One month ago on a Sunday evening one of our own, Nadwa Jaber, a primary school teacher at Neve Shalom Wahat al-Salam was attacked. Nadwa and her children were on the way home from the Malha shopping mall in Jerusalem. Nadwa was stopped at a traffic light with her children when about 50 men, all fans of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer club descended upon them. While surrounding her car they shouted racist slogans and spat on the car. Attempts were made to pull the family out of the car. As Nadwa’s young children were screaming and crying she only succeeded in escaping from this dangerous situation by hitting the car in front of her that had intentionally blocked them calling attention to the police.

After she heard of the incident, Rotem Yadlin, a mother of one of Nadwa’s Jewish students at our school wrote on Facebook under the picture above “Nadwa educates kids to a life of equality and fraternity, co-existence, peace, faith in mankind. You ( the attackers) may be real heroes who know how to spit at a six-year-old girl but we, on the other hand, will keep dreaming together and making this country a better place – for the sake of Amit (Rotem’s daughter) and Nadwa’s daughter (6-year-old Intissar), for ourselves, for Nadwa.”

Our primary school was the first of it’s kind in Israel, a binational bilingual school that lives out the values of peace, justice, respect and love for both peoples. In the face of senseless hatred we continue to teach our children about different and shared pathways. While we cannot stop hatred itself we can provide support to those who are on the front lines like Nadwa and Rotem. One a parent and one an educator. Please consider investing in a better future by giving a gift today to support our school. We will let Nadwa and Rotem know that their love and respect for each other extends to ourselves as partners for a better tomorrow.”

Courtesy of Neve Shalom – Wahat al Salam

Read the story at Ha’aaretz