A proposed resolution urging support for Palestinians and a boycott of Israel, set to come before leaders of the Los Angeles teachers’ union this fall, continues to fracture the education community and, in recent weeks, has raised the specter of members defecting from the union should the resolution pass.
The resolution under consideration by United Teachers Los Angeles expresses “solidarity with the Palestinian people” and calls on the U.S. government to end aid to Israel. It endorses the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel waged by those who allege the Israeli government is committing apartheid.
Motions in favor of the resolution were first brought up at UTLA regional meetings and did not originate from the union’s main leadership bodies. Any union member may raise issues for discussion at area meetings. If a motion passes out of those meetings, it then goes to the 250-member House of Representatives, UTLA’s highest decision-making body, for a vote.
The proposed resolution has been embraced by some community organizations which view UTLA as speaking out against war crimes. But it also has some parents and educators denouncing it, fearing a pro-Palestinian stance would leave Jewish students, their families and district employees feeling alienated and subject to harassment.
The controversy began in May in the midst of 11 days of deadly fighting between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls the Palestinian territory known as the Gaza Strip.
Similar resolutions were introduced at six of the union’s eight area meetings. It passed in five of the six areas that took a vote, according to a few union members who spoke to this news group.
When asked to comment, a UTLA staff member directed a reporter back to a statement the union had issued last month, which stressed that motions arising from area meetings which haven’t been voted on by the House of Representatives aren’t considered official UTLA positions.
“Debate and disagreement are essential to democracy and to our union, even when there are deep, conflicting emotions on both sides,” the union said in its statement. “As educators, it is our job to create nurturing, safe environments for all of our students. UTLA stands against racism, sexism, antisemitism, xenophobia, homophobia, Islamophobia, and oppression in all forms. We stand against both anti-Jewish hate and violence and anti-Arab hate and violence wherever they occur.”
Should UTLA weigh in?
Soni Lloyd, who teaches history, government and economics at Venice High School, supports the resolution as a way to speak out against what he characterized as war crimes by the Israeli government.
“As teachers, we promote democratic values, anti-racist values in our teachings,” said Lloyd, who until recently was a union chapter chair. “It would be a contradiction for us to teach one thing and then stay silent in the face of apartheid and genocide.”
Human Rights Watch issued a report in April accusing Israel of committing apartheid and persecution against the Palestinian people, actions which the organization said constitutes “crimes against humanity” based on international criminal law.
Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Greater Los Angeles Area, said UTLA has a track record of speaking out about human rights issues and said it is appropriate for a teachers union to take a stance on foreign matters when the U.S. government is providing $3.8 billion in taxpayer-funded military aid to Israel each year.
“Our students deserve a teachers union that demonstrates principle or courage. And what better (way) to teach our students than through leading by example?” he said. “We would be failing our students if we’re not instilling in them the values of compassion, human rights, dignity and justice.”
Should the resolution pass, UTLA would not be the first teachers union to support the BDS movement. Counterparts in San Francisco and Seattle have passed similar resolutions in recent weeks, according to media reports.
On the other hand, the Representative Assembly for the National Education Association last week voted down a proposal that would have seen the country’s largest teachers union “publicize its support for the Palestinian struggle for justice” while calling on the U.S. to stop arming and supporting Israel and Saudi Arabia, a spokeswoman for NEA confirmed.
The assembly did not have time to vote on a related item before the meeting ended, so that proposal was referred to a committee of content-area experts, which will make a recommendation to NEA’s executive committee, the spokeswoman said. That item proposes to educate the public about Palestinian history, culture and struggles, including “the detention and abuse of children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” among other things.
Criticism: The Middle East is not local
Critics of the proposed UTLA resolution, meanwhile, said the L.A. union has no business wading into a complex geopolitical issue halfway across the world, particularly if its members aren’t experts on the Middle East, and that the union should focus instead on educating students locally.
In recent weeks, a coalition called L.A. Parents Against Antisemitism formed through a joint effort between The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Anti-Defamation League, Israeli-American Council, StandWithUs, Board of Rabbis of Southern California and the American Jewish Committee. Those involved with the coalition have offered support to UTLA members who have been leading letter-writing campaigns.
A letter drafted by union members and addressed to UTLA leadership makes a case for why the resolution should not be adopted. As of early last week, 870 teachers had signed the letter, which has been circulating online, according to Alisa Finsten, senior vice president of community engagement for The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.
Another letter, from the viewpoint of parents, has attracted 270 signatures, Finsten said, adding that the coalition is encouraging parents to reach out to teachers they know personally to urge them not to support the resolution.
“We really believe that this motion demonstrates exactly why the BDS movement is antisemitic. It demonizes Israel,” Finsten said. “We did not want to let this go unchallenged.”
