HOUSTON, Texas — A Texas public high school with a large population of Jewish students has caused uproar by publishing a ‘Times of Palestine’ page in its yearbook.
The page glaringly omits key details about the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel which claimed the lives of over 1,200, saying “what happened, happened.”
Houston’s Bellaire High School yearbook for 2024 also does not include the perspective or experience of any of the school’s Jewish students, many of whom have also affected by the terror attack and its aftermath.
The school, attended by more than 3,100 students, featured the page as an Arab student’s “account of the Israel-Gaza confict”.
“Would Palestine have ended up differently if October 7 didn’t happen? Everybody would want to change the past, but what happened happened.
“We had to move forward no matter what the consequences were,” the student was quoted saying in the yearbook page. Palestine is not recognized as a self-governing state by the US or many other major world powers.
The student provided an account of what the day was like as someone who had family friends in the Gaza strip.
“Many movements started right after then that were pro-Palestine after that attack, which motivated me and my friends to also take a stand. We had to show the world that we wouldn’t stop fighting for our freedom,” the student was quoted saying at the top of the yearbook page.
A photo of the page was shared by concerned Bellaire High School parent Yafit Bar on Facebook, who wrote “if this is not a wakeup call, I don’t know what is.”
Bar told The Post this is the first year she has a child in public school, adding it’s “terrifying” for her.
“This is personal,” Bar said, adding that her brother Leon Bar was killed in Israel in the wake of Hamas’ terrorist attack on October 7.
Leon was ambushed and killed by a Hamas terrorist on October 8 while he was voluntarily shuttling injured civilians in his own car to the hospital in Israel’s south, according to the Houston Chronicle.
The page also featured an image of a watermelon, which has been used as a symbol of resistance by anti-Israel activists, who claim it is cited by pro-Palestinian protestors “against indiscriminate bombing.”
The school’s principal, along with its yearbook advisor, didn’t respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
Palestinian terrorists took roughly 250 civilians hostage on Oct. 7 and killed around 1,200 others. There are 129 captives believed to still be in Gaza, 35 of whom are dead, according to Israel.
During the attack, Hamas terrorists gang raped civilians and committed other acts of sexual violence, United Nations experts concluded.
