Granville Boys High School has allowed Sheikh Wesam Charkawi to return to his role, despite his inflammatory defence of Sydney nurses who threatened to "kill" Israelis and the school’s long history of extremism.

Charkawi, who was initially ordered to work from home after refusing to remove his video, is now back in the classroom after students staged aggressive protests, chanting "Allahu Akbar" and waving Palestinian and Lebanese flags.

🚨#BREAKING: NSW Dept of Education PERMITS Sheikh Wesam Charkawi, a taxpayer-funded "student support officer," BACK to Granville High after his ban for publicly supporting nurses who threatened to kill Israeli patients

This follows teacher-led Jihadi protests outside the school https://t.co/I90IH6GYPz

— Avi Yemini (@OzraeliAvi) February 28, 2025

In his video, Charkawi dismissed the nurses’ threats as "never meant to be literal," a claim widely condemned as a blatant attempt to excuse dangerous rhetoric. The NSW Department of Education initially ordered him to remove the video, but after sustained student protests, caved to pressure and reinstated him.

The decision has sparked outrage among those calling for a crackdown on radicalisation in Australian schools. The school has a well-documented history of extremist ties, with former students linked to race hate attacks, violent crime, and even Islamic State.

CRY “ALLAHU AKBAR” LOUD ENOUGH, and weaklings will bend over for you.

A support officer has returned to a western Sydney school after being ordered to work from home after he posted a video in response to the Bankstown hospital nurses matter, in which he criticised “selective… pic.twitter.com/Lz2yu5EJUa

— Mark Rowley (@MarkWRowley) February 27, 2025

"The education department has sent a message that radicalised students can dictate school policy through mob rule," said one critic, who called for an urgent investigation into the school’s failure to combat extremism.

Despite concerns, Charkawi remains in his role, and the school refuses to acknowledge the deeper issue at play. Critics say this is yet another example of authorities surrendering to pressure instead of standing firm against dangerous ideology.

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The school’s notorious reputation stretches back years. In 2007 students were implicated in a "race hate video" and were reported to have stormed a nearby school with machetes and baseball bats. In 2011 the school was plunged into lockdown after a student was stabbed five times with a 15-year-old arrested.

In 2015, a former student, Abu Ahmad, was reported to have posed with Jihadi imagery, including one with graffiti reading "ISIS is coming." In the same year a police report indicated that Bilal Alameddine, then a teenager, attempted to travel to the Middle East to join ISIS. Though he denied these allegations at the time, he was charged in 2017 with firearm and drug offences by the NSW Joint Counter Terrorism team. In 2022 he was paroled from Goulburn's Supermax jail and in 2023 had fled the country.

In 2016, a student with family links to terrorism, posted pro-terrorist images on Facebook, posing in front of a war memorial making a one-finger Jihadi salute and other threatening gestures.

PETITION: Expose The Terror 'Doctor' and Nurse!

45,419 signatures

Goal: 55,000 signatures

Sign this petition to call on authorities to take immediate and decisive action against the Sydney hospital workers making shocking claims and for authorities to hold them accountable!

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