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Title: A Texas Elementary School Speech Pathologist Refused to Sign a Pro-Israel Oath, Now Mandatory in Many States — so She Lost Her Job
Source:
FromThe Trenches/The Intercept
URL Source: https://fromthetrenchesworldreport. ... tes-so-she-lost-her-job/238073
Published: Dec 17, 2018
Author: Glenn Greenwald
Post Date: 2018-12-18 05:26:30 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 1947
Comments: 30
The Intercept – by Glenn Greenwald A CHILDREN’S SPEECH PATHOLOGIST who has worked for the last nine years with developmentally disabled, autistic, and speech-impaired elementary school students in Austin, Texas, has been told that she can no longer work with the public school district, after she refused to sign an oath vowing that she “does not” and “will not” engage in a boycott of Israel or “otherwise tak[e] any action that is intended to inflict economic harm” on that foreign nation. A lawsuit on her behalf was filed early Monday morning in a federal court in the Western District of Texas, alleging a violation of her First Amendment right of free speech. The child language specialist, Bahia Amawi, is a U.S. citizen who received a master’s degree in speech pathology in 1999 and, since then, has specialized in evaluations for young children with language difficulties (see video below). Amawi was born in Austria and has lived in the U.S. for the last 30 years, fluently speaks three languages (English, German, and Arabic), and has four U.S.-born American children of her own. Amawi began working in 2009 on a contract basis with the Pflugerville Independent School District, which includes Austin, to provide assessments and support for school children from the county’s growing Arabic-speaking immigrant community. The children with whom she has worked span the ages of 3 to 11. Ever since her work for the school district began in 2009, her contract was renewed each year with no controversy or problem. But this year, all of that changed. On August 13, the school district once again offered to extend her contract for another year by sending her essentially the same contract and set of certifications she has received and signed at the end of each year since 2009. She was prepared to sign her contract renewal until she noticed one new, and extremely significant, addition: a certification she was required to sign pledging that she “does not currently boycott Israel,” that she “will not boycott Israel during the term of the contract,” and that she shall refrain from any action “that is intended to penalize, inflict economic harm on, or limit commercial relations with Israel, or with a person or entity doing business in Israeli or in an Israel-controlled territory.” The language of the affirmation Amawi was told she must sign reads like Orwellian — or McCarthyite — self-parody, the classic political loyalty oath that every American should instinctively shudder upon reading: That language would bar Amawi not only from refraining from buying goods from companies located within Israel, but also from any Israeli companies operating in the occupied West Bank (“an Israeli-controlled territory”). The oath given to Amawi would also likely prohibit her even from advocating such a boycott given that such speech could be seen as “intended to penalize, inflict economic harm on, or limit commercial relations with Israel.” Whatever one’s own views are, boycotting Israel to stop its occupation is a global political movement modeled on the 1980s boycott aimed at South Africa that helped end that country’s system of racial apartheid. It has become so mainstream that two newly elected members of the U.S. Congress explicitly support it, while boycotting Israeli companies in the occupied territories has long been advocated in mainstream venues by Jewish Zionist groups such as Peace Now and the Jewish-American Zionist writer Peter Beinart. This required certification about Israel was the only one in the contract sent to Amawi that pertained to political opinions and activism. There were no similar clauses relating to children (such as a vow not to advocate for pedophiles or child abusers), nor were there any required political oaths that pertained to the country of which she is a citizen and where she lives and works: the United States. Read the rest here: https://theintercept.com/2018/12/17/israel-texas-anti-bds-law/
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 25.
#2. To: Deckard (#0)
Whatever one’s own views are, boycotting Israel to stop its unlawful occupation is a global political movement. Fixed it.
Of the antichrist. And muslim scumbags. Which are you?
So boycotting Israel is so bad there should be an anti-boycott clause in this teacher's contract?
Well it is the law. You respect the law right?
I respect constitutional law. Does the school have the power to write law?
During the mid-1970's the United States adopted two laws that seek to counteract the participation of U.S. citizens in other nation's economic boycotts or embargoes. These "antiboycott" laws are the 1977 amendments to the Export Administration Act (EAA) and the Ribicoff Amendment to the 1976 Tax Reform Act (TRA). While these laws share a common purpose, there are distinctions in their administration. Objectives: The antiboycott laws were adopted to encourage, and in specified cases, require U.S. firms to refuse to participate in foreign boycotts that the United States does not sanction. They have the effect of preventing U.S. firms from being used to implement foreign policies of other nations which run counter to U.S. policy. https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/enforcement/oac
Those laws apply to private companies, not schools -- and certainly not to private citizens.
However. If she was spreading her message at school on school time. She shouldn't be allowed to do that. She should teach the lesson.
#29. To: A K A Stone (#25)
It's not clear from the article that she was doing anything to prompt a different contract (unless you have information to the contrary). The school simply inserted that clause into her new contract. I'm guessing they did that with all the teachers. I oppose any teacher proselytizing their personal views on anything inside the classroom.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestWhatever one’s own views are, boycotting Israel to stop its occupation is a global political movement
#5. To: misterwhite (#2)
boycotting Israel to stop its unlawful occupation is a global political movement.
#8. To: A K A Stone (#5)
Of the antichrist. And muslim scumbags.
#12. To: misterwhite (#8)
So boycotting Israel is so bad there should be an anti-boycott clause in this teacher's contract?
#14. To: A K A Stone (#12)
Well it is the law. You respect the law right?
#16. To: misterwhite (#14)
I respect constitutional law. Does the school have the power to write law?
#23. To: A K A Stone (#16)
(Edited)
#25. To: misterwhite (#23)
Replies to Comment # 25. If she was spreading her message at school on school time.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 25.
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