Hamas in our schools: How anti-Israel narratives are reaching K-12 classrooms

School districts across the country are indirectly allowing the terrorist organization Hamas — or its agenda — into classrooms, whether through curriculum or, in the case of one Massachusetts town, hiring teachers who have a documented history of supporting anti-Israel narratives.

Newton, Massachusetts, a town with a 20% Jewish population, recently hired a teacher who previously accused Israel of genocide while downplaying anti-Semitism, a report from the Middle East Forum (MEF) claimed. MEF was the only organization that mentioned the teacher, Maryam Abu-Hasaballah.

Abu-Hasaballah wrote in her 2025 senior thesis at the University of Connecticut about the school’s post-Oct. 7 protests, in which she ignored the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas against Israeli civilians. She instead accused the school of targeting pro-Palestinian protesters due to school officials’ ties to Israel.

Attempts by Just the News to reach Abu-Hasaballah for comment through multiple channels were unsuccessful.

Hamas Oct. 7 attack on Israeli civilians at a music festival "was not addressed at all" 

“The October 7th, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel was not addressed at all,” said Sagit Sade Attia, the National Senior Director of Academic Action at the Israeli-American Council, at a school meeting about hiring Abu-Hasaballah. 

“About 1,200 people were murdered that day, including babies, civilians, children, and elderly people. There were also reports of sexual violence, kidnapping of 250 people, and horrific acts of brutality broadcast through telegrams by the terrorists themselves, including attacks on people in their homes and the Nova Music Festival. In addition, over 3,300 were wounded that day.”

Parents in Newton voiced opposition to the new hire on Sept. 14, asking school officials if Abu-Hasaballah could be trusted to accurately teach their middle-school children history and social studies. “What happens when someone whose work reflects highly ideological and deeply one-sided positions is hired to teach subjects directly related to those positions?” one resident asked at the meeting.

“How can an eighth-grade history teacher teach students to critically examine current events and historical conflicts if her own academic work does not demonstrate engagement with essential context and competing perspectives?” Attia asked during her testimony.

Another parent, Josh Krefetz, said the school defended hiring Abu-Hasaballah by saying it also had Jewish staff members.

“When you tell us, ‘Don’t worry, there was a Jew’—imagine telling a black person, ‘Don’t worry, there’s a black man on the Supreme Court, what are you worried about?’” Krefetz said, according to MEF. “Put in any other race or religion, or anything, for the way we’re spoken to by this city, and you might think things need to change a little bit.”

Newton Public Schools’ superintendent did not respond to a Just the News inquiry, nor did the principal of Charles E. Brown Middle School, which hired Abu-Hasaballah. 

Not just Newton

Earlier this year, the Trump administration’s Department of Education opened an investigation into New York City’s Education Department after it was alleged that pro-Palestinian teachers had preached support for Hamas while calling Zionists “genocidal white supremacists.” The teachers were part of a group called NYC Educators for Palestine, and, according to reports the DOE said it received, organized a series of teaching seminars that taught children as young as five about “contemporary and historical Palestinian resistance,” as well as support for Hamas.

“No child should be taught by his or her teachers to hate their peers. Neither should Jewish children be taught that being Jewish somehow makes them inherently guilty or proponents of hate and violence,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey when announcing the investigation. 

“Discrimination has no place in our schools, and, unlike the previous Administration, the Trump Administration will not turn a blind eye to anti-Semitic harassment. OCR will investigate these appalling allegations to ensure the equal treatment of all students,” Richey added.

There have been no updates on the progress of the investigation.

Sen. Cotton: "CAIR’s history makes it clear that its influence will be detrimental"

In Sept. 2025, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., sent a letter to DOE Secretary Linda McMahon about the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) attempts to indoctrinate students.

“Such an organization should never have access to our nation’s children. On August 26, 2025, CAIR Philadelphia announced plans to partner with schools across Pennsylvania and Delaware to make them ‘more inclusive.’ While details of their alleged partnerships are unclear, CAIR’s history makes it clear that its influence will be detrimental and possibly illegal,” Cotton said in the letter.

CAIR has long been accused of having ties to terrorism. The National Review documented its history with Hamas, a terror group designated by the U.S. government. CAIR accepted money from a Hamas front group and raised money for that same group after 9/11. CAIR provides a blanket response to those documenting its history, saying: “We unequivocally condemn all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by al-Qa’ida, the Real IRA, FARC, Hamas, ETA, or any other group designated by the U.S. Department of State as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization.’”

"The United Arab Emirates’ ministerial cabinet had listed the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as one of 83 proscribed terrorist organizations," National Review reported.

Cotton said in his warning to McMahon that CAIR offers “educational” materials on its website for teachers who want them, with guidance suggesting teachers avoid saying “Islamic terrorists,” “jihadists,” or “radical Islamic terrorists,” when describing the men who perpetrated Sept. 11.

In January 2024, Just the News reported that the Chicago chapter of CAIR offers this program under the title of “The Chicago Public Schools Project.” The website says it partners with local schools to provide programming.

More pro-Hamas entities at work in U.S. schools

In May 2025, the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) published a report connecting the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA), which created the “Teach Palestine Project,” with the Union of Health Work Committees in Gaza, an organization with financial and personnel ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.

The “Teach Palestine Project” refers to terrorism as “resistance,” and downplays Hamas’s atrocities against Israel, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies reported. In fact, the Project doesn’t even mention Hamas when describing Oct. 7, calling the terrorists “fighters in Gaza, who were angry about how Israel has been treating people in Gaza, broke down the wall and killed many Israeli soldiers and some Israelis who were at a music festival.”

In Oakland, California, following the Oct. 7 attack on Israeli civilians, between 75 and 100 K-12 teachers held an unauthorized “teach-in,” wherein they pushed pro-Palestine narratives with guest speakers, discussions, and lessons, ABC News reported at the time. 

One teacher who participated in the event told ABC that the materials provided by the school about Oct. 7 “did not include the Palestinian struggle for freedom and liberation.” Another said those materials taught about the attack “in a very, very one-sided pro-Israeli way.”