NEW FILM BY DAVID TEAGUE PLAYS ROOFTOP FILM SERIES SEPTEMBER 12, 8PM

The opening of the United States’ first Arabic language public school provoked a firestorm of allegations that the school would teach radical Islam or even produce terrorists. As critics and the mainstream media stoked the flames in the climate of post-9/11 America, the controversy forced the school’s Arab-American Muslim principal from her job. “Intifada NYC” follows the principal’s struggle to get her job back, the outcry against the school, and the debate provoked about tolerance and freedom of speech. The film combines exclusive interviews and vérité with graphic novel-style drawings, while the original score mixes classical, jazz, and Middle Eastern styles.  Read more…

http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead/2009/films/intifada-nyc

Director: David Teague

Year/Length: 2009 / 47 min

Country: U.S.

Co-presenter: London International Documentary Film Festival

New York Festival Premiere

Filmmaker in person

Khalil Gibran International Academy, the first Arabic-language public school in the U.S., opened in Brooklyn in 2007. Almost immediately, “Stop the Madrassa” formed out of fear that the school would teach radical Islam or even produce terrorists. As critics and the mainstream media stoked the flames in post-9/11 America, the controversy forced the school’s Arab-American Muslim principal from her job. Weaving together interviews and cinema verité footage, the film is supplemented by graphic-novel style illustrations of closed-door proceedings. Built on the principal’s struggle to get her job back, Intifada NYC clarifies the ensuing public debate about tolerance and freedom of speech.

December, 2008

By Seth Wessler

Sixth-grade students at the newly opened Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn were probably surprised last year when they opened their Arabic books to find photographs cut from the pages. “We cut pictures of mosques out of the Arabic books,” said Hassan Omar, an Egyptian man who until last spring taught Arabic and humanities at the academy, the country’s first Arabic-English, dual-language public school. “We are afraid that anything could be taken out of context.”

“They should have fought back,” he [Rashid Khalidi] said, referring to the city [of New York]. “The only way to deal with these factions that tread in falsehood and intimidation is to push back as hard as possible.”

It was not exactly what teachers and the planning team had expected. The Khalil Gibran school was to have been a refuge in the midst of post-Sept. 11 New York City, a place where a mixed group of Arabic speakers and non-Arabic speakers would learn together. The school, which opened in 2007 with a sixth-grade class, was designed to grow into a middle and high school in the spirit of the more than 65 dual-language schools in New York City, which teach in Spanish, Creole, Russian and other languages. By graduation, it was expected that Khalil Gibran students would have a command of Arabic and an understanding of the cultural context in which the language exists.

But this past September, many of the original sixth-grade students had not returned as seventh graders. The school has cut back on Arabic language instruction, is no longer set to become a high school and has moved twice in its first year of operation. The founding principal, Debbie Almontaser, was forced to resign following a media storm over the meaning of the word “intifada,” and the school is being led by its third principal. None of the original teachers remain at the school, and those who have left claim they were fired or forced to leave because of the stress.

It came to this, critics say, because the school was targeted by a network of conservative organizations and their media outlets that have long been in the business of attacking educators with any perceived links to Palestine. In the words of Jeffrey Weisenfeld, one of the cohort’s most prominent speakers and a powerful trustee at the City University of New York, the school would have been a breeding ground for an Islamist “religious crusade” and anti-Israel extremism posing “a danger to the social fabric of the country.”

While the idea of sixth graders leading a religious crusade might sound ridiculous, the conservative groups succeeded in their attacks. Today, the school appears mired in an atmosphere of fear, tension and instability.  Read more…

October 5, 2008

By KAREEM FAHIM

Inside a friend’s office on Fifth Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Zein Rimawi, a Palestinian-American store owner, said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s bid to change the term limits law struck him as fundamentally unfair.

But for Mr. Rimawi, a controversy that accompanied the opening of the school [KGIA] only deepened mistrust of the mayor’s administration. He said that Mr. Bloomberg had not supported the school’s founding principal, Debbie Almontaser

“He supported it, and now he himself he wants to change it. God bless America,” Mr. Rimawi said. “I have been living here for 25 years, and I see the United States becoming like a country from the Middle East. Your freedom is taken little by little, justice is taken little by little, the middle class disappeared, and money is playing a very big role to determine who your representative is.”

