Striking teachers union’s links to pro-terror group
▶ THE TEACHERS union that brought Britain’s schools to a halt this week gave funding and support to a Palestinian teachers group whose leaders have met terror chiefs and who have praised murderers as “martyrs”, the JC can reveal.
The National Education Union (NEU), from which dozens of Jewish teachers reportedly resigned in 2019 over its stance on Israel, has been causing chaos with seven days of strike action in February and March.
It supports and provides “financial aid” to the General Union of Palestinian Teachers (GUPT) on the West Bank.
The GUPT’s logo includes a map of the area in whch Israel’s borders not represented. NEU officers have travelled to the region to visit GUPT representatives on a number of occasions.
GUPT General Secretary Saed Erziqat — who has spoken at the NEU’s annual conference — recently compared Israel to Nazi Germany, saying: “There are massacres that have happened to the Palestinian people that were worse than the Holocaust itself.”
He has also praised militant network the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which was designated as a terror group by the European Union and the US.
The Palestinian union chief has met the leaders of another Iranian-backed terror group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — General Command (PFLP-GC), which is outlawed by the UK and US. Last month, following an Israeli operation in Jenin that killed members of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade alongside those of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another terror group, Mr Erziqat wrote on social media that they should be honoured as “martyrs” and called on Palestinians to carry out “continuous escalation in every spot”.
The strong links between the British union and the Palestinian teachers organisation have been developed during visits from executive officers from NEU during trips to the West Bank.
The NEU membership and equalities
The leader of the Palestinian union has praised the alAqsa Martyrs
officer, Louise Regan, met Mr Erziqat in the Palestinian territories and was photographed with him on one of two recent “solidarity” trips. The first, last October, was part-funded by the union, the group claimed.
Ms Regan, a former president of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), was suspended as chairman of her constituency Labour party in 2020 after allowing a motion in support of exleader Jeremy Corbyn.
The man tipped to be the NEU’s next general secretary, Daniel Kebede, has also been on at least one NEU visit to the West Bank. He has said he is committed to “the Palestinian struggle” and has in the past reportedly made the call to “globalise the intifada”.
The cost of sending NEU members to the region was £2,000 per delegate, of which £1,000 was “covered by the union’s International Solidarity Fund”, according to union records.
Mr Erziqat spoke at a fringe meeting at the NEU conference in April 2019, during a discussion of “Palestine: Education under Occupation”.
Last year he was invited again, sharing a platform with Kevin Courtney, General Secretary NEU , at a meeting which was described as a chance to “hear about the challenges facing teachers and children living under Israeli occupation and apartheid — where education itself has become an everyday act of resistance”.
Another leading GUPT official, Anan
NEU official Kebede made the call to ‘globalise the intifada’
Dana, attended the NEU conference in 2020.
In December, GUPT General Secretary Saed Erziqat praised Nasser Abu Hamid, a leader of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, who died of lung cancer in an Israeli prison, where he had been serving multiple life sentences for orchestrating shootings and suicide attacks.
The Palestinian teacher’s union leader wrote: “The captive lion hero Nasser Abu Hamid joined the convoy of glory and pride, the list of martyrs for Palestine and was martyred this morning.”
Mr Erziqat added: “Victory for our people, freedom for our captives, Glory and eternity for our martyrs, and we in the GUPT announce today #strike in all Palestinian schools in victory for the martyr… Long live Palestine.”
A month earlier, Mr Erziqat revealed that on a visit to Syria, he and other members of the union had met Talal Naji, leader of the PFLP-GC.
Naji, who had lost an arm and an eye in a grenade explosion, leads the group which has carried out multiple deadly terror attacks against Israel. He recently praised Iran for making “a great contribution” to the development of Palestinian groups’ military capabilities.
The NEU says it is providing financial aid to the training of Palestinian women teachers in a consortium with the GUPT. Its annual conference in 2020 voted to “express our solidarity with the GUPT for its objectives for education and discuss with them ways to develop this solidarity”.
During a second trip, not funded by the NEU, in December last year, Ms Regan met representatives from two further groups: Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and Defense for Children International Palestine. Both have been outlawed as terror groups by Israel but not by the UK and other countries.
Following the visit, Ms Regan denounced the terrorist label placed on Addameer and Defense for Children International Palestine, arguing that the categorisation was “a political decision with no evidence or justification being presented”.
She wrote in an article: “I have visited Palestine many times and I am always in awe of the people, their ‘steadfastness’ and their resilience against the oppressive regime under which they live.
“The ongoing occupation, the human rights abuses they face on a daily basis limiting their ability to work, to access their own lands and family, to attend medical appointments or even go to school are all truly shocking and something that once you have seen you cannot unsee.”
She went on: “During all my visits I have witnessed apartheid in action
— from the restriction of Palestinians’ freedom of movement, the segregation and control of their daily lives to the dispossession of land and property.”
She concluded: “Let us all be the voice of the Palestinians, let us all speak out until we get justice and freedom for the Palestinian people.”
Conservative MP Craig Mackinlay said the revelations that the union funds members’ trips to the West Bank — and also Cuba, which likewise has a long history of human rights abuses — “shine a light” on the NEU’s “true intent”.
He said: “News that members’ union dues to the NEU are being used to finance expensive junkets to socialist idylls such as Cuba and Palestine does not surprise me. Corbynism and hardline left views are seemingly alive and well within the NEU, shining a light on the true intent behind the encouragement to strike.”
The NEU was formed in 2017 following the amalgamation of the NUT and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers. An NEU spokesman said: “The NEU has no political party affiliation and works with whatever government is in power on behalf of our members and for children’s education. Our delegations abroad are a matter of public record. NEU delegations to Palestine do not visit Gaza — the territory controlled by Hamas — but the West Bank, where they visit schools and meet teachers and union reps.” When asked about its links to the GUPT and the organistion’s backing for terrorists, the NEU did not comment.