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'The keffiyeh should not be worn at school'
Sydney high school teacher speaks out
Alex McKinnon
January 29, 2025
Wasim El-Haj has worked as a teacher for almost 15 years, including more than six years in his current role as a careers adviser at a public high school in Sydney. For nearly five years he volunteered as the convenor of the Selective Careers Advisers Network, a statewide body of careers advisers at academically selective schools. In November 2024, the Careers Advisers Association of NSW & ACT named Wasim their Careers Adviser of the Year.
In January 2024, Wasim began wearing his keffiyeh to work.
"My father was born in Haifa,” he says. “The keffiyeh helped me feel some comfort in terms of my own cultural connection as I carried on with my day. I felt a need to maintain a connection to my culture.”
Wasim wore his keffiyeh for four months without incident.
"People were indifferent,” he says. “Occasionally I would get a comment from a student or a staff member along the lines of 'I like your scarf, it looks pretty', but that's all.”
In 2023, the school had asked Wasim to wear his keffiyeh to one of the school’s days celebrating multiculturalism.
“I was told to ‘wear that scarf thing you guys wear’. That was how they put it.”
On May 15 2024, Wasim was called into his supervisor's office and told he could no longer wear his keffiyeh at work, and that he would face disciplinary action unless he complied.
In a follow-up email, Wasim's supervisor quoted a directive they had received in writing from the Department of Education instructing that "the staff member in question should be given clear advice, from you, that this item of clothing should not be worn at school, nor in the performance of any duties in connection with his employment.
"This advice should be complied with immediately."
Later that day, Wasim received an email from an adjoining high school, where he regularly walked to on Fridays to pray.
"They told me they've been informed I must bring my drivers licence to pray from now on," he says. "Later they told me they needed to photocopy it. I had been praying there on Fridays with students for six years. This was later deemed to be a 'coincidence' in timing."
That evening, after Wasim had closed his office and gone home, a colleague told Wasim they had found the door to Wasim's office open with the lights on.
"I still don't know who was in there," he says.
Wasim filed a report with SafeWork NSW alleging that the school and the Department had engaged in racial discrimination against him. He also filed a complaint with his union, the NSW Teachers Federation. He continues to wear his keffiyeh, for which he says he has faced continuing discrimination and harassment.
One of the things that has stuck with Wasim throughout his experience is that the date he was first told to remove his keffiyeh – May 15 – is the anniversary of the Nakba. It was also the anniversary of two other tragedies of personal significance to Wasim.
‘All symbols of Palestine are considered symbols of conflict’
On June 26 Wasim met with Department of Education deputy secretary Deb Summerhayes to officially file a complaint with the Department.
In an email to Wasim after their meeting, Summerhayes reiterated that "the keffiyeh should not be worn at school, nor in the performance of any duties in connection with your employment".
Wasim also says that the Department has repeatedly tried to quietly shelve the issue, including by offering to transfer him to a different school and trying to "force" him to take leave.
Wasim's matter now sits with Department secretary Murat Dizdar, who promised Wasim a response by the end of January. So far, none has been forthcoming.
"As this process has continued, the Department’s story has changed multiple times,” Wasim says. “At first I was told there was no complaint. Then I was told there was a complaint from a parent who wanted to go to the media and take legal action against the Department. Then I was told there was a complaint from a parent that I would need to respond to. Then I was told, again, that there were no complaints — that instead there were anonymous 'concerns', six of them. Then I was told these were in fact complaints, and that the Department knew the identity of the complainants.
“To this day I don't know if there has ever been a complaint. I've never been given one to respond to.”
Wasim contacted his local state MP, multiculturalism minister Steve Kamper, who refused Wasim's request for a meeting. Writing to Kamper, Wasim recounted how his supervisor had told him the keffiyeh ban was justified as "all symbols of Palestine are considered symbols of conflict".
Wasim also recounted a meeting with a senior Department of Education official in which they said they "would also ask Jewish teachers to conceal symbols of them being Jewish". When Wasim said that such a stance was "highly inappropriate and antisemitic," they responded: "That's your opinion."
After months of requests, in October 2024 Kamper referred Wasim's complaint to state work health and safety minister Sophie Cotsis. In a response to Kamper's referral dated December 17 2024, deputy premier and education minister Prue Car quoted the Department's stance that "were consistent with department policy and procedure which aim to promote community cohesion, neutrality and the maintenance of mutual respect in schools".
‘What will they do to kids who are vulnerable?’
On Monday, Wasim publicly released a video in which he recounted his experience. He called on students who have experienced anti-Palestinian discrimination to tell their parents, and for their parents to make complaints with the NSW Department of Education, the Australian Human Rights Commission and Anti-Discrimination NSW.
"To the teachers of the department, I call upon you to be courageous,” Wasim says in the video. “This is a time to be brave and moral in your conduct. We always teach children about respect and being honest. Children should be allowed to come to school, be safe, and not be targeted for their ethnic or racial background. If you are given such instructions, challenge them."
Despite being concerned about what speaking out may mean for his career, Wasim says his main concern is the “wellbeing of the kids in NSW public education, especially those who are more vulnerable, who may be subjected to this sort of treatment with lasting effect”.
"School term's about to resume and I don't know what kids are walking into,” Wasim says. “We know Australian Palestinian students have been targeted in high schools, and even primary schools — we saw the incidents at Condell Park High late last year. Many of them are unreported because their families are not willing to come out publicly. I think it's important for the safety of these children that it's known that this is what's happening under the NSW Department of Education, and that parents know about it so they can be proactive about supporting their kids.
"The risk of harm is there. It's documented. It's unconscionable that the Department is doing this under the guise of what they're saying is 'neutrality'. It's not 'neutral' to discriminate against people in any way. If they're willing to do this to a teacher who's a well-established member of staff and is vocal, what will they do to kids who are vulnerable? That's my concern."
If you’ve got anything to spare, please consider giving some money to this fundraiser I’m running for Noor Hammad, a young mum in Gaza, and her baby daughter Hoor. Any money raised will be sent to Noor's brother Abdallah Abdalrahim, who lives in Sweden and can send her money directly.
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