As the midday bell echoed through an east London school, students and teachers swiftly reached for their belongings. Yet, instead of reaching for their typical lunchboxes, many pulled out Palestinian flags and donned keffiyehs as they hurriedly made their way to the exits.

An observing Jewish teacher described the scene as “reminiscent of a zombie movie,” watching in disbelief as the events unfolded.

This incident occurred just weeks following the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. It marked the beginning of a series of ‘days of solidarity’ with Palestinians, orchestrated by the UK’s largest teaching union.

The National Education Union (NEU), boasting a membership of half a million, had long engaged with the topic of Palestine, but in 2023, it became a central focus.

The teacher, choosing to remain anonymous, recounted the chaos, noting, “While students aren’t supposed to leave during lunchtime, preventing them was impossible. Despite locked doors, they followed staff through any available exit, even forcing open fire doors.”

The crowd was headed to a rally at the town hall, where Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman addressed the assembly. There, young participants joined in chanting slogans like “From The River To The Sea” and “globalise the intifada,” all amid enthusiastic support from their educators.

And they were not alone. Across the country educators led students out to protests like pro-Palestinian Pied Pipers, with shouts calling for a ceasefire and, in squeaking tones: ‘Israel is a terror state.’

More than two years later this madness hasn’t stopped. Just yesterday, the union’s London HQ hosted the ‘Sumud Festival For Palestine’, which involved ‘a day of political and cultural talks’.

Jewish MP Damien Egan was ‘banned’ from visiting a school in his constituency amid fears his presence would ‘inflame teachers’

Hundreds of thousands of pro-Palestinian activists take part in the 32nd National March for Palestine since October 2023 on 11th October 2025 in London, United Kingdom

But last week the union came under fire after it emerged that it was involved in the cancellation of a visit by a Labour Jewish MP to the Bristol Brunel Academy in September.

Damien Egan had been due to speak at the school in his constituency about democracy and his role as an MP, before teachers from the union collaborated with pro-Palestine activists to ensure it was called off.

A school pastoral worker, Micaela Wilde, recalled how staff mobilised against the MP: ‘[We had been] talking about things like people wearing keffiyehs to work… and the work that members could do with students in preparation for that visit.’

Indeed, their protest plans went further, a spokesman for the school explained: ‘On the evening before Mr Egan’s scheduled visit, we were made aware of plans for a public protest outside the school. As this protest was scheduled to coincide with the end of the school day, we opted to postpone Mr Egan’s visit.’

Rejoicing on its Facebook page, Bristol’s NEU wrote: ‘We celebrate this cancellation as a win for safeguarding, solidarity and the power of the NEU trade union staff group.’

When approached by The Mail on Sunday last night, the NEU said: ‘It is good that MPs… seek to engage with schools.’ Its head office spokesman did not comment on Mr Egan’s cancellation, but said: ‘The NEU believes in democratic engagement… and sometimes this will include a robust exchange of views.’

If you are wondering how this country’s education system has descended into a place where activist teachers are stopping elected officials from visiting schools in their area, we need to look at what happened after the incident.

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

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

In 2021, the union’s now general secretary, Daniel Kebede (pictured), was filmed calling to ‘globalise the intifada’, a chant recognised as an incitement to violence against Jews

While the Labour Government may now purport to be up in arms about this failure to tackle anti-Semitism towards one of their own MPs, the incident happened in September and yet nothing was done.

In fact, nothing has been done about the anti-Semitism within our education system for a long time.

The question is, will this scandal force the Government to look at how teachers are being radicalised by their unions and, worse, bringing prejudices into the classroom?

Palestinian statehood is a cause celebre for many unions, but in the NEU it is akin to a cult. In 2024, ‘Palestinian envoy’ Husam Zomlot appeared at an NEU conference. He praised his acolytes: ‘You have been the strongest supporters of Palestine historically.’

And perhaps they have. Incredibly, four of the 14 directors of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) – the group that organises the protests in Britain that some have come to view as hate marches – also hold senior roles in the NEU.

In 2021, the union’s now general secretary, Daniel Kebede, was filmed calling to ‘globalise the intifada’, a chant recognised as an incitement to violence against Jews and banned by the Met Police. While he apologised for this on Thursday, he said only that he would not repeat it in his new position.

