A Teacher in Gaza Becomes a Vox Clamantis in Deserto

A brave teacher, identified only as T., alarmed at how her young charges in an UNRWA-run school in Gaza are fed Hamas propaganda, dared to challenge the pro-Hamas atmosphere in those schools, and for this, a scissors-wielding administrator threatened her, saying he would cut out her tongue if she didn’t stop. More on her ordeal can be found here: “UNRWA teacher tells ‘Post’ she was threatened for challenging pro-Hamas rhetoric in Gaza schools,” by Danielle Greyman-Kennard, Jerusalem Post, October 23, 2026:

The antisemitic and pro-Hamas indoctrination of Gazan students has a “profound impact” that extends far beyond the classroom, a Gaza-based UNRWA teacher told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday, after school administrators came at her with scissors for challenging extremist rhetoric being pushed onto young girls.

Speaking to the Post anonymously because of the risks she faces, T said she decided it was her responsibility to speak out after repeatedly witnessing a colleague try to blur the “boundaries between education and political and religious indoctrination within the school environment.”

“I believe that remaining silent in the face of such practices means abandoning our moral and educational responsibilities,” she said, saying that Palestinian students deserved an environment where they could study and dream of a future uncolored by conflict.

“They have already experienced more than enough war, fear, and death,” T said. “No one has the right to rob them of their childhood or predetermine that their future must be an extension of the conflict.”

While she did not consider her attempts to challenge the indoctrination to be anything special, T acknowledged that confronting radicalization had put her at risk.She said she became more aware of the danger recently, when a school administrator threatened her with scissors after she intervened in an attempt by another teacher to promote support for Hamas.

“I had confronted several teachers on more than one occasion over their attempts to indoctrinate children with extremist ideas. During one of these incidents, I became involved in a heated argument with a female teacher who was promoting such views,” she recounted.

“Shortly afterward, a school administrator confronted me, pushed me into a room, pulled a pair of scissors from his pocket, and threatened me, saying: ‘I’ll cut your tongue out if you ever mention Hamas again.’”

T said she decided not to file a formal complaint with UNRWA because she could not trust that the matter would be handled confidentially or that the organization could guarantee her safety, particularly given the extent of the radicalization she had witnessed within the agency.

“Some people abroad imagine that UNRWA, because it is a United Nations agency, operates in Gaza the same way international institutions operate in Western countries, with an independent administration to which employees can turn for protection. But the reality I experienced was very different,” she said.

UNRWA itself is afraid of Hamas, and will not directly confront it. UNRWA will not support teachers who take a stand against Hamas indoctrination of students; they are on their own, and this makes them reluctant to publicly share their alarm about other teachers engaged in such indoctrination.

Even as she explained that UNRWA had to navigate a complex political terrain to be able to operate in Gaza, and was not responsible for the creation of the culture in its facilities, T. argued that the UN agency has not done enough to confront it, and has failed to enforce strict boundaries on teachers, allowing the problem to enter the classroom. T. may not realize that UNRWA itself has to keep on Hamas’ good side, for fear the terror group may target some of its staff, or even replace them with its own members as teachers.

Hamas now dominates every aspect of education in Gaza. Through its influence teachers are discouraged from simply teaching their subject matter. Instead, they are encouraged, like some of T.’s colleagues, to indoctrinate their young charges in hatred of Jews and in the necessity of destroying the Jewish state She has in her own classes managed to stick strictly to the subject matter of her classes, leaving out the Hamas brainwashing, and she wants other teachers to be able to follow suit.

In Islamic education, free and skeptical inquiry is discouraged, for who knows where such inquiry might lead — perhaps even to questioning the authority of Islam itself. Instead, students are encouraged not to think, but to memorize and regurgitate back to the teacher whatever has been committed to memory. In Muslim societies, it is telling that the youngster who memorizes the entire Qur’an is celebrated for what is a demonstration not of thought, but of thoughtlessness. Imagine how much time and brainpower is wasted in such a pursuit.

At least in one UNRWA classroom — the one where the remarkable T. is the teacher — the children are being taught not to hate, but to think. UNRWA administrators have a duty to discharge those in their ranks who threaten the conscientious teachers such as T., such as the man who came to T. with a pair of scissors and threatened to cut out her tongue for speaking against Hamas’ practice of turning classrooms into brainwashing sessions — and then to promote T., so that this brave teacher, with a permanent security detail assigned to protect her, will be put in charge of UNRWA schools throughout Gaza.