UK teachers defy minister to back pro-Palestine motion

Teachers at the National Education Union conference have voted in favour of a motion calling for solidarity with Palestine and criticising the Israeli government as racist, and declared they would “take no lectures” from the education secretary.

Gillian Keegan said the motion was “wholly inappropriate” and would cause significant hurt to members of the Jewish community and thousands of Jewish children and parents in British schools.

Speakers at the NEU’s annual conference in Bournemouth on Thursday said there was nothing in the motion that attacked Jewish people or the Jewish religion, and it was carried with overwhelming support.

One speaker who opposed the motion was heckled after he likened the debate to “an anti-Zionist rally”, and he left the stage to a slow handclap.

Peter Block, a retired supply teacher from London, accused fellow delegates of uncritically jumping on the anti-Israel bandwagon and said it amounted it to “a glorification of Hamas”.

Block, who is Jewish, later told reporters: “They’re ignoring the whole picture. They are just taking a very blinkered, biased, one-sided view of everything and there is no opportunity to question, as you saw.”

The successful motion reaffirmed the NEU’s support for the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Stop the War coalition and called on the union to “publish and circulate educational resources that members can use to increase understanding of Palestine and Israel”.

An amendment that was also carried said attempts to clamp down on the right to protest and discuss the issue must be opposed.

The education secretary criticised the motion for ignoring the attacks committed by Hamas on Israel on 7 October. She said: “These motions reflect the NEU’s divisive ideology, which I don’t believe is representative of our teachers. Teachers have a duty to remain politically impartial and to ensure all sides of contested views are presented fairly and without bias or prejudice.”

Debs Gwynne of Halton in Cheshire, who proposed the motion, responded: “I’m very proud that this trade union has a long history of solidarity with Palestine. Last week Gillian Keegan said she was appalled that this motion was being discussed at conference because it’s inappropriate.”

She said the NEU was in turn appalled that the government had failed to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. “This union will take no lectures from Gillian Keegan and this racist government on what is and what is not appropriate. There’s nothing in this motion that attacks Jewish people or the Jewish religion,” Gwynne said.

Earlier, the head of the Palestinian mission to the UK, Dr Husam Zomlot, was given a lengthy standing ovation when he addressed delegates, many of whom were wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh and some of whom shouted “Free Palestine”. One person shouted the controversial slogan “from the river to the sea”.