Pressure On Barrington (RI) School Committee Member Amanda Basse To Resign After Social Media Posts Bashing Israel And Suggesting Jews “Weaponized Their Religion”
Public comments at a recent School Committee Meeting focused on Basse’s social media posts bashing Israel and suggesting that Jews have “weaponized their religion.” The anti-Zionist community from around the state came out to support her, raising questions as to her connections.
Embattled Barrington (RI) School and DEI committee member Amanda Basse came under pressure to resign at the most recent school committee meeting, where members of the public weighed in on her social media posts attacking Israel.
As we reported on January 7th, Basse set off a firestorm of online criticism after an Instagram account that appeared to be hers shared posts crudely bashing Israel, implying Jews “weaponized their religion” for genocide.
Barrington, RI – Amanda Basse serves on the DEI subcommittee for Barrington Schools.
She falsely claims:
* Jesus was Palestinian
* Jews weaponize their religion to ethnically cleanse Palestinians
* Israel murders Palestinians with the $3.8 billion in U.S. aid they receive… pic.twitter.com/RXHMFY8jxl— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) December 22, 2023
The controversy over Basse’s posts included calls for action to the School Committee to defend the town’s Jewish students.
Those calls come to life in a newly released video recording of the School Committee’s January 4th meeting, where Basse faced her critics in person. The video covers an approximately 45-minute public comment period during which people voiced their views—views that ranged from support for her courage to outrage over her blatant hostility toward Israel in the wake of the Hamas massacre.
[Click Image To View Video][Opens in new window]
“There’s been a real mis-step here,” said Barrington parent Jonathan Orent. [9:35][*] “It is not helpful to have members of the school committee posting things … that go counter to the diversity, equity, inclusion policy”:
This is an inflection point for the school committee and you all have a choice on whether or not you want to divide this community. … The school committee needs to bring in people who understand the issues … so that all children in this community feel like they are welcome and included and not isolated by statements from members of the school committee.[12:12]
He later confronted Basse directly:
You are a member of the school committee. You are member of the DEI task force. There should be a sensitivity; there should be a recognition of that. … The number one and only goal is the kids in this community and bringing this community together. [26:41]
Lisa Davis, a former parent and member of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, said Basse’s posts “perpetuate antisemitic tropes and create a toxic situation that jeopardizes Jews.” Another said they make Jewish students feel “unsafe.” [30:30]
Not everyone attacked Basse, however. It appears that word went out in the Rhode Island anti-Zionist community for people, most of whom were not from Barrington, to show up in person or to call in for public comment to support Basse. This raises a question as to how active Basse has been in anti-Israel activism in the state.
Basse had many supporters, several of whom made anti-Zionism-is-not-antisemitism arguments in her defense. One speaker from the Jewish Voice for Peace said “standing up for the humanity, the dignity, the liberty and the rights of any person, including Palestinians” was not antisemitic. [21:17] A self-professed “anti-Zionist Jew,” praised Basse for “helping to lift the voices of Palestinians.” [24:19] Still another speaker cautioned against using “antisemitism as a tool to silence other people.” [48:01]
But longtime Barrington resident Jack Siegel believes those who came to support Basse would be ashamed if they knew what she had posted from her Instagram account, which is now private. [37:23] Siegel says he knows Basse because he serves on the district’s Special Education Advisory Committee, to which Basse is a liason. He was disgusted by her posts.
For the sake of the town’s reputation, Siegel called on Basse to resign: “I think that it brings shame upon the district,” he said. “The school board should not be associated with this person. … I think the best thing for Ms. Basse to do would be to go away.” [40:47]
Basse has not responded to an email seeking comment.
The Barrington Times reached out to Basse for her comments following the meeting. She wrote: “I appreciated hearing from a wide range of people with diverse views and perspectives. I look forward to continuing to work with the members of the DEI committee and SEAC in the support of all students.”
We will continue to follow this story.
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Muslim supremacists, terrorists and Islamofascists have been “weaponizing” the intrinsically and immutably supremacist, totalitarian, belligerent, hate-filled and pathology-laden ideology of “Submission” against Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and other non-Muslims, for over 1,400 years — it’s contemptible how the vile and evil Dhimmi-crats can’t bring themselves to acknowledge that salient reality and truth.
Instead, Dhimmi-crats such as this twit in Rhode Island believe that their wretched “social justice” ideology demands that they persecute and vilify Jews, one of the world’s smallest and most persecuted minorities.
As I posted to the original story, Islam is a weapon.
One bich down, so many to go, the spelling was intentional.
“…because bich is Latin for generosi-teee…”
She can say anything she wants. Vote her out next time if you don’t like her.
Her curriculum choices are likely to be crap, that’s true.
Almost. She is in a position of responsibility and her words actually do incite leftist racists in to targeting Jews.
As adults we’re supposedly back in charge she has a responsibility to act appropriately at all times while in her position of responsibility, which incidentally doesn’t require her to be a rabid Jew hating racist inciting her rabid Jew hating racist friends.
Finding antisemitism whether it’s there or not is linked to the lower IQ adherents of the religion, a religion which relies on alienation in general.
That alienation is a creative resource at the smart end of the Bell curve, hence Jewish scholarship all over the place.
So the religion is weaponized in that sense. (“You can’t put up Christmas decorations in the lobby because it’s offensive to Jews,” a major annual fight in company netnews in the 90s.)
DIsmissing it with outrage would be another example.
30 years ago is irrelevant, much like your post. Next your going to be blaming things happening in 1948 as justification for killing Jews today 🙄
You keep on harping on about Christmas decorations in the 1990’s being objected to as allegedly offensive to American Jews — I don’t recall ever seeing or hearing that.
Bell Labs, it was the highlight of the Christmas season every year.
But were the complainants actual Jews… or just goy Kevins and Karens of the type that love to show their superior sensitivity by forcing Xs onto the end of ethnicities and re-logoing sports teams?
Atheists weaponize their non-belief in similar fashion, and have for years. Look at what happened to Madeline Murray O’Hair et al. Her motivations were entirely based on wielding influence and power, which formed a belief system (or religion, if you will) of its own accord. That’s the underlying irony or atheism, particularly the more virulent and aggressive strains of it.
Law in this country recognizes atheism as a “religion.” It is certainly a “religious belief.” Atheism merely posits there is no god. That is a religious belief, every bit as much as a belief in god’s existence is a religious belief. Good luck trying to get atheists to agree on anything past that. Having no god does not preclude, for instance, an afterlife. People who believe in a god think a god is required for an afterlife, because that’s what they’ve been taught. But atheism as a religious belief isn’t bound by the religious beliefs of others. Indeed, no religious belief is bound by the religious beliefs of others.
Systems of religious belief have historically been about control and oppression, and almost never is “control” of some form absent from any organized system of religious belief. (Which is why many avowed believers of conventional religious thought eschew organized forms of their beliefs.) The atheists are now more organized than ever. Why would you expect them not to attempt to exercise political power, as has every organized religion on the planet?
She stands by her despicable statements and won’t resign. In fact, she is proud of her courageous solidarity with rapists and terrorists.