Sunday 18/May/2025 – 01:42 PM
The announcement of the National Union of Education in Britain NEU about organizing a workshop next month, to train teachers on: How to defend Palestine in our schools, a wave of controversy in political and educational circles, amid charges of politicizing classrooms and promoting biased political views, according to the British newspaper Telegraph.
The workshop, which is scheduled to be held in the city of Liverpool on June 14, is organized by the Foundation, and it is an educational authority known for its direction towards adopting educational curricula that highlight the history of the Palestinian struggle, and aims to strengthen the Palestinian Liberation Movement, according to its official website.
The workshop seeks to provide cognitive content on issues such as the Nakba, settlement colonialism, and racist separation, which some critics considered an attempt to transfer a specific political narrative into British schools.
The Federation encouraged its members of the teachers to organize a special working day in their schools on Thursday, with the aim of highlighting the Palestinian struggle for freedom.
Strong criticism from pro -Israel organizations
However, these steps have sparked sharp criticism from pro -Israel organizations, most notably the British Lawyers Association for Israel UKLFI, which called on the Ministry of Education and Local Councils to intervene to stop what it described as spreading political propaganda in support of Palestine and hostile to Israel in schools.
“It seems that the National Education Union is challenging government guidelines on political neutrality in schools, by persuading teachers to wash the brains of children to support the Palestinian issue,” said Caroline Turner, director of UKLFI. This is very concerned.
The association added that such initiatives may be a violation of laws that prohibit the promotion of party political views in educational institutions, and stresses the need to provide a balance in presenting political issues to students.
Freedom of academic expression
On the other hand, the National Union for Education rejected these accusations, stressing that the workshop comes within the framework of freedom of academic expression, and that the participating teachers are committed to professional standards that impose the presentation of political issues in a balanced and impartial way.