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

In 2024 the NEU symbol was even placed next to extremist Islamist groups on a promotional graphic for a march in Leicester –something that, an NEU spokesman explains, they would never ‘consciously’ do. Indeed, they ‘regularly call for a peaceful solution’ to the Israel-Palestine conflict when speaking at PSC rallies.

Pictured: an NEU conference delegate wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh)

Peter Block, a retired teacher who was heckled at the NEU conference in 2024 after saying ‘shalom’ and asking for a more nuanced conversation on Israel, left the union last year after he was refused permission to speak at the annual event.

‘I tried, but I’ve realised they are never going to allow another voice to be heard, they are never going to allow any debate,’ he says.

He is one of several Jewish NEU members who have been interviewed by Karon Monaghan KC, who is investigating anti-Semitism in the union. Yet in 2024 she was one of 600 legal professionals to sign a petition demanding the Government stop selling arms to Israel.

Among her previous clients is Shaima Dallali, a former NUS president, who was fired over allegations of anti-Semitism.

‘I am worried that the anti-Semitism is going to be glossed over in the report,’ says Mr Block. ‘It might end up a whitewash.’

The radicalisation of these teachers has, of course, worked its way into the classroom. An ‘Educators for a Free Palestine’ event organised in 2024 described how teachers could ‘hear from educators who have made and are

using resources to teach about Palestine.’ One speaker was

said to have stated: ‘We need to target even the youngest.’ And two Jewish activists told the MoS: ‘They talked about bringing keffiyehs to schools and putting up maps of Palestine.’

But the NEU says its ‘teachers have a legal obligation to remain neutral when discussing events or issues in schools and colleges’. ‘The NEU teaching materials on the Israel-Palestine conflict make this clear,’ says a spokesman.

Nonetheless, parents have begun to note the subtle demonisation of Israel in schools and the grip that the NEU teachers have on their children. One non-Jewish father ended up asking for the help of UK Lawyers For Israel (UKLFI) when his son came home upset after a one-sided debate in class about the evils of Israel.

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

The father adds: ‘I wrote to the headmaster and 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 Jews are racist.

‘When my son pushed back, they asked him if he supported Israel. When he didn’t say anything, they started having a go at him. It got quite nasty, but he wouldn’t let me talk to the headmaster.’

For Jewish children the pain can be twice as hard as they often know people affected.

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 a few weeks before Christmas came home furious.

‘The teacher had been telling them the story of David and Goliath, and they said that David was from Palestine. The teacher even wrote Palestine on the board,’ says Georgia. ‘She was upset because she thought that would mean people who were pro-David would be pro-Palestine and hate Jews.’

Georgia confronted the teacher and explained that David was

Jewish and became one of the central figures of Judaism. She also said Palestine didn’t exist at the time. ‘The teacher said because David was born in Bethlehem, that was Palestine now, and that was all that mattered.’ When Georgia complained to the head teacher, she was ignored.

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

‘I’ve tried to keep my daughter away from anything to do with Israel and Palestine because I know she worries about her grandmother – we didn’t expect to get this sort of rewriting of history in primary-school RE.’

Another Jewish parent went to UKLFI after being shown around a potential primary school for her son only to find a large piece of work on display saying that Israel was deliberately stopping Palestinians from having water.

‘I was shocked and worried and wondered what on earth they were teaching these children,’ she says.

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

Jewish teachers have also been bullied by colleagues and even pupils. One supply teacher described how children in his classroom would put swastikas near his desk and draw holes in every map showing Israel.

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

The final straw, Mr Porter explains, was seeing a one-sided article in the union’s magazine – only a few days after the Manchester synagogue attack.

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

For its part, the EIS ‘refutes any allegations of anti-Semitism’. Its spokesman added that the organisation ‘campaigns strongly against discrimination of all kinds’.

But Alex Hearn, director of Labour Against Antisemitism, says: ‘This state of affairs must be urgently addressed by the Government to safeguard schoolchildren and staff.

‘The NEU and their members must adhere to the law and stop infecting schools and young impressionable minds with

hateful bias.’