[Make sure to read Joseph Klein’s contributions in Jamie Glazov’s new book: Barack Obama’s True Legacy: How He Transformed America.]
Members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) teaching and administrative staff celebrated Hamas’ massacre of 1400 Israelis and abductions on October 7th. UN Watch, a human rights organization that monitors the United Nations’ compliance with the principles of its own Charter, has just issued a blistering report exposing this scandalous endorsement of the actions of genocidal terrorists
For example, an UNRWA principal, Iman Hassan, praised the massacre for “restoring rights” and “redressing” Palestinian “grievances.”
An UNRWA teacher, Osama Ahmad, posted, “Allah is Great, Allah is Great, reality surpasses our wildest dreams” on the morning of October 7th as news of the genocidal attacks was spreading,
An UNRWA English teacher, Asmaa Rafiq Kuheil, posted, “7th, October, 2023! Sculpture the date!” To make sure that nobody missed the point, this Hamas supporter added a heart emoji to his post.
Another UNRWA English teacher, Mohammed A. Adwan, justified Hamas’ deliberate slaughter of the most Jews on a single day since the Holocaust as “resistance, regaining our rights and defending our land.” He propagated the blood libel that Israeli Jews are European colonizers who “occupy” the Palestinians’ homes and “displace our ancestors with massacres.” According to this false victimhood narrative, the Jewish people who live in Israel today have no historical connection to the land of Israel, the Jewish homeland where Jews have lived continuously for nearly 4000 years. This false narrative also castigates the Jewish inhabitants as white European “colonialists” – a racist accusation that ignores Israel’s actual demographics. A higher percentage of Israeli Jews today are categorized as Mizrahi (descendants of African and Middle Eastern Jews) than Ashkenazi (descendants of European Jews). Mizrahim, who were welcomed to reside in Israel and became Israeli citizens, were often fleeing the persecution of Jews in the Arab lands where their families had lived for centuries. Arab countries, on the other hand, have been far less hospitable to so-called Palestinian “refugees.”
Mohammed Al-Shaikh Ali, who has identified himself as an UNRWA employee, posted an ominous warning on October 10th to any Gazans thinking of escaping Gaza to Egypt: “Anyone who talks about taking refuge in Sinai is a traitor, and such people, along with anyone who tries to flee to the south, should be treated the way we ought to treat traitors.”
An UNRWA Gaza psychological school counselor, Niveen Afana, posted her prayer the day after Hamas’ savage attacks on Israeli civilians: “Allah, have mercy on our martyrs, heal our wounded, free our prisoners, strengthen our mujahideen (holy warriors), and grant them victory over the unbelievers.”
These examples and others that UN Watch’s report describes of UNRWA staff’s hate speech, blood libel against Jews, and support for the Hamas terrorists are sickening but not unexpected, given UNRWA’s anti-Semitic track record. But this evil phenomenon is spreading throughout the world, including across America.
Even in New York City, home to the largest Jewish community in the world outside of Israel, public school teachers are spouting the same hate speech and demonization of Israel as the pro-Hamas UNRWA teachers do.
A Manhattan pre-K teacher, Siriana Abboud, for example, “offers social-media guides on how to talk to 4-year-olds about ‘land theft, displacement, and ethnic cleansing,’” the New York Post reported. “She proselytized online that ‘teaching can never be radical or revolutionary, so long as you deny the ongoing and violent colonization of Palestine by Zionism’ and that early education can be a ‘tool for liberation.’” Abboud called Israel a “fascist ethnostate.”
New York’s Department of Education rewarded Ms. Abboud earlier this year with the Big Apple Award for 2023-2024 as a “liberation-inspired educator” who advocates “global consciousness.” The only “consciousness” she possesses is her hatred of Jews. The award entitles this anti-Semite to engage with the School Chancellor’s Teacher Advisory Council where she will have the opportunity to advocate for incorporating her blood libel against the Jewish State of Israel in citywide education policies and programs.
Ms. Abboud should not be anywhere near pre-K children with her poisonous ideas, let alone be in a position to influence any citywide education policies and programs. She should be required to forfeit her award and be kicked out of the School Chancellor’s Teacher Advisory Council.
