National Education Union magazine claims Israelis use ‘wild pigs’ to scare Palestinians

The National Education Union has been criticised for promoting unproven allegations about Israeli settlers in the West Bank training wild boars to scare Palestinians. 

NEU member Mohammed Aziz wrote an article in the organisation’s magazine about his trip to Ramallah in the Wes Bank, in which he said: “We were told that wild boars are released in and around the camp by settlers to scare children.”

In November last year, the media Mondoweiss published an article with the headline: “Wild boars in Palestine are being weaponised by Israeli colonialism.”

The Institute for Middle East Understanding also made similar accusations, alleging that the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority “intentionally” dumps wild boars in the West Bank to scare Palestinians.

In 2014, Palestinian President Abbas was reported by Palestinian media as saying that “Every night, they (Israelis) release wild pigs against us. Why are they doing this to us?”

Israel has seen a lot of wild boars in recent years, particularly in the northern part of the country where residents have complained that they pose a threat.

“The NJA demands that the NEU immediately remove the article from the on-line version of Educate and issues an apology for allowing this piece of blatant hate speech and propaganda to be printed without any fact-checking or consideration of its consequences on the perceptions of Israel and Israelis,” a statement by the National Jewish Assembly said.

NEU spokesperson issued a statement after, saying: “While delegates were told this as the lived experience of some people in Palestine, the NEU has removed the reference to wild boars from the article.”