Opinion: Students brainwashed in teachers’ union Gaza power play

I’m betting schoolchildren invited to pro-Palestinian rallies have little understanding of the Gaza conflict, writes Des Houghton. VOTE IN OUR POLL

The Queensland Teachers Union should hang its head in shame for joining other teachers’ unions in inviting schoolchildren to go to pro-Palestinian rallies.

I think union activism reaches a new low in this country when groups like Teachers4Palestine hand out anti-Semitic propaganda and invite them to skip school to protest.

For me it raises other disturbing questions about what our children are being taught in schools.

Are they being brainwashed by teachers who themselves have been schooled in left-wing ideologies at left-wing universities by left-wing academics?

Who paid for the buses to take children to Canberra to protest there, I wonder?

And where did the young protesters in Brisbane get their keffiyehs, the Arab headdress?

Around Australia, and around the world, students have torn down posters of missing Israeli children and have backed Hamas at public rallies shouting, “glory to our martyrs” and “globalise the intifada”.

It reminded me of bitter anti-Vietnam protests I saw as a young reporter. A soldier from my hometown of Toowoomba who survived the Tet Offensive told me he was spat upon by protesters at his welcome-home march. When he spoke to some of the anti-war protesters, he discovered they had no real understanding of the conflict. I’m betting schoolchildren invited to pro-Palestine rallies have little understanding of the Gaza conflict.

It’s time for teachers in classrooms across the country to explain that the most barbarous massacre of Jews in the post-war era took place on October 7 when a terrorist organisation called Hamas slaughtered 1200 civilians – including children and babies – in Israel and abducted about 240 more. Some of those hostages have now been released to their families in return for the release by Israel of Palestinian prisoners convicted of serious crimes.

They are the cold hard facts.

I urge students to take this page from the paper and pin it on the noticeboard at school, and tell me the reaction you get. Teachers have a duty to explain the October 7 atrocities in a nonpartisan way.

Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, provided some worthwhile background at the National Press Club when he reminded journalists that his country was remaining compliant with international law in its ongoing war with Hamas.

Israelis were the victims, not the aggressors, Maimon said.

“We were attacked. Our people were slaughtered. We did not ask for this war,” he said.

“We are the victims and it is important to remember it while expressing your concerns about the humanitarian situation, about the Palestinians and civilian casualties.”

The Australian reported that organisers of a recent pro-Palestinian rally in Brisbane called for school students, teachers and education workers to wear their uniform and lead a planned march. Jewish leaders warned these rallies are nurturing anti-Semitism among teenagers.

The Courier-Mail reported that some youngsters at the rally at Queens Gardens in the CBD wore the uniforms of Indooroopilly State School, Kedron State High School, Lockyer Valley State School, Runcorn State High School and the Islamic College of Brisbane.

Shame on them. And shame on the adults who encouraged them.

It became obvious to me the so-called peace rallies were led by political extremists deliberately attempting to intimidate supporters of Israel. As we’ve seen overseas, that can lead to street violence.

And I didn’t hear anyone at the rallies mention Israel’s security needs when its citizens have been raped, cruelly butchered and held hostage.

Nor did I hear anyone condemn Hamas’s deliberate tactic of embedding its terrorists and their weapons in areas of high ­civilian density in Gaza, thereby turning Palestinian civilians into targets. In ethics and law, Israel has an obligation not to target civilians.

This does not mean it has no right of self-defence at all.

Jason Steinberg, president of the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies, said the students were pawns in a propaganda war.

And he is right.

Scott Stanford, the national co-ordinator of the Teachers Professional Association, condemned the union activists and urged teachers to quit the QTU and join his association.

“The Queensland Teachers Union, the Australian Education Union and the NSW Teachers Federation have all expressed their approval for students to skip school and strike, further degrading the quality of their education,” he said.

Teachers’ Professional Association of Queensland state secretary Edward Schuller. Picture: Des Houghton

“Some of the kids marching in Brisbane looked to me like they were as young as 10 and 12.

“No one aged 10 or 12 knows the history or can comprehend what is going on. I believe they are being directed by someone.

“If it is not their parents it is the education staff. Do teachers have a right to force their own beliefs on students? No they don’t.

“The teachers have a right to take part in protests in their own time; I support that.

“But they don’t have a right to force or encourage their students to attend with them. That is not right. It is inappropriate.’’

Stanford said it was not the role of the Queensland Teachers Union to coach children in politics.

He said the Queensland Teachers Union wasted members’ money becoming involved in political issues.

And he said the QTU involvement “backfired”.

“We have had an uptake in membership. The same thing happened with the Voice when the teachers’ union backed the Yes vote in the referendum. That, too, was a waste of member’s money.”

Stanford said unions should ask their members first before taking sides politically.

“Many quit the QTU and came across to us. We will never become involved in political campaigns.”

Left-wing teachers have free speech that entitles them to express their beliefs however radical or ill-informed they may be. But I think activists cross a line when they espouse anti-Semitism.

Edward Schuller, state secretary of the Teachers Professional Association of Queensland, a rival to the QTU, said the QTU also supported the climate strike during school hours.

He is concerned about how the curriculum is interpreted by activist teachers. “The way it is taught demonises the best things about our country and seeks to focus on potential flaws in our history,” Schuller said. “Where kids are routinely taught not to be proud of the country they grow up in, they will be more inclined to protest against causes that traditionally we would have supported.’’

He feared students were being used by left-wing advocates in unions and government departments. Agreed.

The QTU said it supported a peaceful solution in Gaza. “State council recently supported a motion of solidarity in calling for an end to violence,” a spokeswoman said.

“QUT members have the right to express their views on a range of issues.”

IRRITANT OF THE WEEK

State and federal posturing on the Sunshine Coast rail funding. It’s a manufactured sideshow to draw attention away from Labor’s failures on youth crime, health and housing.