A Skokie high school board member’s decision to wear a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf when she appeared on the dais at the Niles West High School graduation ceremony has led to both angry feedback from Jewish residents and a June 9 rally in the board member’s defense.
Jill Manrique, who was elected to the Niles Township High School District 219 Board of Education in 2019, wore the keffiyeh on May 22 to the Niles West High School commencement. She said she knew the scarf, which has become a symbol of the Palestinian cause, would be controversial in Skokie.
“I was terrified to put it (the keffiyeh) on,” Manrique said, referring to commencement day. “I didn’t feel safe.”
But she said she wore the keffiyeh to show support for Palestinian students, who she said are marginalized and oppressed at Niles West High School and in the larger community. In the Middle East, keffiyehs are often worn over the head as a type of headscarf; Manrique wore hers draped around the neck.
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The town has a historically strong Jewish population, many synagogues and the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center; in recent years, the area has seen an influx of Arabic and Muslim residents. Some students said last Thursday at the rally in defense of Manrique that they have been harassed for expressing Palestinian culture at Niles West High School.
Manrique said she received hate email and was the victim of hate speech on social media.
“It was violent and the intentions were violent,” said Manrique, who said she is Jewish and also describes herself on her Twitter handle as a proud Chicana. “It wasn’t pleasant. It’s not OK.”
The U.S. Palestinian Community Network—Chicago sent out a media release last week, noting that an independent blog on the Times of Israel website blamed Manrique for stirring anti-Jewish sentiment.
Rabbi Rachel Marks of Temple Beth Israel in Skokie said she believes it may have been a mistake for Manrique to wear the keffiyeh at the graduation ceremony.
“It (the keffiyeh) might be cultural also, but I think she knew it was a political statement…” said Marx.
“I think the core issue here is making a political statement during an event that’s supposed to be about the graduating seniors and their accomplishments and this life transition,” she added. “I think this detracts the attention from the seniors who should be celebrated.”
But Manrique said that In Niles Township it is difficult for students to even say the word ‘Palestine.'”
“When I see an entire culture unable to come to school, of all places, as their full authentic selves without being targets, that’s a problem for me,” she said.
During the rally supporting Manrique’s actions and during the June 9 District 219 Board of Education meeting, many speakers said the voices of Palestinian students in the high school and community have been suppressed.
A 2022 Niles West graduate, who gave her name only as Yasmine because she said she feared retaliation, said the school’s Middle Eastern club faced censorship and discrimination when trying to celebrate Palestinian culture and raise awareness of injustice against Palestinians in the Palestinian territories.
She told the board she was harassed by a Niles West parent after a day of fundraising for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. When she reported the harassment, she said she felt the school administration victim-blamed her.
“I was shown time and time again I was not safe as a Palestinian and did not have the freedom to express my culture like the rest of my peers,” she said. “I’ve made it clear to [the school administration] that Arab students feel silenced, underrepresented and unsafe at Niles West, but nothing has changed.”
District 219 Director of Community Relations & Strategic Partnerships April Stallworth was not available for comment, according to Melissa Gilpin, executive assistant to the superintendent, but she sent a district statement responding to Palestinian students’ comments during the board meeting.
The statement said the district encourages students to celebrate and learn about various cultures and added that cultural clubs were a large part of school life.
“In a school as diverse as ours, we want students to seek understanding by attending the many events and being amongst their peers,” it said.
It also said that the district aims to balance the rights of all students to attend school in a safe and respectful environment, but that is complicated by “global issues that impact our students.”
Manrique said Palestinian community members, students and staff must be given the ability to freely express their “full selves” as Palestinians without coming under “attack or being accused of being anti Semitic.”
Marks, referring to Manrique’s decision to wear the keffiyeh at commencement, noted the graduating seniors have been through a lot these past two years.
“I think that the day should have been about the kids and about those seniors who graduated,” Marx said. “I think given the time that we’re in and that they had more than two years of their high school experience interrupted by COVID and they had countless disappointments during high school because of the pandemic, I think it’s unfortunate that she (Manrique) chose that venue that should have been about the kids to make any kind of political statement.”
