Education Dept. Launches Inquiry Into NYC Schools Over Pro-Palestinian Teachers Group

The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has opened an investigation into the New York public school system in regard to a pro-Palestine teachers’ group, the DOE announced on April 23.

The DOE’s Office of Civil Rights received complaints that NYC Educators for Palestine allegedly “teach children as young as 5 about ‘contemporary and historical Palestinian resistance,’ that Zionists are ‘genocidal white supremacists,’ and to support the federally designated terrorist organization Hamas and its ‘martyrs.'”

Complaints received by the federal civil rights office allege that “these actions in [the New York City Department of Education] teach and sow hostility and hatred toward Jewish students, potentially creating a hostile environment.”

The investigation will determine if the alleged incidents violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in educational programs receiving federal money.

“No child should be taught by his or her teachers to hate their peers. Neither should Jewish children be taught that being Jewish somehow makes them inherently guilty or proponents of hate and violence,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey in a press release. “Discrimination has no place in our schools, and, unlike the previous administration, the Trump administration will not turn a blind eye to antisemitic harassment. [The Office of Civil Rights] will investigate these appalling allegations to ensure the equal treatment of all students.”

An Instagram account for NYC Educators For Palestine describes the organization as “a group of public school educators committed to fighting for Palestinian liberation in our school system, and society at large, by organizing and mobilizing educators, developing curriculum, divesting our pension funds from Israeli securities, and working with community, family, and student organizations.”

The page states that the group “has been around for years, and we’ll be here until Palestine is free.”

The New York City Department of Education and the advocacy group Labor for Palestine didn’t return an email seeking comment.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 29, 2025, that said it is “the policy of the United States to combat anti-Semitism vigorously, using all available and appropriate legal tools.”

“My administration has fought and will continue to fight anti-Semitism in the United States and around the world,” the executive order stated.

The order cited the 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, which “unleashed an unprecedented wave of vile anti-Semitic discrimination, vandalism, and violence against our citizens, especially in our schools and on our campuses.”