An ABC affiliate in Sacramento, KXTV, had Basim Elkarra of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on to defend school board bond measures J&K. Speaking in his capacity as a Twin Rivers school board member, Elkarra said the $270 million is necessary to repair district schools.
But opponents to the bond measures such as Twin Rivers School Board Clerk Christine Jefferson point out that the public is already paying for four previous bonds, in which the money that had been raised went into somebody’s pocket and home owners were stuck with the bill.
The voters will ultimately decide on the merits of measures J&K. But longtime CAIR watchers may be surprised to learn that CAIR’s Sacramento Executive Director is on the board of trustees overseeing a school board’s money.
Basim Elkarra is also on the board overseeing the trust fund for the children of Stephon Clark, who was shot by police after he was brandishing a cell phone like a gun.
It is not clear what qualifications Basim Elkarra has that gets him these trustee positions. Also, there is no evidence of him doing anything wrong with the money he is responsible for overseeing.
However, there is evidence of a need for someone to be overseeing Basim Elkarra.
This is because he works for CAIR, a one-time “working organization” (see page 6) of the Palestine Committee, which was broken up for misuse of charitable funds. According to former CAIR Chapter Development Director Lori Soraya, the current Executive Director of CAIR used grants intended to develop chapters of CAIR to buy himself a new SUV (see page 26).
The attendees of the so-called 1993 Philadelphia Meeting, a summit meeting of senior Hamas leaders in this country, conceived of the idea for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. A transcript of the meeting, which was secretly recorded by the FBI, shows the participants planning for a new organization that would have “media twinkle,” and would be used to “educate children.” In fact, the term “children” is used over 30 times in the transcript.
This is one of the reasons why CAIR should not be allowed around children. It is likely that Basim Elkarra will use his position to influence day-to-day operations at the district’s schools.
Basim Elkarra has some unethical incidents in his past.
When Barbara Boxer rescinded an award to CAIR-Sacramento after learning about Elkarra’s anti-Israel statements, he claimed that she was exposing him to death threats. CNN reported Boxer as saying the FBI had investigated the threats and found them not to be credible.
Basim Elkarra was up to his eyebrows in the Dying Child affair. As a father was about to disconnect the life support from his unconscious child, he was contacted by Basim Elkarra, who convinced him to allow his son to be used as a prop in order to bring the mother to the U.S.
CAIR saturated the media with this story morning, noon, and night over a period of two weeks, in order to circumvent immigration laws. Even when the group succeeded in bringing the mother over from Yemen to America, Elkarra’s crew was totally ungrateful, saying things such as “Let’s be clear, issuance of this wavier was not an act of kindness,” and “This wavier is a sham.”
Whatever the qualifications are for being on a school board of trustees, one would hope that belonging to a group with documented ties to terror groups (see page 15), and which engages in media manipulation, regularly places people in danger, triggered a terror incident in Texas, sexually harasses women at work, exploits children, and conducts financial mismanagement would at least raise an eyebrow.
“Bond measures J, K create opposing views within Twin Rivers Unified school board,” by Jay Kim, ABC 10, October 27, 2022:
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — With election day less than two weeks away, voters in the Twin Rivers Unified School District (TRUSD) are being asked to weigh in on bond measures J and K.
Measure J calls for a $120 million bond to address improvements for facilities used for middle and high school programs across the district. Measure K calls for an election within the District’s Elementary School Facilities Improvement District (SFID) for a $150 million bond to address elementary school facilities improvements in the SFID.
“The average school is 57 years old in Twin Rivers. We have some of the oldest schools in the region, so we’re talking about changing the rusted pipes, the lead pipes, removing asbestos and also upgrading all the security,” said Basim Elkarra, a TRUSD Board Trustee in favor of the two bond measures….
In total, the bonds would cost $270 million if passed. Funds to repay bonds come from a tax on all properties within the district.
“Per $100,000 assessed, it’s about $5 a month,” Elkarra said.
Elkarra represents Area Five, which covers North Natomas and Robla. He’s among those in favor of the two measures and says he worked to ensure the costs were as low as possible with low-income families in mind.
“The needs are probably over $400 million, and we came to a middle ground,” Elkarra said. “Every community has folks on fixed income, and we wanted to ensure something that will be equitable and fair.”…
“When it comes to bond funds, you’re not allowed to use it for any administration for salaries; this is going to go towards facilities,” said Elkarra. “The criticisms of our previous bonds, this is before Twin Rivers was even unified. This time, we got it right. It’s already built in and this is going into phase one. We will have a high school in Natomas.”…
“This is a must. I mean, we have to do this as a community. We have to do this as a district to really upgrade these very aging schools,” said Elkarra….
