https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93xd4qey0do

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 meetings with Israeli victims of Hamas attacks.

However, the NITC condemned his 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".
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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.
'Negative reaction' to Ireland

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.

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".
'Guest of the Israeli government'

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

Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza, which has 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).

BBC News NI has also asked the DUP for a response to the issues raised by the NITC.

by YourDasSidePiece

19 comments

  1. But it’s a free holiday! What do they expect him to do, *not* go?!

  2. He got the unionist bands their funding, now he’s off to white wash a genocide.

  4. Every school in Gaza destroyed remember. Israel have lost this fight and will never recover their international reputation.

  5. The Dishonorable Member for the Maldives will be super jealous.

  6. Your sick in the head when your so provocative towards nationalists that you will side, visit, take money and cozy up to the most evil of people who take pleasure in burning & starving babies and women for over 2 years

  8. This makes my blood boil. The absolute shame.

    This was a grotesque lapse in judgment from Givan. The opportunistic reprobate. You don’t go on a “*fact finding mission*” as a guest of a genocidal state, you go because you’re willing to give political cover to one, if the money’s right of course. This is the Education Minister, will he now taint our education system, our children with this states poison, there’s also the sick irony here that he’s visiting a state that’s systematically destroyed Gaza’s schools, universities, and children’s futures, at least the ones they didn’t just outright slaughter. There’s no “*learning*” in that, only complicity dressed up as diplomacy.

    Worse is his department plastered it all over official channels, the shameless Zionist shills. What message does that send to teachers and pupils who’ve watched this genocide live on TV.

    And the rest of this treacherous cabal, Wilson, Aiken, McDowell, swanning around Jerusalem pretending to represent Northern Ireland while praising “*resilience*” in a city built on the bones of Palestinians, I question their loyalties and priorities. The west, including the right is finally starting to sour on this state so they’d do well to get with the coming program. The NITC are right to call it out. This wasn’t about education, it was about ego and alignment with power. They didn’t go to learn anything, they went on a free holiday to be useful idiots for a state that’s gonna replace Nazi Germany as bywords for evil before 2030.

  11. I know a lot of politicians are questioning who is funding the trip. Looks like there’s going to be an investigation because honestly, him taking this trip after the ED found a £300 million black hole is a bit fucking disgusting

  12. Children in Gaza getting blown to pieces and this fucking cunt is swanning around Israel, being wined, dined and shown what a sectarian state can be like. How do people vote for this charlatan?

  13. I presume the crumbling schools in Derry were inspired by Israels work in Gaza.

  15. I genuinely have to wonder, does a God fearing man like Paul think he’s actually entering the kingdom of heaven?

    Hell must be a very empty place if running cover for a genocide gets you past St Peter.

  17. Not only is Givan off on a jolly paid for by a genocidal regime, but the former leader of the UUP, a member of the TUV and other DUP members are over there with him. And the Education Authority are promoting his trip via their official social media channels on twitter and Facebook.

    That’s a government department promoting a trip to a genocidal regime. Unionism and the NIO are craven scum.

    https://preview.redd.it/knszvj0k7xxf1.png?width=945&format=png&auto=webp&s=d2adf06194738d7ee3006c0fe554cfeec153602a

  19. Does any Unionist out there have any class at all? Are they just free loaders, bigoted, sectarian, full of hatred?

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