America’s second-largest teachers union has drafted a series of resolutions calling for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel and defending the anti-Israel protests that have rocked college campuses across the country.
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is affiliated with the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), which represents most teachers in New York City’s public schools. They will vote on the controversial proposal at a national convention that begins next Monday in Houston..
One of the resolutions calls for a ceasefire between the Jewish state and the terrorist organization Hamas and demands an end to U.S. military aid that is enabling the “violent land dispossession” of Palestinians.
“U.S. forces may not be used in a manner that would facilitate the dispossession of Palestinian lands, the violent dispossession of Palestinian communities, or the annexation of Occupied Palestinian Territory,” the resolution states.
A related and astonishing suggestion goes so far as to suggest that the US is “enabling genocide” in Gaza.
“[A]”So long as Israel continues to block real and meaningful aid to Gaza, AFT calls on the United States to halt military aid to Israel,” it said.
Another resolution called for protection for anti-Israel protesters, despite widespread violent demonstrations on university and school campuses since Hamas’ bloody Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state.
“[T]”AFT stands in solidarity with students, faculty, and other academics across the United States who have faced repressive and violent crackdowns on protests during the Gaza war,” the resolution reads.
“[T]”AFT demands that campus administrators end their campaign of intimidation, suspension and expulsion against peaceful protesters, and stop using law enforcement to disrupt and attack them.”
The proposal defends the demonstrations as “academic freedom” and “freedom of speech.”
A coalition of pro-Israel educators was quick to denounce the resolution as anti-Semitic.
“These resolutions not only alienate Jewish students, families and faculty, but they also create a climate of fear and hostility in our schools,” said Tova Plaut, education coordinator and founder of the New York City Federation of Public Schools.
“By targeting Zionism and falsely equating it with colonialism and racism, these resolutions promote a dangerous narrative that incites discrimination and hatred against Jewish people.”
Amy Lesserman, president of the Los Angeles-based Council of Israel Educators, also denounced the proposal as “blatant bigotry.”
“It is astonishing that AFT leadership has tolerated the passage of this and so many other blatantly bigoted resolutions, even though they are clearly motivated by values that are antithetical to AFT’s purposes,” she said.
Even the AFT’s notorious president, Randi Weingarten (a self-described “progressive Zionist” and Jewish husband who is a rabbi), opposed the resolution supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.
she Co-authored an op-ed column for USA Today in April Karen Marder, a pro-Israel New York teacher who was forced to hide in a locked office at Jamaica Hillside High School in November after an angry mob tried to break into her classroom.
Many students were outraged to learn that she had been photographed at a rally for the victims killed two days after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel.
In a statement Tuesday, Weingarten named just one resolution she would support, one that called for an “end to the war in Gaza and lasting peace, security, and self-determination for Israelis and Palestinians.”
Her silence on the anti-Israel resolution indicates that it is likely to be defeated.
“As we approach our annual meeting, I want to remind everyone that the AFT is a democratic organization where local council members can propose resolutions — and they do — lots of them. Proposals are just that — proposals unless they are considered and passed in a delegated, democratic general meeting,” Weingarten said. It said in a statement About X.
“I oppose anti-Semitism and hatred of any kind and support Resolution No. 30, which mirrors the Executive Council resolution passed unanimously in January,” she continued.
“Throughout this difficult time I have been clear: hatred of any kind is antithetical to the values we promote as a union and as school professionals. We are a movement driven by love, not fear.”
Still, pro-Israel educators slammed the resolution, saying it sought to prevent Israel from defending itself after it came under attack and declared war by Hamas.
Resolution 30 declares that “there is no military solution to this conflict” and accuses Israel’s “far-right” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “prolonging” the war.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu has an interest in prolonging the war in order to avoid intense public scrutiny of his own criminal indictment and his spectacular failure to mobilize Israeli citizens to protest,” the resolution reads.
“While Israel’s initial act of war was justified in self-defense against the criminal acts of October 7, the way in which the Netanyahu government conducted it – by condoning indiscriminate and disproportionate violence that resulted in massive civilian deaths – has made it unjust.”
A pro-Israel coalition of educators denounced the resolution as “offensive.”
“It is repulsive that a U.S.-based union should tell a sovereign nation how to defend itself and equate its democratically elected government with a foreign nation called Hamas, which the U.S. State Department has designated a terrorist organization,” the group said.
