nbc6.net

Demonstrators Seek Removal Of Diversity Committee Member

POSTED: 11:21 pm EDT October 21, 2008

UPDATED: 6:52 am EDT October 22, 2008

MIAMI -- Volunteer school board committees usually don't spark controversy, but Broward's diversity committee is under a microscope these days, NBC 6 reported.

A man who fellow committee members said has served well for nearly four years is drawing intense criticism for suggesting world governments recognize and negotiate with the Palestinian group Hamas.

At a demonstration in Fort Lauderdale, demonstrators said they want the school board to remove Arab-American Joe Badran from its diversity committee. They claim Badran supports Hamas, and therefore, is unfit to serve.

Terrorism victim Tuly Wultz said Hamas is proud of "teaching and preparing young boys and girls to become suicide bombers."

Wultz's son was killed in Israel by a suicide bomber.

"When you promote killing as something Allah commands, you brainwash children to do so over and over again," Wultz said.

The U.S. government and the European Union consider Hamas a terrorist organization, even though it won a democratic election to govern part of the Palestinian territories.

"We are not against Muslims, we are against terrorism, and that's what this individual represents," demonstration organizer Joe Kaufman said.

Badran said the group has the wrong idea about him. "They're mistaken," Badran said. "I have never, ever supported terrorism; no decent person can ever justify terrorism."

Badran told the school board on Tuesday that he's a victim of character assassination, and a former president of the American Jewish Congress agreed.

Self-described Zionist Jack Lieberman is co-chairman of a group called the Jewish-Arab Dialogue Association.

"Joe, as my co-chair, has consistently spoken out in the Arab community in support of Israel's right to exist, in support of the peace process, and against terrorism and suicide bombings," Lieberman said.

Badran said he supports Israel's right to exist, but "in the context of a two-state solution, a viable, independent Palestinian state as well.

"Regardless of what the school board does or doesn't do about Badran, his term on the school's diversity committee ends next month.

"This individual states that he supports Hamas; I think that's grounds to remove this individual immediately," Kaufman said.But that won't happen, NBC 6 reported. The school board doesn't see Badran as a threat by serving on a committee designed to represent different views.