'Brainwashing children' – Legal group slams UK teachers’ union over anti-Israel school materials

The legal charity, UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), has written to the UK’s Education Ministry after the country’s largest teachers’ union announced plans to provide anti-Israel propaganda as part of the school curriculum.

The National Education Union (NEU) has voted to develop materials for its half a million members to use, including content for a workshop next month to train teachers how to “advocate for Palestine in our schools,” the Daily Telegraph reported.

The vote happened at NEU’s annual conference, following a motion which reportedly also accused Israel of ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid.’

The group that the NEU invited to provide the training and materials, Makan, said its workshops are designed to provide “foundational knowledge on key issues like the Nakba, settler colonialism, imperialism, and apartheid.” 

UKLFI says it has called on the government’s minister for Education, Members of Parliament and local authorities to “remind teachers of their legal obligations regarding political impartiality,” and to “consider what additional steps can be taken to prevent teachers from pursuing political agendas at school.”

“We hope that head teachers and local authorities will be aware of the NEU’s campaign to undermine government policy on political impartiality, and will take steps to ensure that the teachers in their schools will not be introducing any political propaganda into schools,” said UKLFI Director Caroline Turner.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Turner also said, “The NEU appears to be defying government guidelines on political impartiality in schools, by persuading teachers to brainwash children into supporting the Palestinian cause.”

“This is extremely concerning and we hope that the local authorities and head teachers will act to ensure this does not happen,” she added.

However, the NEU is no stranger to political action for the Palestinian cause.

“The hardline head of the union, Daniel Kebede, is a militant anti-Israel activist who has attended numerous rallies and called on gathered crowds to ‘globalize the intifada,’” Joanna Williams wrote in the Telegraph.

One of the union’s executive members, Louise Regan, is also a director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and a London teacher, Mat Milovanovic, set to become an executive member, is reportedly also very active in the pro-Palestinian movement.

In addition to the planned workshop, the NEU encouraged teachers to mark ‘Nakba Day’ last week, the Arabic word meaning “catastrophe,” used by many Palestinians to describe the re-establishment of the State of Israel.

Evidence presented at the recent international conference in London on Contemporary Antisemitism revealed that anti-Israel narratives are often accompanied by antisemitic views, and that false allegations of colonialism or apartheid about Jews are simply new ways to promote racism.

Peter Block, a Jewish NEU member, expressed his fears to the Daily Mail.

“I worry that these materials will be one-sided and that they will fuel antisemitism in schools,” said the retired teacher.

“I’m not saying Israel is a paragon but there needs to be some balance. The people advocating this are jumping on the anti-Zionism bandwagon and there’s a fair bit of virtue-signaling going on.”

“I think the NEU is a hostile environment for Jewish members,” he added.