As a former Englewood, New Jersey, school board member I understand the time and commitment needed to be on a school board. However, supporting the Palestinians as part of the school board is deeply problematic (“Clifton BOE Anti-Israel Comments Draw Criticism,” August 19, 2021).

1) Hamas is the de-facto political force in Gaza, and Hamas supports the Taliban (https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/08/hamas-welcomes-talibans-triumph-afghanistan).

Does this mean that the Clifton school board supports the Taliban? How can someone support the Palestinians without supporting Hamas? I would like to understand. Because having people that support Hamas/ the Taliban on your school board would be a big problem for women. And LGBTQ people. And most Americans.

2) Your board members violated the board of education rules: (https://www.nj.gov/education/ethics/coe.shtml):

b. I will make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of children and will seek to develop and maintain public schools that meet the individual needs of all children regardless of their ability, race, creed, sex, or social standing.

f. I will refuse to surrender my independent judgment to special interest or partisan political groups or to use the schools for personal gain or for the gain of friends.

Supporting the Palestinians/Hamas during a school board meeting violates the above clauses. I suggest that someone file a complaint with the school board commission.

3) My nephew Ezra Schwartz was murdered by a Palestinian in Israel while sleeping in a van because he was Jewish.

His murderer gets over $3K a month because he killed a Jew. This is called martyr payments (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_Authority_Martyrs_Fund). Estimates come in at about $350M that has been paid to people who murder Jews. So, talking about the cash-strapped Palestinians is a moot point while they are paying people to murder and spending over $1B on terror tunnels used to kidnap and murder.

I suggest that the Clifton BOE ask for the resignations of Feras Awwad and Fahim Abedrabbo. They are clearly unfit school board members and cause many issues that distract attention from properly educating the Clifton students.