Outside, Mr. Rimawi proudly pointed out the stretch of Fifth Avenue between 65th and 75th Streets, full of Arab-owned businesses: jewelers and law offices, supermarkets and dessert shops. And like members of Brooklyn’s other ethnic groups, like the Italians, the Greeks and the Jews, he gave credit to his people for restoring the neighborhood and keeping real estate prices high while driving the crime rate down.

But he said it felt as if there was a great distance between Bay Ridge’s Arab and Muslim community and the government run by Mr. Bloomberg. Arabs, among one of the fastest-growing groups in Bay Ridge’s multiethnic mix, felt ignored, he said.  Read more…

9-29-08

by Brooklyn Eagle

BROOKLYN — After being targeted by the media in an attempt to shut down New York’s first Arabic dual-language public school, and after a year of fighting the appropriation of their “Intifada NYC” T-shirt, Arab Women Active in the Arts and Media’s founding director Mona Eldahry was honored by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz at an annual Ramadan event.

“Because of AWAAM, my daughter is comfortable speaking to adults and expressing herself in public,” says Naima Remmak.

Brooklyn Borough Hall’s 5th Annual Iftar dinner at Borough Hall Courtroom this past Wednesday honored a handful of Muslim community leaders during the holy month of Ramadan.

“Positive recognition from an elected official in this time of growing anti-Muslim and anti-Arab sentiment is an important gesture of affirmation and solidarity,” says AWAAM Media Mentor Roopa Singh. “With this citation, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and the Iftar Committee are sending a positive message to our embattled communities, the message that we should continue to strive for fair media coverage and equal access to education, public safety and civic institutions.”  Read more..

FOUNDER OF ARAB WOMEN’S ORGANIZATION HONORED BY BROOKLYN BOROUGH PRESIDENT MARTY MARKOWITZ

Mona Eldahry receives Citation for her Leadership in Arab Women Active in the Arts and Media (AWAAM), Lead Member of Communities in Support of the Khalil Gibran International Academy (CISKGIA) At Brooklyn Borough Hall’s 5th Annual Iftar Dinner.

Brooklyn, SEPTEMBER 24, 2008

After being targeted by the media in an attempt to shut down New York’s first Arabic dual-language public school, and after a year of fighting the appropriation of their “Intifada NYC” t-shirt, Arab Women Active in the Arts and Media’s founding director, Mona Eldahry, is honored by Brooklyn Borough President, Marty Markowitz, at annual Ramadan event.
Brooklyn Borough Hall’s 5th Annual Iftar dinner, at Borough Hall Courtroom, Wednesday (6:00pm), honors a handful of Muslim community leaders during the holy month of Ramadan. “Positive recognition from an elected official in this time of growing anti-Muslim and anti-Arab sentiment is an important gesture of affirmation and solidarity,” says AWAAM Media Mentor, Roopa Singh. “With this citation, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and the Iftar Committee are sending a positive message to our embattled communities, the message that we should continue to strive for fair media coverage and equal access to education, public safety and civic institutions,” Singh concludes.
In August of 2007, AWAAM found itself at the receiving end of a smear campaign designed to shut down New York’s first Arabic language dual language public school. T-shirts that AWAAM had created to celebrate community empowerment were falsely associated with the founding principal of KGIA, resulting in a dual targeting of KGIA and of AWAAM. At the height of the attacks, parents were uncomfortable allowing their children to be identified in AWAAM’S media work. As a result, AWAAM cancelled a screening and a youth-organized event for the Musilm Holidays Coalition and continues to remove last names from youth media pieces. “The ability to speak out and to take action around events affecting one’s life is essential to adolescent development. AWAAM’s programs have a tremendous impact on young people at risk of developing low self-esteem and a sense of hopelessness about the ability to affect social change,” explains Kelly Sykes, Child Psychologist and Program Evaluator.
In an effort to protect AWAAM as a safe space for young women who are Arab, Muslim and from communities of color, AWAAM launched their iWord Campaign, aimed at humanizing their membership’s communities and asserting their right to use their languages and to discuss their struggles. “Because of AWAAM, my daughter is comfortable speaking to adults and expressing herself in public,” says Naima Remmak, “She has serious career aspirations, and she has a much higher level of analysis when it comes to politics and social phenomena. Arab mothers are so happy to see a program dedicated to women of minority groups.” In an effort to ensure that KGIA received the support it needed to be successful AWAAM helped to found Communities in Support of KGIA. “The work that AWAAM did with teachers and parents at KGIA last year was essential in helping us to get our stories out,” says Maysa Jarara, KGIA parent. AWAAM and CISKGIA continue to work to ensure that the Department of Education and New Visions support the school.
“This citation offers AWAAM and the communities they serve a chance to celebrate the facts about their organization: that they provide underserved communities important media training and the tools they need to tell their own stories accurately,” says Abdeen Jabara, civil rights lawyer. By empowering young women to become radio and video producers, writers of poetry, T-shirt artists, bloggers, DJs and community organizers, AWAAM shows them how they can have an active voice in the media and create positive change. Even in the face of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment, AWAAM mentors and youth continue to produce personal and socially relevant art.
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September 12, 2008

