Beyond those general objections, the ADL had fully sealed its fate by attacking NEA members themselves. Merrie Najimy, former president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA), recounted that in 2024 the MTA was tasked by its elected board of directors with creating resources for educators themselves to learn the history of Palestine, a counter-narrative to the myth that Palestine was “a land without a people” that European Jews could simply claim. The ADL improperly took those internal materials, cherry-picked elements to claim that presenting Palestinian perspectives on being colonized amounted to “glorifying terrorists”, and “manipulated [them]… to label the state’s largest union of educators as promoters of antisemitism,” as MTA leaders wrote in February. The ADL followed with a barrage of denunciations of teachers and the union in the state legislative hearings and press. These in turn resulted in the doxxing of MTA members, death threats against MTA staff, and anti-labor attacks that are still ongoing. “Why would we partner with an organization that does us harm?” Najimy asked in the lead-up to the NEA vote.

Keep them the fuck away from our schools. Free Palestine and end Israel’s genocide.