Bay State Zionists Weaponize Jewish Suffering To Crush the MTA
BOMBO CLATT BOMBO CLATT BOMBO CLATT
I DEDICATE THIS TO MVH
I am hoping Working Mass will post this sometime soon and I will link it then.
BOSTON, MA - Last Spring, State Senator John Velis (D - Westfield) introduced a budget amendment to authorize creating a state-level Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism. The Commission has a mandate to hold public hearings across the Commonwealth to hear stories of antisemitism and report to the Legislature by the end of November, 2025.
Special Commission on a Zionist Mission
From its very inception, it was clear the Special Commission was a zionist political project.
Activists were quick to criticize the Special Commission for being a trojan horse for anti-Palestine repression cloaked in well-meaning language. Sixty-four organizations, including Boston DSA, and 1100 individuals signed onto a letter to the legislature requesting that the budget amendment not be passed in its current form. Signatories also cited a lack of public input, an abstract definition of antisemitism, and the Special Commission failing to incorporate antisemitism into a generally anti-racist platform.
The letter states: “It is widely known that influential American Jewish and Israeli institutions, including the JCRC, ADL, AJC, and IAC are lobbying to get the IHRA working definition of antisemitism adopted by the Commonwealth and its state agencies, including the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. This definition is central to their approach because accepting criticism of the state of Israel as a form of hate has far reaching implications on education policy, civil rights protections, and expansion of Massachusetts’ hate crimes statute.”
Despite Commission Co-chair Senator Velis’s assurances that “People wonder if you can critique the government of Israel without being antisemitic, my answer is a resounding yes.” the fear of Israeli influence in the creation of the Commission is well-founded. A June 2024 webinar on antisemitism in MA public schools, hosted by the Israeli-American Civil Action Network (ICAN) and where Senator Velis spoke, included extreme zionist cosponsors such as StandWithUs, The Consulate General of Israel to New England, CAMERA Education Institute, and Christians and Jews United for Israel. The Special Commission’s co-chair, Sen.Velis, has been on no fewer than three trips to Israel paid for by Israel-affiliated organizations. He emphasizes that these trips do not influence his credibility as Commission Co-chair, since he also spoke to Palestinians, but in an October 2024 panel hosted by ICAN, Velis expressed doubt about well-documented Israeli apartheid and human-rights violations.
He then waxed about his experience on a tour of an Iron Dome battery during his latest trip to the apartheid state and commented on the attractiveness of the IOF soldiers: “I’m thinking it’s gonna be a bunch of U.S. service members coming out, in my mind what U.S. service members look like…and please don’t take this the wrong way…but five of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen in my life walk out…and I couldn’t tell you the first thing about the iron dome, because you know.” Working Mass applauds Senator Velis for his even-keeled assessment of Israel/Palestine as we approach two years of genocide.
One notable detail about the June 2024 ICAN webinar where Co-chair Velis spoke: a presentation on antisemitism within the Massachusetts Teachers’ Association (MTA).
Special Commission Versus The MTA
Sen. Velis’s amendment passed last spring also instructs the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to create antisemitism educational curricula for Massachusetts public schools.
On February 10th, 2025, the Commission summoned MTA President Max Page and Lexington High School teacher Jessica Antoline to testify about allegedly antisemitic resources to teach about Palestine provided by the MTA to membership. This hearing was not unexpected, there has been significant rank-and-file organization within MTA Rank & File for Palestine, culminating in a successful resolution to divest their pension fund from military contractors. A simple google search of ‘MTA antisemitism’ reveals countless articles demonstrating a concerted effort of zionist organizations to punish the MTA for its pro-Palestine advocacy. Bari Weiss’s outfit summed it up with the moniker “Hamassachusetts”.
The Commission was about the MTA’s internal list of resources for educators to use to learn about Palestine, which came after a democratic and popular MTA resolution from its rank-and-file membership. As retired librarian and MTA member Sue Doherty put it, since “teachers are terrified to teach about this,” the resource list was broadly welcomed.
Then, the Special Commission testimony became an interrogation. What was advertised to MTA leadership as a good-faith dialogue regarding the resource page turned into a farcical inquisition of the MTA, aiming for ‘gotcha’ soundbites over substantive debate.
