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After Mass. Teachers Assoc. labels Israel’s war in Gaza ‘genocidal,’ one local union pushes back

The Newton Teachers Association accused the Massachusetts Teachers Association of "antisemitic dog-whistling."

By Ross Cristantiello

December 15, 2023

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After the Massachusetts Teachers Association approved a motion calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, at least one local teachers union is voicing its displeasure with the motion’s wording. 

On Dec. 9, the MTA’s Board of Directors approved a motion to “join in solidarity” with other labor unions across America such as the United Automobile Workers in calling for a ceasefire in the war between Hamas and Israel. MTA Leadership resolved to communicate with the National Education Association about pressuring President Biden to stop aiding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his war efforts. 

“The MTA President and Vice President will urge the president of the NEA to pressure President Biden to stop funding and sending weapons in support of the Netanyahu government’s genocidal war on the Palestinian people in Gaza,” the motion read. 

Three days later, the Newton Teachers Association released a statement in response. 

“The NTA unequivocally dissociates itself from this statement, and in particular from its antisemitic dog-whistling,” NTA President Mike Zilles said in the statement, referring to the MTA’s decision to describe Israel’s actions as “genocidal.” 

Zilles acknowledged that the situation in Israel and Gaza is “tragic and incredibly complicated,” and that the MTA motion does capture the impact of the tragedy on innocent Palestinians in Gaza. 

“But the [MTA] statement fails completely to hold in mind the atrocities against Israelis on October 7, the complexity of the situation, and the trauma, pain, and fallout the Israeli, American, and international Jewish communities are experiencing,” Zilles said in the NTA statement. 

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston also responded to the MTA resolution on Dec. 12. The group said that any ceasefire resolution must also explicitly condemn the Hamas terrorist attack, and to not do so is irresponsible. 

“Any such resolution that does not demand a return of the hostages or call for removal of Hamas as a terrorist organization fails to address the reality of the war and further ensures violence without a path for peace. The MTA’s ceasefire resolution does not address any of these realities,” the JCRC said in its statement. 

In a brief statement also issued on Dec. 12, MTA President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy said the union “abhors the atrocities and terrible loss of life occurring in the war between Israel and Hamas, beginning with the horrific attack of Oct. 7.”

Page and McCarthy highlighted the MTA’s decision to join other labor unions in calling for a ceasefire and a return of the hostages taken on Oct. 7. They also made note of another motion approved on Dec. 9, one that resolves to create a curriculum for “learning about the history and current events in Israel and Occupied Palestine” that can be used by MTA members and their students. 

“These decisions stem from a belief that human suffering in the region must end and we must all work together to support a rapid move toward lasting solutions for peaceful co-existence in the region,” Page and McCarthy said. 

Hamas terrorists killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7, taking some 240 hostage. Israel’s subsequent air and ground assault on Gaza has killed more than 18,700 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

The NTA called on MTA leadership to retract its statement.

“Some will defend this motion, and deny that to accuse Israeli of engaging in a ‘genocidal war on the Palestinian people’ will provoke further antisemitism, or deny that the very use of the word ‘genocide’ to characterize the actions of a people who experienced the Holocaust is callous,” Zilles said. “However, the motion approved by the MTA Board will provoke further antisemitism, and it is callous.”

There are more than 400 local associations of teachers and chapters of the MTA across Massachusetts, and the union represents around 117,000 members. 

About a month ago, United Nations officials warned that Israel’s actions against Palestinians in the aftermath of the Hamas attacks “point to a genocide in the making.”

The term “genocide,” and its relation to the spiraling humanitarian crisis in Gaza and escalating violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, has been at the center of national conversations about the war in recent weeks. The leaders of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and M.I.T. came under fire during a congressional hearing last week for their responses to questions about disciplinary actions on students calling for the genocide of Jews.