As Jewish MP is barred from a school, how keffiyeh-clad union zealots are infecting Britain’s classrooms with anti-Semitic poison

The lunch bell rang at a school in East London and students and teachers alike reached for their bags. But instead of grabbing their lunch boxes, they pulled out their Palestinian flags and donned keffiyehs before running towards the exit.

A Jewish teacher watched in horror: ‘It was like a zombie movie.’

It was just weeks after Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 and was the first of ‘days of solidarity’ with the Palestinians led by Britain’s largest education union.

While the issue of Palestine and the demonization of Israel has been on the agenda of the National Education Union (YDB), which has half a million members, for a long time, it has become an obsession in 2023.

The teacher, who wishes to remain anonymous, says: ‘While children don’t have to leave school for lunch, you can’t stop them. The doors were locked, but they were following the staff at the exits. ‘They opened the fire doors and escaped wherever they could.’

The crowd was heading to a town hall rally where Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman was speaking. Young children joined genocide chants ‘From River to Sea’ and called for ‘the globalization of the intifada’ alongside chants from their teachers.

And they weren’t alone. Educators across the country led students to protests like the pro-Palestinian Pied Pipers, with shouts calling for a ceasefire and a squealing tone of voice: ‘Israel is a terrorist state.’

More than two years later, the madness hasn’t stopped. Just yesterday, the union’s London Headquarters hosted the ‘Sumud Festival for Palestine’, which included ‘a day full of political and cultural talks’.

Hundreds of thousands of pro-Palestinian activists took part in the 32nd National Palestine March in London on October 11, 2025

But last week the union came under fire after it was revealed that it was involved in the cancellation of a Jewish Labor MP’s visit to Bristol’s Brunel Academy in September.

Damien Egan was supposed to speak at his constituency school about democracy and his role as an MP before the union’s teachers teamed up with pro-Palestinian activists to force the meeting to be cancelled.

School pastoral worker Micaela Wilde recalled how staff took action against the MP: ‘[We had been] We’re talking about things like people wearing keffiyehs to work and things members can do with students in preparation for this visit.’

A school spokesman revealed that plans for the protest had in fact gone further: ‘The evening before Mr Egan’s planned visit we were made aware of plans for a public protest outside the school. ‘As this protest was planned to coincide with the end of the school day, we have chosen to postpone Mr Egan’s visit.’

The NEU in Bristol gleefully wrote on its Facebook page: ‘We celebrate this cancellation as a victory for the protection, solidarity and strength of the NEU union staff group.’

When contacted by The Mail last night on Sunday, the Near East University said: ‘It is a good thing that MPs are trying to engage with schools…’ A head office spokesman did not comment on Mr Egan’s cancellation but said: ‘NEU believes in democratic participation… and sometimes this will include a robust exchange of views.’

If you’re wondering how this country’s education system got to the point where activist teachers prevented elected officials from visiting schools in their districts, we need to look at what happened after the fact.

The story was revealed last Sunday by Labor Communities Secretary Steve Reed.

NEU schools branch secretary Micaela Wilde (pictured) led the move to stop Mr Egan from addressing students

In 2021, the union’s current general secretary, Daniel Kebede (pictured), was filmed calling for ‘globalising the intifada’, which was deemed an incitement to violence against Jews.

Although the Labor Government now appears to be on edge over the failure to tackle anti-Semitism towards one of its own MPs, the incident occurred in September and nothing has yet been done.

In fact, for a long time nothing was done about anti-Semitism in our education system.

The question is: will this scandal force the Government to look at how teachers are being radicalized by their unions and, worse, prejudices are being introduced into classrooms?

Becoming a Palestinian state is a famous cause for many unions, but at Near East University it resembles a cult. In 2024, ‘Palestinian ambassador’ Husam Zomlot attended the NEU conference. He praised his assistants: ‘You have been the strongest supporters of Palestine throughout history.’

Maybe it is. Incredibly, four of the 14 directors of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), which organized the protests in the UK, which some saw as a hate march, also hold senior roles at the Near East University.

In 2021, the union’s current general secretary, Daniel Kebede, was filmed calling for ‘globalising the intifada’, a slogan that was deemed an incitement to violence against Jews and was banned by the Met Police. He apologized for that on Thursday, saying only that he wouldn’t repeat it in his new role.

But Kebede is one of many examples: data from 41 PSC protests between 2023 and 2024 showed that NEU had 23 official speakers.

The NEU symbol was even placed next to Islamic extremist groups in a promotional graphic for a march in Leicester in 2024; An NEU spokesperson explained that it was something they would never ‘consciously’ do. In fact, they ‘regularly call for a peaceful solution’ to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when speaking at PSC rallies.

