Teaching unions criticise education minister's trip to Israel

The NITC has condemned Paul Givan's decision to publicise his tour of Israel on his government department's online platforms

The body which represents Northern Ireland's main teaching unions has criticised the education minister for visiting Israel amid international condemnation of its actions in Gaza.

Paul Givan is among a group of unionist politicians who are on a six-day tour of Israel which the minister called a "fact-finding mission".

The Northern Ireland Teachers' Council (NITC) said it was "deeply troubling" that he accepted an invitation to a state accused of genocide - a claim that Israel denies.

The Department of Education said Givan was "invited by the government of Israel to participate in an official visit as part of a delegation of representatives from Northern Ireland".

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician has shared photos of his tour, which included a visit to a Holocaust National Memorial Centre and Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and meetings with Israeli victims of Hamas attacks.

The NITC condemned Givan's decision to accept the invitation from the Israeli Embassy "at a time when senior officials of that state stand accused of war crimes".

It demanded he explain his actions and it further criticised Stormont's Department of Education for "promoting" his visit on the department's online platforms.

The department publicised Givan's visit to Ofek School in Jerusalem on both its official website and its social media accounts.

It confirmed that Givan met the school's staff and students "along with representatives of the Israeli Ministry of Education".

The NITC said Givan took the tour "in the context of what has been recognised by the UN as a genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza".

It added that his decision to document the trip on his department's platforms was an "overtly political and divisive act that diminished confidence in his judgement".

The NITC argued that Northern Ireland's official governmental online platforms "should be politically neutral" and it called for the material to be removed.

Asked to respond to the NITC, the department said its minister "decided to take an opportunity to visit Ofek School to learn about the approach they take to support diverse learners within a high-achieving environment".

"Following his tour of Ofek School, the education minister requested the educational visit was highlighted on the department's social media channels," the department added.

However, Mark McTaggart from the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) said that it was "hard to comprehend, let alone justify, a minister for education accepting this invitation".

'Negative reaction' to Ireland

A DUP spokesperson said the party's representatives are part of a wider group and that the visit comes at no cost to UK taxpayers.

The delegation attending the Israeli tour also includes Givan's DUP colleague Sammy Wilson; Steve Aiken from the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and Ron McDowell from the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) party.

"It is not a visit shrouded in secrecy - from the moment our representatives landed in Israel they have posted detailed updates of the engagements they have taken part in," the DUP spokesperson said.

Wilson has also posted several photos of his visit, including one of him outside Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

During a trip to Jerusalem, he praised the city's residents for "refusing to give in to terrorist threats to disrupt their lives".

The DUP MP said that the Northern Ireland delegation had learned "not to say we came from NI".

"The mention of the word Ireland immediately provoked a negative reaction," he said, adding that his hosts "can't do business with Ireland".

Aiken said they had been briefed by Israel's Foreign Ministry and said it was "good to get as wide a set of understanding of the complexities of the conflict as possible".

"Far too often the narrative is skewed in one direction only," the UUP politician said.

McDowell, a TUV councillor, said the delegation was seeking to build links with "the world's only Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East".

He added for his part he had been "upfront and transparent that I was invited by the Israeli Embassy in London to visit the country as a guest of their government".

The TUV representative posted photos of the delegation's visit to "a school for gifted youngsters", adding their classroom was "a bomb shelter".

He also shared a photo of himself and Givan spinning plates with the students.

McDowell said the delegation then spent the evening "meeting with research and media analysts who challenge fake news released from organisations like the BBC".

The current military campaign in Gaza began following a Hamas-led attack on Israel 7 October 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were abducted.

Israel responded by launching ground and air strikes which have led to 68,500 deaths so far, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Last month, the world's leading association of genocide scholars declared that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

At the time, the UN and some Western nations said that they would only consider a ruling by a court that genocide is taking place as authoritative.

The NITC is an umbrella organisation that represents the Ulster Teachers' Union (UTU); Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO); National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT); National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the National Education Union (NEA).