President Biden told White House reporters this week he's made a decision about the US response to a drone strike in Jordan that killed three American Service members including one New Jersey native from Willingboro and injured dozens more at the military Outpost the president declined to provide details on his decision but reiterated he's hoping to deter a broader conflict in the Middle East meanwhile it appears both Israel and Hamas remain far apart on a ceasefire deal in Gaza to three remaining hostages according to the Associated Press prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday rejected the militant group's two main demands that Israel withdraw forces from Gaza and release thousands of Palestinian prisoners as the war rages tensions remain high here at home controversy erupted this week over the tck public school district's decision to invite Care New Jersey the Council on American Islamic relations to speak with students Congressman Josh Gottheimer fired off a letter vehemently opposing the move claiming the organization supports Hamas and promotes anti-Semitism.

CAIR responded to the criticism by accusing gottheimer of making statements that have put Muslim Students In Harm's Way Melissa Rose Cooper reports I heard from many of my constituents in Teaneck who called and wrote me alarmed by the letter they had received from the superintendent saying that he was going to bring in CAIR uh into the school to meet with Educators to teach them how to teach the students about uh the conflict in the Middle East and of course um my sense was of of uh of of uh of how we must come together as a community and I clearly don't believe that care is the right organization to do that Congressman Josh Gottheimer calling out the Teaneck public school district for its decision to collaborate with the Council on American Islamic relations also known as care last week the congressman sent a letter to Teaneck Public School Superintendent Andre Spencer expressing his strong disagreement this is a uh group that I don't believe is in the spirit of what the school was seeking to achieve which is to uh teach that hate has no place in our state uh to bring people together and to educate teachers uh and students about the importance of standing up to any form of Terror the congressman's reaction is very defamatory it's very insulting and it's a distraction from the work that we need to do as a civil rights organization Dina Sayedahmed is the communications manager for CAIR's New Jersey chapter while she says details of the organization's collaboration with TeaneckPublic Schools can't be shared at this time Sayedahmed i maintains their supporting the students right to free speech what we're seeing now uh is very much reminiscent of what we've seen in the days and months immediately after 911 there's a rapid erosion of Muslim civil rights here in New Jersey uh and it's important that our elected officials including Congressman Gottheimer uh work actively to uphold and to protect Muslim civil rights as we see them eroding and as we see them being attacked this isn't the first time Gottheimer has taken issues with the district in November he criticized the walk out in support of Palestine Amar halak is one of the students who helped organize the event and we knew we would get backlash of course since it's like a very Zionist Community but we still did it anyway because we knew it was the right thing to do we expect the people who in whose trust we put Teaneck kids um will exercise better judgment and better care than the Judgment that they've been exercising in recent months yigal gross is a member of the Bergen County Jewish action committee he shares similar concerns with Congressman Gottheimer attempts to sort of apologize away and um disregard the concerns legitimate concerns by members of our community um about the Safety and Security of Jewish students in in Teaneck schools um and of the community safety generally um and the welcoming in of what we consider to be extreme um dangerous ideologies which are which which support and and promote terrorism uh against innocent civilians um and generally taking conflicts that have no place um on school ground a spokesperson for Teaneck public school said it has not yet partnered with Teaneck and issued a statement saying the only organizations Teaneck schools has partnered with are the New Jersey Division on civil rights and Facing History and ourselves we feel these groups will facilitate and promote a greater dialogue around differing insights and points of view Teanecks number one priority is to provide a safe and supportive environment for all stakeholders for NJ Spotlight news I'm Melissa Rose Cooper Melissa Rose Cooper [Music]