THE PRESIDENT OF OUR NATION'S LARGST TEACHERS UNION POSED FOR PHOTOS WITH A MAN WHO PUBLICLY CALLS TERRORISTS 'MARTYRS'

Top US teachers’ union supports Palestinian counterpart with terror-linked leader 

Saed Erziqat posted on social media that members of two U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations should be honored and called for “continuous escalation” against Israel. 

 

By Brandy Shufutinsky 

 

JNS

Aug 15, 2025 

 

Becky Pringle is president of the 2.8 million-member National Education Association, the largest professional employee organization and labor union in the United States.

 

It’s no secret that the National Education Association, the largest teachers’ union in America, has an antisemitism problem. But it also has a terrorist problem.

The NEA has cultivated close ties with a teachers’ union in the West Bank whose leader has expressed support for terrorists. In fact, the NEA has even sent the group funds billed as humanitarian aid, even though the leader of that union has celebrated terrorists as martyrs and met with a top official from a U.S.-designated terror group.

The NEA’s antisemitism was on display at its national assembly last month, where delegates voted to cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League, the antisemitism watchdog. Jewish teachers at the assembly reported being bullied. (After an outcry from Jewish community leaders and elected officials, the NEA restored ties with the ADL.)

What deserves more attention is the relationship between the NEA and the General Union of Palestinian Teachers (GUPT). At least, one GUPT leader isn’t shy about his support for terror.

In 2023, after an Israeli military operation targeted members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, both designated by the United States as foreign terrorist organizations, GUPT general secretary Saed Erziqat posted on social media that they should be honored as “martyrs” and called for “continuous escalation” by Palestinians. Erziqat also revealed that he traveled to Syria to meet Talal Naji, the secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, another U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization. Erziqat supports the boycott, sanctions and divestment campaign against Israel.

NEA president Becky Pringle met with Erziqat when she visited the West Bank in early 2023. Pringle wears two hats, also serving as vice president of Education International, a global federation of teachers’ unions to which NEA belongs. On Dec. 6, 2023, just shy of two months after the massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, an NEA executive launched a GoFundMe campaign to benefit Education International’s “Solidarity Fund for Gaza.” It raised $5,902 for the fund. The GoFundMe campaign indicates that EI will distribute the funds to its Palestinian affiliates, a trio of unions that includes GUPT.

Under federal law, it is a criminal offense to knowingly provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. As noted, the GUPT general secretary supports terrorist acts committed by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The NEA’s support for GUPT may not rise to the level of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. However, the president of our nation’s largest teachers union posing for photos with a man who publicly calls terrorists “martyrs” should at the very least raise a red flag among lawmakers.

On July 16, lawmakers in the House and Senate introduced nearly identical bills to repeal the federal charter of the NEA. An earlier version of the House bill from 2023 justified the repeal on the grounds that the NEA has drifted so far afield from its original purpose—“to promote the cause of education in the United States.” Instead, it is engaged in “imposing its radical progressive agenda on America’s schools.”

The NEA has also become heavily partisan and politicized, spending more than $116 million on political activities and lobbying in a two-year period. Rather than sticking to the middle of the road, NEA members have voted to take controversial positions on hot-button issues, including abortion, sexual identity and illegal immigration.

 

Becky Pringle hugs Saed Erziqat as she meets with members of the General Union of Palestinian Teachers (GUPT).  

 

Taking away the NEA’s federal charter would hardly put the union out of business, but would deliver the message that it has lost the confidence of the people’s elected representatives. The advocates of pulling the charter happened not to mention the problem of NEA antisemitism and likely were not aware of its ties to a Palestinian union whose leader applauded terrorists. But those are also more than sufficient reasons to withdraw the federal seal of approval.

Passing the bill would be a good first step, but much more work is needed to get teachers’ unions and public education in this country on the right track.