A middle school teacher in Maryland has been placed on leave for using a controversial pro-Palestine email signature.
Hajur El-Haggan spoke with CNN’s Victor Blackwell after the incident, explaining that said she included the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” in her work email signature for advocacy reasons.
El-Haggan said she included it to stand up for injustice and freedom as a way of showing she believes “in freedom and justice and, just, rights for all people.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) calls the slogan antisemitic and says it is commonly featured in anti-Israel campaigns.
“This rallying cry has long been used by anti-Irsael voices, including supporters of terrorist operations such as Hamas and the PFLP, which seek Israel’s destruction through violent means,” the ADL said online.
Blackwell asked El-Haggan what her intention was in including the message if she knew it was antisemitic and called for the erasure of Jews.
“I think just like any political slogan or statement, it can have some controversy around it,” she said in response. “But I think what’s important is to go to its intended meaning and the intended meaning is the freedom and justice for the Palestinians and just for oppressed people in general.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) filed a discrimination complaint on behalf of El-Haggan, CNN previously reported.
According to the Montgomery County School District, they ask employees to abstain from including political statements in their email signatures. Haggan’s lawyer, Zanah Ghalawanji, said the issue they have with the school’s actions is because they are not applying the same standards to everyone.
“We had other teachers who were including political slogans in their email signatures at school, from Black Lives Matter to slogans revolving around the LGBTQ movement and Hajur was the only one who was disciplined for her email signature,” she said.
Ghalawanji added that “we’re seeing a pattern right now,” where Arab and Muslim employees are disciplined at work over policies that are being disproportionately applied to them “whereas other employees are not.”
“This is a way to punish Arab and Muslim employees who are speaking out for their freedom and for their dignity and so that’s why we filed this complaint,” she said.
El-Haggan offered to remove the phrase from her signature if it meant she could start teaching again but the school said she would be on leave while it investigates.
The Hill has reached out to the school district for comment.