First, Co-chair Cataldo presented a hand-picked list of images from the resource list and repeatedly demanded that President Page denounce them as antisemitic. He repeatedly ignored Mrs. Antoline’s request to present her opening statement, which was pushed until after the one hour mark. Images selected included an image of Joe Biden with “serial killer” superimposed over him and another image saying “Zionists Fuck Off”. The individual images were presented to demonstrate an anti-Israel bias within the MTA, and with the implicit assumption that Massachusetts teachers are imprinting their students with antisemitic beliefs.
In the wake of this hearing, reactionary forces have capitalized on the MTA’s public flogging to attack public-sector unions writ-large. These anti-labor efforts align with Trump’s attacks on federal workers, as well as long-standing warfare against teachers through efforts to privatize public education and kneecap the strongest union in the Commonwealth.
The Special Commission is providing them ammunition to make their case.
Organized Teachers Push Back
The attack was, of course, trumped up. Left out of the inquisition were critical facts, like how a majority of the resources presented were never actually offered to students, and how the resource page was a plethora of optional – not mandated – resources to utilize to help instructors teach about Palestine. One of these links was to the Palestine Poster Project, without any specific images attached, just a link to the website. The Special Commission combed through this website and others from the list, found the images it defined as the most antisemitic, and cited them as holistically indicative of the quality of resources the MTA was providing to its membership. The Special Commission even presented an infographic about Elbit Systems from Visualizing Palestine as evidence to attack the MTA, except that the infographic was not included on the MTA’s list of resources at all. This was completely fabricated. This did not prevent Co-chair Cataldo, however, from attempting to conflate criticism of an Israeli company with antisemitism. MTA Rank & File for Palestine, who also provided testimony at the same hearing, has countered that the hand-picked items presented are not antisemitic at all and simply anti-zionist in an exhaustive report.
As President Page continuously reiterated, teachers have the critical thinking skills to understand that an infographic saying ‘Zionists Fuck Off’ is not relevant to the classroom. The labor leader argued:
“Our highly educated teachers and other education professionals – creative individuals who have dedicated their lives to building a culture of learning for young people – are not robots who would somehow be brainwashed by a single set of resources.”
Elsa Auerbach, a professor emeritus at UMass Boston, MTA member, Boston Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) member, and one of the signatories of the letter signed by Boston DSA, added that the trajectory of the Commission was a giant missed opportunity:
“I will not project the intent of the Commission. But, Massachusetts has the opportunity to be the model to fight antisemitism in the current historical moment … clearly framed as a Commission which stands against white supremacy… After the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia, I read that some rabbis were saying the suffering of Jews was being co-opted for an antisemitic agenda. That is the framing I'd like to see the commission looking at.”
Labor wasn’t the only bloc to react to the Special Commission’s inquisition. Jewish leaders have also stepped up against its politically-weaponized overreach. On March 31st, 90 local rabbis and Jewish community leaders wrote to the Special Commission arguing its activity was contributing to President Trump’s free speech crackdown under the pretense of combating antisemitism.
The MTA has a powerful internal democracy. This is a fact that must be emulated around not the Commonwealth, and not cited as problematic given the MTA’s connection to public education. The resource list was the democratic will of MTA membership from an internal union vote. It is crucial that the internal democracy of the MTA is respected, and the Commision is implicitly attempting to jeopardize MTA’s rank-and-file of this right. Such a precedent would be disastrous for labor in the Commonwealth and nationally.
Teachers are fighting not only to keep the democratic will of its membership respected in the face of the Special Commission’s attack, but to literally teach contextual facts. The death count in Gaza is estimated to be over 200,000, one in every two buildings are destroyed, and its entire living population is currently on trajectory to starve to death. Constantly, Palestinians are told to put their lived experience as secondary to narratives mandated by polite society, when the reality is depravity that cannot ever be truly articulated or taught. During a genocide committed by our government, and with our money, it’s no surprise that organized teachers are determined to educate about the truth. Doherty summed it up:
“We are bound to make sure the truth is taught and that all students are represented. I don’t think people think about the fact that we’ve got Palestinian students in our schools…they’re not allowed to talk about this? Because it might offend other students?”
I am woke and I think you should call your state legislator to say that making Israel fealty apart of school curriculum and trying to kill the union president for not fw with that is bad: https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator