A controversy arosed on social networks following a performance given last weekend at a public school in Brussels where primary pupils, wearing keffiyehs, danced to a Palestinian song.
According to media reports, a video of the show at the Marie Popelin school in Evere had been shared and later deleted on social networks by Socialist MP Ridouane Chahid, who is a former acting mayor of the Brussels commune. It showed schoolchildren, wearing keffiyehs, dancing to the Palestinian song “My Blood is Palestinian.’’
The sequence was widely commented on social networks, with Internet users accusing the school, or at least the teachers responsible, of using the children for political ends or even proselytizing.
The president of the French-speaking liberal party MR, Georges-Louis Bouchez, accused the left of “flouting” the school neutrality. “That we wish to express our solidarity with the victims of war is entirely commendable,’’ he said on X, adding: ‘’“That the Socialist Party, should use children to take political positions whose implications they cannot understand is deeply problematic.’’
David Cordonnier, Evere’s alderman for French-language public education, refuted the accusations and asserted that the video was a short extract, taken out of context, which was part of a larger show on the theme of a “round-the-world tour.” ‘’Many other countries were represented, including Cuba, New Zealand, South Africa and Vietnam,’’ he said.
The French-speaking Minister of Education, Valérie Glatigny, announced that she was going to launch an “inspection mission” at the school to check whether or not the rules, particularly in terms of neutrality, whether political or religious, had been respected.