Pictured: A NEU conference delegate wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh

Retired teacher Peter Block, who was left in hot water after saying ‘shalom’ and demanding a more nuanced conversation about Israel at the NEU conference in 2024, left the union last year after being denied permission to speak at the annual event.

‘I tried, but I realized they would never allow another voice to be heard, they would never allow any discussion,’ he says.

He is one of several Jewish NEU members interviewed by Karon Monaghan KC, which is investigating antisemitism in the union. But in 2024 he was one of 600 lawyers who signed a petition demanding the Government halt arms sales to Israel.

His previous clients included former NUS president Shaima Dallali, who was fired over allegations of antisemitism.

‘I am concerned that anti-Semitism is being overlooked in the report,’ says Mr Block. ‘This could end up being a whitewash.’

The radicalization of these teachers was, of course, reflected in the classrooms. The ‘Educators for a Free Palestine’ event held in 2024 described how teachers can ‘get information from educators who produce and use resources to teach about Palestine’. One speaker was said to have said: ‘We must target even the youngest.’ And two Jewish activists told the MoS: ‘They talked about bringing keffiyeh to schools and putting up maps of Palestine.’

But the NEU says ‘teachers have a legal obligation to remain impartial when discussing events or issues in schools and colleges’. ‘NEU’s teaching materials on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict make this clear,’ a spokesman said.

However, parents began to notice the subtle demonization of Israel in schools and the pressure that NEU teachers had on their children. A non-Jewish father sought help from UK Israel Lawyers (UKLFI) when his son came home upset after a one-sided classroom discussion about the evils of Israel.

‘The teacher had presented an article from a Left-wing newspaper… and this article represented Israel as criminal, genocidal and indiscriminately killing people.’

The father adds: ‘I wrote to the principal, but my letter was ignored. That’s when I asked UKLFI to get involved.’

But the problem continued: ‘There were some Muslim kids in the class and they were talking about how racist the Jews were.

‘When my son backed down, they asked him if he supported Israel. When he didn’t say anything, they started attacking him. It got pretty ugly but he wouldn’t let me talk to the headmaster.’

For Jewish children, the pain can often be twice as severe as for affected people.

Georgia (not her real name) is half-Israeli and her mother lives in Sderot, which was attacked by Hamas terrorists on October 7. Her daughter, now ten, goes to a Catholic school in east London and comes home angry a few weeks before Christmas.

‘The teacher was telling them the story of David and Goliath, and they said David was a Philistine. ‘The teacher even wrote Palestine on the board,’ says Georgia. ‘He was upset because he thought it would mean that pro-David people would become pro-Palestinian and hate Jews.’

Georgia confronted the teacher and revealed that David was Jewish and had become one of Judaism’s central figures. He also said that Palestine did not exist at that time. ‘The teacher said that because David was born in Bethlehem, it was now Palestine and that was all that mattered.’ When Georgia complained to the school principal, she was ignored.

A pro-Palestinian demonstrator is seen wearing a keffiyeh in Whitehall during a national demonstration for Palestine in June 2025.

‘I tried to keep my daughter away from anything related to Israel and Palestine because I know she is worried about her grandmother; ‘We didn’t expect this kind of rewriting of history in primary RE.’

Another Jewish parent went to UKLFI after showing him around a possible primary school for his son and found a large artifact on display that said Israel was deliberately preventing Palestinians from receiving water.

‘I was shocked, worried and wondered what they were teaching these kids,’ he says.

‘The NEU is pushing teachers to promote pro-Palestinian propaganda in schools, and in many cases this has happened,’ says UKLFI’s Caroline Turner.

Jewish teachers are also bullied by their colleagues and even their students. A supply teacher described how children in his class put swastikas next to his desk and drew holes in every map showing Israel.

Among those fighting for their own union is non-Jewish Andy Porter, a recently retired Scottish teacher. He believes that the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), which is affiliated with the NEU, is anti-Semitic.

Mr Porter explained that the final straw was when he saw a one-sided article in the union magazine just days after the Manchester synagogue attack.

‘As a union, we are obsessed with criticizing Israel,’ he says. ‘We are anti-Semitic either deliberately or through ignorance. It’s either one or the other, and both are unforgivable.’

The EIS ‘denies allegations of anti-Semitism’. Its spokesman added that the organization ‘runs a strong campaign against all forms of discrimination’.

But Alex Hearn, director of Labor Against Antisemitism, said: ‘This must be addressed urgently by the Government for the safety of schoolchildren and staff.

‘NEU and its members must comply with the law and stop injecting hateful prejudices into schools and impressionable young minds.’