Alex Kane

In the summer of 2007, Muhammed Fakir Shahada was looking for a New York City middle school for his daughter Serena, who was about to enter the sixth grade. After attending a fair for new middle schools that summer, Fakir, who wanted his 12-year-old daughter to learn Arabic, which most of his family speaks, settled on the Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA), the city’s first dual-language Arabic public school, then located in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

many parents “are already pulling our children out of the school or are thinking of not returning next year” and noting that discipline problems among students caused by a poor learning environment “continue to go unaddressed.”

By the end of the school year, Fakir regretted his decision. “I kept telling my kid that [the school year] was going to get better, but it got worse,” he says. A year later, Fakir has pulled his daughter from KGIA, and this September Serena began seventh grade at a different school.

Designed to be a beacon of multiculturalism, KGIA was surrounded by controversy from its inception (see below). Parents, students and educators say that inadequate classroom resources, an unresponsive school administration, lack of support from the New York City Department of Education (DOE) and teacher firings pushed the school to the brink of failure.  Read more…

New home – more problems?

By TIM PERONE and YOAV GONEN

September 3, 2008 --

Despite adding another grade, enrollment at the controversial Arab-themed public school in Brooklyn that was saddled with leadership and discipline issues last year has grown by just 30 students, The Post has learned.

Although the Khalil Gibran International Academy’s move from Park Slope to a building in DUMBO led some parents to pull their kids out, others said it was the roller-coaster school year that sealed the deal.

“At this point, I’ve disassociated myself with the school. I want nothing to do with the school,” said Muhammed Fakir, whose daughter Serena attended the sixth grade last year.

He said many of the parents who yanked their kids cited discord with school Principal Holly Anne Reichert.  Read more…

DOE Disputes Charges by Group Trying To Bring Back Ex-Principal

9/3/08

by Mary Frost

FORT GREENE — To say that the Arabic-themed Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA), a dual-language grade 6-12 public school in Brooklyn, had a bumpy first school year would be a massive understatement.

Founded with the aim of providing the city’s children with a foundation in Arabic language and culture, the little school and its students soon became a ping pong ball in a game played by forces beyond its control.

the Department of Education “reneged on its original commitment to continuing KGIA as a 6th to 12th grade program and has not made a commitment beyond grades 6 through 8.”

Attacks by conservative groups, multiple location changes accompanied by parent protests, the resignation of the founding principal, a continuing lawsuit, discipline problems and charges of inept handling by the city’s Department of Education (DOE) are just a few of the highlights of the school’s first year.  Read more…

Posted by Roy Edroso

September 3, 2008

The New York Post reports that the Khalil Gibran International Academy isn’t doing so well. It has a total of just 90 students. Some might find this a welcome change from public school overcrowding, but the Post fault the previous “roller-coaster school year” and parents’ “discord with school Principal Holly Anne Reichert,” who took over after KGIA’s “former principal, Debbie Almontaser, resigned under pressure after failing to condemn ‘Intifada NYC’ T-shirts distributed by an organization with links to her.”

That controversy, readers may remember, was largely stirred by a massive Post press campaign against Almontaser.

The Post was kinder to Reichert when she began her term by blasting her predecessor, but later went after Reichert and the school, citing in January “a learning environment that some parents characterized as ‘chaotic,’” a charge with one named source, Muhammed Fakir, whose daughter Serena attended. A Post editorial repeated the parents-say-chaotic charge.  Read more…