Teachers, parents accuse Massachusetts Teachers Association of antisemitism after webinar
BOSTON — A webinar held by the Massachusetts Teachers Association's Anti-Racism Task Force has sparked accusations of antisemitism by some teachers and parents.
MTA held the webinar on racism against Palestinians last Thursday evening. The webinar had four speakers, including two political science professors from UMass Boston, a member of the group Jewish Voices for Peace, and Merrie Najimy, the former president of the union.
"It was so many inaccurate historical events that are very troubling," said Yael Magen, a Marblehead mother who tuned into the event, "There was a slide that said Israel does not equal the Jewish people. There was a slide that said that Zionism is oppressive and is a propaganda machine."
MTA webinar on racism not available to public
There is no recording of the webinar on the MTA's website. WBZ asked the MTA to see the webinar and was told it is not available to the public.
This is not the first time the MTA has weighed in on the war between Israel and Hamas. In November, the union's executive committee voted in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza along with the return of all of the Israeli hostages.
In December the MTA's board of directors approved a motion that said, "The MTA will join in solidarity with the UAW, CTU, and other labor unions across the country, in calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. The MTA President and Vice President will urge the president of the NEA to pressure President Biden to stop funding and sending weapons in support of the Netanyahu government's genocidal war on the Palestinian people in Gaza."
Protest at MTA Board of Directors meeting
On Saturday, dozens of people protested outside of an MTA Board of Directors meeting. Brett Berkman, a literacy coach in Framingham schools and an MTA member, was one of them.
"The MTA hasn't been involved in any other international affair, to my knowledge," Berkman told WBZ, "The MTA has many things they should be doing. We need help with contracts, best practices for students, and teaching facilities. Not this."
Berkman says anyone who signed up to participate in the webinar was asked questions for a survey beforehand.
"They asked participants how comfortable they felt teaching anti-Zionist narratives about Israel. Zionism is simply the belief that Jewish people should have the right to live freely and govern themselves in their homeland," she said.
Berkman says roughly 1400 people have signed a petition denouncing the webinar.
MTA President Max Page released a statement saying in part, "There are also issues about which our members have starkly diverging views. We do not run from those disagreements; we seek to engage with them. [...]The particular viewpoints expressed in these individual workshops do not represent the official views of the MTA."
Webinar meant to "explain the Palestinian perspective," professor says
Leila Farsakh, a political science professor at UMass Boston who participated in the webinar, strongly denied assertions that the event was antisemitic.
"The goal of the webinar was to explain the Palestinian perspective because often the Palestinian perspective gets denied or demonized," she said. "The aim of this webinar was to explain the settler colonial structure of Zionism, of Israel. But it was neither against Israelis or the Jewish people."