Portland teachers union leaders vote to remove links to lessons advocating for Palestinians, after weeks of back and forth

After a tumultuous few weeks since the teachers’ union for Portland Public Schools promoted lesson plans that encouraged students to pray for the plight of Palestinians and described Israelis as “Zionist bullies” who stole Palestinian land, the union announced it had removed links to the controversial teaching materials from its website — with no stated plans to repost them.

The Portland Association of Teachers’ president, Angela Bonilla, didn’t return requests for an interview or comment from The Oregonian/OregonLive Monday or Tuesday. But the links to the lesson plans, videos and other teaching materials and to an advocacy guide entitled “Know Your Rights! Teaching & Instructing for Palestine within Portland Public Schools” disappeared from the union’s website over the weekend.

In its newsletter to its more than 4,000 members on Tuesday, the union said its leadership voted Saturday to remove the links to the lesson plans, videos and teaching materials and to “temporarily remove and revise” the “Know Your Rights” guide, with a plan to repost an “updated guide” at a later date. The newsletter said only that the removals were in response to feedback from teachers.

“Our Executive Board (E-Board) has heard member concerns about democratic processes and systems in our union,” the newsletter read.

This week’s development is the latest in an on-again and off-again saga that has sparked criticism from many members of Portland area Jewish communities that the teaching materials and guide were one-sided, antisemitic and violated the foundations of secular public education.

Teacher David Goldstein doesn’t think the announcement went far enough. It came a day after he recognized the materials weren’t accessible through the union’s website. He wants to see the union acknowledge the harm done to Jewish students, staff and community members, said Goldstein, who works at Robert Gray Middle School.

“What I’m upset about is the antisemitism and the intimidation and the unsafe environment they’ve created for the Jewish community of Portland, Oregon — and how that’s completely unacceptable,” Goldstein said. “I think they should apologize and explain how they’re going to prevent this from happening again. That’s a minimum.”

Goldstein said he’s open to having a dialogue with union leadership but is not hopeful that or an apology is coming.

“I think they’re completely dedicated to their cause and this is a strategic move,” he said. “They got pressure from all over.”

In recent weeks, a firestorm of controversy has erupted:

In early June, some teachers began circulating flyers calling for a vote of no confidence in union leadership. The effort apparently was driven by frustrations over the November teachers’ strike as well as leaders’ push to support Gaza. The flyers state that leadership should instead focus on “OUR workplace issues,” including pay increases, smaller class sizes and “crumbling” infrastructure.
On Monday, No Hate Zone founder Sam Sachs, who is Jewish, filed a report about the union to the Oregon Department of Justice’s Bias Response Hotline. Sachs, who also is running for Portland City Council, said he reached out to the hotline because he thinks union leadership have left Jewish students feeling “targeted and vilified for being Jewish.”
Sachs said he also complained to the Portland School Board for not issuing a statement condemning the union’s advocacy. “This has damaged Jewish students and staff, and nobody is saying anything about it,” Sachs said. “I think the most important thing is when Jewish students and staff go back to school, is there a safe environment for them to go back to? Because I think this has been compromised.”
In late May, some Portland City Council candidates said they thought the union seemed unduely focused on their views about supporting protesters’ rights to demonstrate in support of Palestinians instead of meatier educational issues during endorsement interviews.
Last week, city council candidate Jesse Cornett, who was endorsed by the union, said he wrote Bonilla, the union president, to ask her to take down the lesson plans. Cornett said he also asked her to refrain from allowing the sale of clothing at union-sponsored events if it contains the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Palestinians say that describes their right to reclaim land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, but the vast majority of Israelis and many Jews consider it a threatening call for the destruction of Israel, even at the cost of many Israeli lives.
Complaints to the union also have streamed in from parents, community members and Jewish organizations.

Links to the materials first appeared on the union’s website in late May, around the time the union hosted a May 28 meeting urging teachers to stand by what the union believes is their right to show their support for Palestinians and educate children about those views. Also during that meeting, organizers or their supporters passed out Palestinian flags, distributed handouts celebrating Hamas militants who have massacred civilian Jews and sold shirts stating “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

The union removed the links to the lesson plans and other materials on June 4 amid criticism — with Bonilla saying she and members of the union’s Social Justice and Community Outreach Committee hadn’t reviewed the materials before providing them as a resource for teachers to use.

The union reposted many of the links — including ones that attempted to share some Israeli points of view — on June 5 to a less visible spot on its website, where they remained until this past weekend.

Bonilla told The Oregonian/OregonLive in early June that the “Know Your Rights” guide and lesson plans aren’t antisemitic. But she said they do support the right of educators to teach the Palestinian perspective, which she said has often been overlooked and disregarded amid so much turmoil and tragedy in the region. She said union leadership is “vehemently against any forms of bigotry.”

— Aimee Green covers breaking news and the justice system. Reach her at 503-294-5119, [email protected] or @o_aimee.

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