Gaza teacher says she was threatened with tongue removal after challenging anti-Jewish lessons

A Palestinian teacher who spent 15 years working for a United Nations agency in Gaza has claimed she was threatened with having her tongue cut out after challenging colleagues who taught children to hate Jews.

The 40-year-old geography teacher alleged that pupils at a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) were encouraged to support Hamas and blame Jews for Palestinian suffering.

Speaking anonymously to the New York Post, she said she had joined the agency believing its schools would protect children from Hamas influence.

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Instead, she claimed to have witnessed teachers praising the terrorist group and encouraging pupils to continue its fight against Israel.

“I was shocked to discover that the reality was very far from what I had imagined,” she said.

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In one incident, she alleged that a history teacher told pupils aged around 11 that Jews were responsible for Palestinian suffering and portrayed Hamas as a movement established to correct historical injustices.

Another teacher allegedly encouraged young girls to support Hamas’s struggle against Jews before boasting to colleagues about what she had taught them.

When she challenged the sessions, she said she faced threats from senior staff.

According to her account, a senior school official approached her holding scissors following an argument with another teacher.

“She told me, ‘We will make you wish you were dead, and if you don’t stop arguing, we will cut out fyour tongue,’” she recalled through an interpreter.

Fearing for her safety and that of her family, she stopped raising concerns. She said she did not know which members of staff might have connections to Hamas.

The alleged incidents took place at a UNRWA school in Gaza City, which has since closed because of the war and been converted into a shelter for displaced Palestinians.

Her testimony follows fresh scrutiny of the agency’s school and staff.

In July, Jewish News reported on a new investigation accusing UNRWA of failing to remove antisemitic and extremist teaching from classrooms, despite promises to reform its education system.

The following month, US investigators recommended sanctions against three former UNRWA teachers accused of links to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. One was accused of helping abduct hostages during the 7 October attacks, while another allegedly held civilians captive in Gaza.

In September, the daughter of an elderly Israeli hostage challenged the UN over its educational system after revealing that her mother had been held for 48 days in the attic of a UNRWA teacher’s home.

The concerns have continued despite the British government’s announcement in July of a further £23 million in funding for UNRWA to support Palestinian refugees in Gaza.

The teacher has now decided to speak publicly because she fears children growing up amid the war could become even more vulnerable to extremist ideas.

“The danger is more serious than ever now because the children are truly suffering,” she said, referring to Israeli strikes on Gaza.

“As a teacher, it is my duty to present an accurate picture and call on the world to save our children from these ideas,” she added.

“My most important message is that we need to pay attention to who is teaching our children.”

Jewish News has contacted UNRWA for comment.