The Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) has been promoting the use of anti-Israel teaching materials that includes phrases such as “Zionist bullies” in workbooks for students.
MTA president Max Page was called to a hearing on Feb. 10 by the Massachusetts Commission on Combating Antisemitism regarding the materials, during which he consistently defended them despite the committee pointing out the blatant anti-Israel bias contained in the documents. A Parents Defending Education (PDE) dispatch first shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation provides the teaching materials promoted by MTA, which PDE called “antisemitic.”
Some of the materials provided to educators included Palestinian “activist” guides and a children’s book that says “a group of bullies called Zionists wanted our land so they stole it by force and hurt many people” and “children like me keep having their homes taken by Zionist bullies.” The documents also encourage children to protest and help “Free Palestine.”
During the hearing, committee members pointed to several social media posts by Page’s staff stating “Free Palestine” just days after Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Page defended his staff’s posts to committee members. The MTA president also refused to disclose who compiled the resources meant to teach students about the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel.
“The level of anti-Israel sentiment and downright antisemitism emanating from the MTA has been grotesque for a long time but at this point, they might as well be a mouthpiece for Hamas,” Erika Sanzi, director of outreach at PDE, told the DCNF. “They are silent about the atrocities of October 7th and in the next breath, accuse the Trump administration of committing a holocaust. This is a sick organization that should not be anywhere near other people’s children.”
When confronted by the fact that the materials used by instructors to teach students accuse Israel of “apartheid,” “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing,” Page attempted to skirt the committee’s questions. He additionally did not address the fact that the teaching materials contained no Jewish or Israeli perspectives.
A Massachusetts social studies teacher who attended the hearing alongside Page also took to defending the supplementary curriculum.
“History teaching is political, moral, personal and emotional,” she said. “We are misled if we think that we always have to teach both sides of a history.”
The teacher then proceeded to seemingly “compare the Trump administration to the Holocaust,” PDE explained in its dispatch.
“[E]ven though the Holocaust physically took place in Europe, it is a story that Americans have to reckon with too,” the teacher continued. “I think the same is true about what happened on October 7, what is happening in Gaza, and what is to come during this presidential administration.”
President Donald Trump has placed public schools under a microscope for perpetuating antisemitism after hundreds of violent protests overtook campuses nationwide. Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has already created the Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism which promises to “root out anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses.”
The teachers association has 117,000 members in 400 local associations, according to its website. MTA did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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