Gazans ‘deserved what they got’ – shocking stories of anti-Palestinian racism in schools revealed

New report says education departments enable 'silencing of Palestinian perspectives in schools'

A Jewish student at a Victorian public school telling a Palestinian child in year 2 that they “can’t wait to help the IDF go kill Palestinians in Gaza”.

An Israeli mother scolding a three-year-old child for wearing a keffiyeh and watermelon bracelet.

A substitute teacher overhearing students discussing the genocide in Gaza and screaming that all Palestinians are “terrorists”.

A principal screaming in a teacher’s face that they were “antisemitic” and a “terrorist” for wearing a keffiyeh.

These are just a sample of the shocking stories of abuse, harassment, vilification and violence against students, teaching staff and parents detailed in a new report revealing the scope of anti-Palestinian racism in Australian schools.

Commissioned by the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network and released today, the report collates more than 80 testimonials from anonymous respondents recounting what the report described as the “systemised, widespread, urgent and relentless [nature] of anti-Palestinian racism across Australian schools”.

The report defines such racism as “unreasonable and unfair disciplinary procedures for staff and students who discuss Palestine, which can range from school authorities verbally and publicly abusing staff and students for discussing Palestine, to staff losing their jobs for publicly expressing support of the Palestinian people”.

Dr Ryan Al-Natour, co-author of the report and lecturer in teacher education at Charles Sturt University, told Deepcut the report was a shocking indictment on the Australian education establishment.

“The report found that Australian schools are sites where widespread anti-Palestinian racism is normalised. Schooling institutions are claiming that they’re bastions of multicultural education where all students are apparently welcome, but the report found that is not the case at all,” Al-Natour said.

Governments, education authorities contribute to environment of vilification: report

While the report includes dozens of first-hand accounts of racial vilification and abuse by teaching staff, parents, students and members of the public, it also draws attention to the social and political context in which racism towards Palestinian is given licence by governments, media outlets and educational institutions.

“Anti-Palestinian racism manifests structurally across school authorities and departments of education, whereby pro-Israeli narratives are deemed to be ‘unbiased’, ‘objective’ and ‘neutral’ while Palestinian narratives are silenced and censored in schools,” the report found.

Al-Natour says the report found “a relationship between what’s happening in wider society and what happens in schools”.

“The school staff and schooling authorities that are committing or perpetuating anti-Palestinian racism are basically echoing the government of the day, its racism against Palestinian people and its support for the genocide in the Gaza Strip,” he says. “The report shows that what happens outside school communities always filters through.”

That conclusion is echoed by Teachers for Palestine NSW, an activist group of teaching staff that has repeatedly warned of anti-Palestinian racism in NSW schools over the last two years.

“Sadly, the report’s findings aren’t surprising to us,” Teachers for Palestine NSW spokesperson Chris Breen said.

“These incidents are an inevitable corollary to the Albanese and Minns governments’ defence of Israel. It’s not a problem of individual teachers or students; it’s a response that’s driven from the top. If governments spend time justifying a genocide that’s happening in full view, many people will come to the conclusion that there’s something inherently wrong with Palestinians.”

Breen points to the NSW Department of Education’s ‘Support in Times of Crisis’ resource, which aims to give teachers guidance on how to discuss potentially upsetting world events in the classroom. While the resource includes emotive and detailed explanations of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, it only refers to the Gaza genocide using the phrase “the conflict in the Middle East”.

“That really sets the tone,” he says.

An extract from the NSW Department of Education’s ‘Support in Times of Crisis’ resource.

In response to questions, a spokesperson for the Victorian Department of Education said: “Racism has no place in our schools.”

“Victorian schools work hard to provide an inclusive and supportive environment for all students, staff and school families. Overwhelmingly, Victorian schools have managed, and continue to manage, this very challenging issue with great professionalism and sensitivity.”

The NSW Department of Education did not respond to questions in time for publication.

Australian education system ‘benchmarks whiteness’

Despite the breadth of the findings, Al-Natour says the report “only scratches the surface”.

“I’ve come across many educators who’ve experienced anti-Palestinian racism but who didn’t report it to the registry, either because they didn’t know it existed or because they were petrified and traumatised by their experiences,” he said.

“If we had the funds of, say, the Special Envoys [to combat antisemitism and Islamophobia], we would have been able to do a much more thorough investigation.”

The report urges education departments to allow students and teachers to wear Palestinian symbols and cultural items, introduce policies allowing the discussion of the Gaza genocide and Israel’s occupation of Palestine in the classroom, and develop strategies to combat rising anti-Palestinian racism.

An extract from the ‘Anti-Palestinian Racism in Australian Schools’ report.

The report also recommends a revamp of the Australian education curriculum to “urgently focus on First Nations social justice in schools as a decolonial way of addressing all forms of institutional racism and ongoing dispossession”.

“Unfortunately, right now, the Australian curriculum benchmarks whiteness,” Al-Natour said. “Educational institutions in settler-colonial societies like ours are built for the purpose of colonisation. First Nations scholars in education constantly tell us that Australian schools are sites of extreme racism that impacts families and communities, and that educational institutions are doing what they’re built to do.

“It’s no surprise that settlers of colour – which, in this context, includes Palestinians – are experiencing racism in an education system that is built to reinforce racism.”

With “too many examples to count”, Al-Natour – who is Palestinian – says he “saw myself in these stories”.

“Staff being screamed at in front of students, students being screamed at by staff, educators openly boasting that a genocide was taking place while Palestinian students were crying in the classroom. Unfortunately, none of this surprises me,” Al-Natour said.

“It happens across our society. It’s enabled by governments, by the media, by conservative commentators and by social discourse that opposes Palestinians and our liberation.”