Antisemitic hate crimes, which were already on the upswing in California in 2019, has increased 115% nationally since the recent conflict in Gaza, according to The Jewish Federation.
In May, as the fighting continued in Gaza, an Orthodox Jew in Los Angeles was chased by two vehicles with people waving Palestinian flags. That same week, a group of Jewish men dining outdoors at a restaurant were attacked, presumably by a pro-Palestinian group, and police confirmed they were investigating the incident as a possible hate crime.
LAUSD parent Daniella Bloom worries the proposed UTLA resolution, if passed, would create a hostile environment for Jewish teachers and students.
“There seems to be a picking and choosing … on which children matter, which communities matter more,” Bloom, who identifies as Jewish and Israeli-American, said about UTLA’s advocacy. “It should never feel that way. … The union should be for all children.”
An anti-colonial, anti-violence stance
San Pedro High School teacher Maya Suzuki Daniels, who introduced one of the resolutions at her area meeting, explained in an email why she supports the motion.
“I acknowledge that directly addressing this conflict can cause pain and fear to our Jewish and Palestinian union and community members,” she wrote. “That being said, I believe that generational and historical trauma cannot be the basis for further oppression. We all need to look at the realities of settler colonialism and U.S. militarism and find ways to heal instead of perpetuating violence and harm.”
Not all Jews oppose the resolution.
Jeff Warner, action coordinator for LA Jews for Peace, said by email that it’s “entirely appropriate” for UTLA to stand up for human rights “as part of its mission to instill a sense of civic responsibility in the coming generation of Angelenos.”
The proposed resolution is not antisemitic but supports Palestinian’s “quest for liberation from Israeli government-imposed apartheid,” he said. “They criticize the Israeli government and its policies; they do not attack or malign Jewish people or the Jewish religion.”
Pacoima Middle School teacher Scott Mandel sees it differently.
“To a practicing Jew, Israel as a Jewish homeland is an essential part of our religion,” he said. “To condemn Israel as part of policy, you’re condemning a central part of your being as a practicing Jew.”
Possible union defections?
Mandel, who is chair of the Valley East area for UTLA, called the proposed resolution “horribly one-sided,” as it mentions Israeli bombardment of Gaza but not the fact that Hamas — which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization — and other militant groups fired more than 4,000 rockets at Israel during the May fighting. The resolution also fails to mention allegations that Hamas used civilians as human shields.
Israel’s critics, meanwhile, have accused that country’s government, which has the most powerful military in the region, of disproportionately using force against Hamas. At least 230 Palestinians were killed during the May fighting, including 65 children and 39 women, while another 1,710 people were injured. In Israel, 12 people were killed, including at least two people aged 16 or younger, according to the Associated Press. It’s unclear how many of the people who died or were wounded were fighters as opposed to civilians.
Mandel also criticized the proposed UTLA resolution for supporting the BDS movement, calling it antisemitic.
“We have thousands of Jewish teachers, and there are thousands of Christian teachers who support Israel,” he said of UTLA’s membership. “A large number of them will end up quitting UTLA if this motion passes. This motion is devastating for union unity.”
At least one teacher has reportedly left the union already over this controversy, and a few UTLA members said they, too, would consider leaving should the resolution pass.
Dassy DeBasc, a counselor in LAUSD, said her parents came to the U.S. from Israel. She herself lived there for about a decade after high school, and her 15-year-old daughter was studying abroad in Jerusalem in May. The proposed resolution, she said, triggers historical trauma for Jews.
Teacher priorities
The union — which represents about 33,000 teachers, counselors, librarians, school nurses and other certificated employees — should refrain from taking sides on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said DeBasc, adding that is inappropriate and a distraction from what educators should be concentrating on this summer.
“Look how much energy we’re spending on this right now when our focus should be getting our kids caught up” after more than a year of distance learning, she said, adding that she didn’t want her union dues going to support such actions.
“It’s irrelevant … to the education of the kids of LAUSD, and it’s irrelevant to the welfare of UTLA members,” she said. “It has nothing to do with the work conditions, which to me is what the union should be concerned with. At the end of the day, that’s why we pay them.”
Lloyd, the Venice High teacher, doesn’t see a difference between having the union weigh in on the Middle East and its decision to take a position on the Black Lives Matter movement and to call for the defunding of school police. Those issues all impact students or education, he said.
In the case of the Israeli-Palestinian resolution, convincing the U.S. government to stop sending $3.8 billion in aid annually to Israel could free up more money to go toward schools, health care or other public services in this country, he said.
“The union always supports policies that support public education,” he said. “This policy is redirecting resources.”
UTLA’s House of Representatives is expected to consider the resolution at its Sept. 22 meeting.