A Palestinian teacher in Gaza who worked for 15 years at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) says an administrator threatened to cut out her tongue after she protested antisemitic lessons, the New York Post reported. She now fears such lessons could fuel another October 7.
"[The school official] told me, 'We'll make you wish for death, and if you don't stop arguing, we will cut your tongue,' " she recalled through a translator. The threat came days after a heated argument with a colleague over the indoctrination of girls, and after an administrator threatened her with scissors.
She says the danger of challenging extremism in classrooms has only grown during the war. "Today [the danger is] more intense than ever because the children are actually suffering" from Israeli attacks, she said.
Afraid for her family, she stayed silent until concluding that Gaza's education system is raising a new generation of extremists. "As a teacher, it's my duty to convey an accurate picture and call upon the world to save our children from these ideas," she said. "My most important message is that we need to care about who is teaching our kids."
The teacher, whose identity is withheld for her safety, said she took the job, believing a UN-run school would shield children from Hamas's culture of violence. Instead, she found teachers who openly encourage hatred of Jews and glorify Hamas's fight against Israel. "I was shocked to find the reality was far different from what I had imagined," she said.
She described a sixth-grade history teacher who blamed Jews for Palestinian suffering and said Hamas arose to right historical wrongs, and another who urged girls to continue the fight and bragged to colleagues about it. "I was really appalled by the ideas being told to those children," she said. Unsure which officials had Hamas ties, she avoided administrators.
Human Rights Watch has documented arrests, beatings and torture of critics in Gaza, including a sweeping 2019 crackdown on protesters. The allegations surface amid years of controversy over UNRWA, the UN agency serving Palestinian refugees, which critics accuse of tolerating antisemitism and glorifying terrorism in its schools.
UNRWA says it does not tolerate incitement or support for terrorism and points to neutrality safeguards. It did not respond to the New York Post request for comment.
The teacher believes the indoctrination of pupils at school has deteriorated since the war started, with half or more of the teachers she meets backing violence against Jews. Many Palestinians, she warned, hate the war's consequences but do not denounce the massacre itself.
"They hate the consequences of October 7. They hate the war that October 7 brought upon them. But they don't hate October 7 itself," she said. Unless that changes, she fears history will repeat itself.
"If the upcoming generations in Gaza have the capabilities to make another attack, they will make it," she warned.
She urged a thorough reform of Gaza's schools, including a revised curriculum and independent supervision of teachers.
"It's more important than disarming Hamas or changing who will govern Gaza," she said. "Because this can change the future."
