Pro-Hamas Activists Tell Teachers to Break the Law and Strike on May Day

Pro-Hamas activists are telling teachers to break the law. Labor for Palestine, a coalition of union groups, is calling on teachers to walk out on May Day. This is not a lone incident but rather part of an ongoing campaign to turn teachers’ unions — and ultimately K-12 classrooms — into incubators for radicalism.

Starting last week across New York and California, Labor for Palestine sent an email to numerous teachers’ work addresses with a long list of plans for May 1, including the call to “Withhold labor and support calls for a general strike on May Day.” The recommended activities included teach-ins, leafleting, and sharing a long list of anti-Israel hashtags.

Labor for Palestine’s founding statement, dated December 2004, says the campaign was “initiated by New York Labor Against the War and Al-Awda NY.” Al-Awda describes itself as an advocate of education, human rights, and international law, but it has a long record of justifying terrorism. On October 7, 2023, with the Hamas massacre in Israel still underway, Al-Awda proclaimed its support for “the Palestinian resistance” and its “brave actions.”

This February, Al-Awda organized a protest that turned violent in the heavily Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood of Borough Park. The organization called on its members to “flood Borough Park,” an allusion to the name Hamas gave its October 7 assault. This is the same lawless, antisemitic mindset that Al-Awda brings to Labor for Palestine.

In support of its call for a May Day strike, Labor for Palestine found two partners equally supportive of Hamas and its crimes. The first is Students for Justice Palestine (SJP), which has been suspended and banned from many college campuses for its involvement in unauthorized protests and illegal encampments, including those at Columbia University. Like al-Awda, SJP celebrated October 7.

A federal lawsuit filed in March even claims that SJP had prior knowledge of the October 7 attack on Israel. The Senate committee responsible for educational affairs has also launched an investigation into American Muslims for Palestine, the group that helped create SJP, to assess its alleged ties to Hamas.

Al-Awda’s second partner is the U.S. Palestine Community Network, which advocates a “right of resistance,” calls for a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea” with Jerusalem as its capital, and described the atrocities of October 7 as acts of “self-defense.”

The call for a May Day general strike is part of a persistent drive to turn labor unions into vehicles for anti-Israel activism. In its message to teachers, Labor for Palestine encouraged them to recruit their unions, saying, “Please let us know if you or your union would like to formally endorse this call.”

Many labor unions already have factions devoted to Palestinian activism, including NYC Educators for Palestine, UAW Labor for Palestine, and SEIU’s Purple Up for Palestine.

Upcoming union elections in the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), which represents teachers in New York City, have fractured teachers into several different caucuses. The A Better Contract (ABC) slate includes Amy Arundell for president, who once retweeted, “Zionists are literally the most evil people to walk this earth.” Arundell also opposed UFT’s resolution condemning Hamas in the wake of the October 7 attacks.

The question remains: How many rank-and-file teachers will stay away from school and prevent their students from learning thanks to Labor for Palestine?

It’s up to elected officials and right-minded union leaders in New York and California to demand that teachers ignore this call to strike, show up for work, and not use our nation’s children as political pawns.

Those who do walk out should receive the appropriate punishment: dismissal.

Last month, Governor Kathy Hochul fired 2,000 state corrections officers for participating in an illegal, unsanctioned strike. The officers walked out because of grievances about staffing levels and officer safety, not to show solidarity with groups that spread pro-terrorist propaganda.

Will the governor be just as tough on teachers who strike to support Labor for Palestine and its antisemitic, pro-Hamas partners?

Brigette Herbst is deputy director of FDD’s Program on Education and National Security. For more analysis from Brigette and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow Brigette on X @brigette06. Follow FDD on X @FDD. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.