the public record emails, it is clear that administration and staff are struggling to understand some of the issues. For example, the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” has been an issue. The night before the walkout, a Jewish parent explained to one of the principals, “If the slogan of this walkout is ‘from the river to the sea,’ which I understand from my son that it is, then your students are chanting for the genocide of Jews.”
In late May, Jenks told me via email: “Our district vehemently rejects any hint of antisemitic behavior, as we do all forms of hate speech. Schools must always be places of joy and kindness, where we value the diverse backgrounds that make us a community.”
When students are kept home from school out of fear or need a safe room to get through the school day, school is no longer joyous or kind.
In the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, the safety of Jewish students appears to be treated as less important than the safety of other students. This is unacceptable. Jewish parents — and all parents — should never have to keep their children home from school or have them in a secure room at school to keep them safe.
Peter Reitzes writes about issues related to antisemitism and Israel.
The post What’s Happening in North Carolina’s High Schools About Israel? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Security Warning to Israelis Vacationing Abroad Ahead of holidays
A passenger arrives to a terminal at Ben Gurion international airport before Israel bans international flights, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Ahead of the Jewish High Holidays, Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) published the latest threat assessment to Israelis abroad from terrorist groups to the public on Sunday, in order to increase the Israeli public’s awareness of the existing terrorist threats around the world and encourage individuals to take preventive action accordingly.
The NSC specified that the warning is an up-to-date reflection of the main trends in the activities of terrorist groups around the world and their impact on the level of threat posed to Israelis abroad during these times, but the travel warnings and restrictions themselves are not new.
“As the Gaza war continues and in parallel with the increasing threat of terrorism, the National Security Headquarters stated it has recognized a trend of worsening and increasing violent antisemitic incidents and escalating steps by anti-Israel groups, to the point of physically harming Israelis and Jews abroad. This is in light of, among other things, the anti-Israel narrative and the negative media campaign by pro-Palestinian elements — a trend that may encourage and motivate extremist elements to carry out terrorist activities against Israelis or Jews abroad,” the statement read.
“Therefore, the National Security Bureau is reinforcing its recommendation to the Israeli public to act with responsibility during this time when traveling abroad, to check the status of the National Security Bureau’s travel warnings (before purchasing tickets to the destination,) and to act in accordance with the travel warning recommendations and the level of risk in the country they are visiting,” it listed, adding that, as illustrated in the past year, these warnings are well-founded and reflect a tangible and valid threat potential.
The statement also emphasized the risk of sharing content on social media networks indicating current or past service in the Israeli security forces, as these posts increase the risk of being marked by various parties as a target. “Therefore, the National Security Council recommends that you do not upload to social networks, in any way, content that indicates service in the security forces, operational activity, or similar content, as well as real-time locations.”
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Israel Intensifies Gaza City Bombing as Rubio Arrives
Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza due to an Israeli military operation, move southward after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south, in the central Gaza Strip September 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Israeli forces destroyed at least 30 residential buildings in Gaza City and forced thousands of people from their homes, Palestinian officials said, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived on Sunday to discuss the future of the conflict.
Israel has said it plans to seize the city, where about a million Palestinians have been sheltering, as part of its declared aim of eliminating the terrorist group Hamas, and has intensified attacks on what it has called Hamas’ last bastion.
The group’s political leadership, which has engaged in on-and-off negotiations on a possible ceasefire and hostage release deal, was targeted by Israel in an airstrike in Doha on Tuesday in an attack that drew widespread condemnation.
Qatar will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday to discuss the next moves. Rubio said Washington wanted to talk about how to free the 48 hostages – of whom 20 are believed to be still alive – still held by Hamas in Gaza and rebuild the coastal strip.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them (the Israeli leadership). We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” Rubio said before heading to Israel where he will stay until Tuesday.
ABRAHAM ACCORDS AT RISK
He was expected to visit the Western Wall Jewish prayer site in Jerusalem on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hold talks with him during the visit.
US officials described Tuesday’s strike on the territory of a close US ally as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests. Rubio and US President Donald Trump both met Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Friday.
Netanyahu signed an agreement on Thursday to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state – a move the United Arab Emirates warned would undermine the US-brokered Abraham accords that normalized UAE relations with Israel.
Israel, which blocked all food from entering Gaza for 11 weeks earlier this year, has been allowing more aid into the enclave since late July to prevent further food shortages, though the United Nations says far more is needed.
It says it wants civilians to leave Gaza City before it sends more ground forces in. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have left but hundreds of thousands remain in the area. Hamas has called on people not to leave.
Israeli army forces have been operating inside at least four eastern suburbs for weeks, turning most of at least three of them into wastelands. It is closing in on the center and the western areas of the territory, where most of the displaced people are taking shelter.
Many are reluctant to leave, saying there is not enough space or safety in the south, where Israel has told them to go to what it has designated as a humanitarian zone.
Some say they cannot afford to leave while others say they were hoping the Arab leaders meeting on Monday in Qatar would pressure Israel to scrap its planned offensive.
“The bombardment intensified everywhere and we took down the tents, more than twenty families, we do not know where to go,” said Musbah Al-Kafarna, displaced in Gaza City.
Israel said it had completed five waves of air strikes on Gaza City over the past week, targeting more than 500 sites, including Hamas reconnaissance and sniper sites, buildings containing tunnel openings and weapons depots.
Local officials, who do not distinguish between militant and civilian casualties, say at least 40 people were killed by Israeli fire across the enclave, a least 28 in Gaza City alone.
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Turkey Warns of Escalation as Israel Expands Strikes Beyond Gaza
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not seen) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
i24 News – An Israeli strike targeting Hamas officials in Qatar has sparked unease among several Middle Eastern countries that host leaders of the group, with Turkey among the most alarmed.
Officials in Ankara are increasingly worried about how far Israel might go in pursuing those it holds responsible for the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s prime minister effectively acknowledged that the Qatar operation failed to eliminate the Hamas leadership, while stressing the broader point the strike was meant to make: “They enjoy no immunity,” the government said.
On X, Prime Minister Netanyahu went further, writing that “the elimination of Hamas leaders would put an end to the war.”
A senior Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up Ankara’s reaction: “The attack in Qatar showed that the Israeli government is ready to do anything.”
Legally and diplomatically, Turkey occupies a delicate position. As a NATO member, any military operation or targeted killing on its soil could inflame tensions within the alliance and challenge mutual security commitments.
Analysts caution, however, that Israel could opt for covert measures, operations carried out without public acknowledgement, a prospect that has increased anxiety in governments across the region.
Israeli officials remain defiant. In an interview with Ynet, Minister Ze’ev Elkin said: “As long as we have not stopped them, we will pursue them everywhere in the world and settle our accounts with them.” The episode underscores growing fears that efforts to hunt Hamas figures beyond Gaza could widen regional friction and complicate diplomatic relationships.