A Gotham Tech High School teacher, Mohammad Jehad Ahmad, denounced New York City’s Department of Education for distributing to the city’s teachers some sources of information it recommended for use in classroom discussions on the Israel-Hamas war. Ahmad claimed the Department was distributing “Zionist propaganda” even though the Department of Education referenced some websites that are heavily biased against Israel.
Mr. Ahmad called New York City Chancellor David Banks a “white supremacist, imperialist scumbag” for daring to condemn Hamas’ October 7th terrorist attacks. Ahmad praised Hamas’ dastardly massacre of young people at a music peace festival and Hamas’ slaughter of families, young children, and even babies as “a successful military campaign.”
Ahmad also wrote on X: “So-called ‘Israel’ is a settler colony that was invented and only continues to exist through terrorism, dispossession, ethnic cleansing, and ongoing incremental genocide.” And he displayed a pro-Hamas paraglider photo online.
“How can Jews feel safe in Mohammad’s classroom?” Justin Spiro, a New York City school social worker, asked. They can’t. This pro-Hamas Jew hater does not belong anywhere near a classroom, but he is counting on his teachers’ union to protect him.
New York City school teachers, staff, and students walked out of the city’s schools to participate in a pro-Palestinian rally on November 9th, in concert with a nationwide “Shut it down for Palestine” protest. The Palestinian Youth Movement, the National Students for Justice in Palestine, the ANSWER Coalition, the People’s Forum, and the International Peoples’ Assembly were the organizers of the nationwide walkouts. Their stated purpose was to “keep building momentum and increase the pressure with more marches, walk-outs, sit-ins, and other forms of direct action directed at the political offices, businesses, and workplaces that fund, invest, and collaborate with Israeli genocide and occupation.”
New York City public school teachers participating in the walkout ignored Chancellor David Banks’ warning that “When speech and action — even on one’s personal time — undermines the mission or core functions of NYCPS [New York City Public Schools], we will review and take appropriate action on a case-by-case basis.” He made it clear in his e-mail to teachers and staff that even out-of-school political activity can violate city rules if it “disrupts … the school environment.”
In this case, New York City teachers walked out of school during their working hours, along with students and staff, to incite hate against Israel with their scurrilous accusation that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. By their actions, they have contributed to creating a more hostile “school environment” for Jewish students who are pro-Israel. The teachers especially deserve punishment for shirking their educational responsibilities to spread hate.
In Massachusetts, a school superintendent sent an e-mail just days after the Hamas massacre to teachers in her district directing them to a site that states: “Contrary to the standard mythology, especially in Israel, Israeli terrorism has been significantly worse than that of the Palestinians.”
On the Left Coast, the Oakland Education Association responded to the October 7th terrorist attack and aftermath by condemning Israel. This union accused Israel of maintaining a “75-year-long illegal military occupation of Palestine” and espousing “genocidal rhetoric and policies against the people of Palestine.”
The Oakland Education Association recommended to its members that they should use the “Teach Palestine” website as a resource. This website points to several examples of lessons for teachers to use in brainwashing their students with pro-Palestinian propaganda.
In one example, a third-grade teacher describes how she coaches her students to believe the false narrative that Israel was created as “a European colony” resulting in the forcible removal of “750,000 Palestinians from their homes and lands.” This teacher indoctrinates her students to view the Palestinians’ experience as equivalent to the Native Americans’ loss of land in the United States.
The third-grade teacher says not a word to her students about the continuous presence of Jews in their historic homeland for nearly 4000 years because such a fact would contradict her colonization fabrication. She skips over the fact that the Arabs rejected the opportunity for the Palestinians to have an independent state of their own in 1948, as well as the Palestinian leadership’s rejection of Israel’s generous land for peace offers several times since. She omits any mention of Hamas’ declared mission to destroy Israel altogether and kill as many Jews as possible.
The pro-Hamas teachers are stuck in their own web of lies and vicious slurs with their attempts to rationalize, even celebrate, Hamas’ savagery. They are complicit in egging on the Palestinian terrorists to conduct more vicious attacks against Israeli civilian women, children, infants, and the elderly in what a Hamas media adviser said will hopefully become a “permanent” state of war.