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Photo: Abed Majadele
Biadasi: Anthem doesn't represent me
Photo: Abed Majadele

Arab student council head says ousted for refusing to stand for Hatikvah

Representative of Arab sector files petition against Education Ministry demanding to be reinstated. 'Anthem doesn't represent me,' he says

An Arab high-school student claims he was relieved of his position as head of the student council because he refused to stand for the national anthem, though the Education Ministry claims he was dismissed because he failed to attend a number of activities.

 

Mouad Biadasi was elected chairman of the student council at his school for a year-long term in October of 2008. Six months later he was chosen to represent the Arab sector at the National Youth Council conference that took place in Modi'in.  


'Pushed from back door unlawfully' (Photo: Courtesy of Panet)

 

Two weeks before the event the participants attended a day of training, in which the subject of the anthem came up for the first time.

 

"I did not attend that event, but I was told that when the national anthem played a number of Arab students refused to get up," Biadasi told Ynet. "The students were told that those who refused to stand would not be allowed to attend the conference."

 

On the bus ride to the conference Biadasi took the microphone and urged the other representatives to behave according to their beliefs. "I said the anthem did not represent me, either, so I didn't plan on standing," he said.

 

The teen says he was immediately removed from the bus "in order not to influence the others". Since then, he claims, officials from the ministry ignored him by excluding him from its mailing list until he was dismissed. He says he appealed to the ministry's officials, who said it was a mistake, but the mistake was never fixed.

 

'Arabs don't have to sing'

However the Education Ministry claims Biadasi was absent from a number of nationwide events and activities important to his position.

 

A ministry spokesman for the non-Jewish sector said student council guidelines ordered representatives to stand at the national anthem, but that the Arab students were not obligated to sing the lyrics. "But Biadasi did not enter the conference in the first place, in order not to stand for the anthem," he said.

 

The student filed a petition against the ministry, claiming that "the choice of replacement proves an evil motive was behind the ignorance". It explains that the ministry did not inform Biadasi of his dismissal, thus "pushing him out through the back door unlawfully". Biadasi also demanded to be allowed to carry out his term.

 

But the ministry rejected the claims and said Biadasi was not prohibited from attending the conference, but rather chose not to do so. It added that as he was no longer a high school student he could no longer chair the student council.

 

At the court hearing Justice Shaher Atrash said the sides should attempt to work out their differences without involving the court. Biadasi withdrew his petition in order to write a detailed explanation of the events, and hand it in to the national supervisor of the youth council within 20 days.

 

He also plans to file a petition demanding the dismissal of his replacement. "The Education Ministry needs to understand that they can't appoint a chairman that suits their viewpoint to shut us up," Biadasi said.

 

"I and the students I represent, members of the Arab sector, are all equal citizens and the state must treat us as such. No one can make us stand for an anthem that doesn't represent us, nor to accept symbols that are not ours. The solution to this should come from education, and I call on the education minister to take this seriously."

 


פרסום ראשון: 01.31.10, 23:30
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