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Gaza children teach the teachers

Report on INTO conference on Gaza

30 January 2025


A makeshift classroom in Gaza.

The Children of Gaza conference, organised by the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) in Dublin on Saturday 18th January, completed one overwhelming service in allowing the voices of Palestinians, especially the voices of Palestinian children, to be heard.

The tone was set by Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, attending online, who said that childhood had been stolen from the Palestinians and that: “I would have never imagined .... this depravity that has dominated the past 15 months, where international law is among the victims”.

Early on there was a false note from Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Defenders, who made a point of condemning HAMAS and speaking of the Israeli “response” to their October 7th attack.

Young Palestinians attending the conference, both in person and online, quickly gave the lie to the “Israeli response” narrative, making it clear that barbarism and genocide extended in space far from Gaza and in time well before October 2023.

One 12-year-old recited a poem about how he carried a bag symbolising his forced eviction from North Gaza and also a bag for his grandfather, who had also been 12 when expelled from Ashkelon (Ashqelon) in the 1948 Nakba that forcibly cleansed the Palestinian population and forced them into Gaza.

Young people in the West bank reported military blockades that turned a 30-minute walk to school into a 5-hour trek, routine attacks to humiliate teachers and their use as human shields, held at gunpoint in front of troops.

Voices from the INTO delegates showed a great deal of energy, commitment and compassion, but a very limited political consciousness.

This was made worse by the careful voices of the trade union officials present. ICTU has managed throughout the genocide not to fall out of step with the Irish government, seeking to placate the public while avoiding any conflict with the US enabling of the genocide.

It was the Palestinian youth who provided political clarity:

Zionist concerns and accusations of anti-semitism should not be allowed to silence the reality of genocide.

The solidarity movement should respond to Irish government expressions of concern b9y demanding actual action.

At all costs the movement must resist proposals by the Irish government to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-semitism, which presents criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic. This would delegitimise Irish solidarity and give a cover to government inaction.

The INTO conference was a microcosm of the Irish solidarity movement. The support for Palestine and opposition to genocide is extremely strong, but political understanding is very weak and many in and out of the trade union movement are content with sympathy and fundraising.

The Palestinian youth tell us what is needed.

No acceptance of censorship by the US, the Zionists or the West are generally.

The Irish government must stop apologising to Israel, break diplomatic relations, immediately enforce a ban on goods from the Occupied Territories and pull back from growing involvement in NATO and the Western war alliance.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-semitism must be utterly rejected. The new phase of Western support for genocide is censorship of reporters and trumped-up charges leading to arrests and imprisonment.

Our role is simple.  It is to confront the local enablers of genocide. Does anyone believe that a right-wing and pro imperialist government would resist pressure from the US, Britain and Europe?


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