Exclusive | Gaza teacher says she was threatened for refusing to teach kids to hate Jews: We will cut your tongue

A Palestinian teacher in Gaza says a higher-up threatened to cut out her tongue when she challenged coworkers teaching students to hate Jews and embrace violence — and is now warning the poisonous lessons could lead to another Oct.7.The veteran UNRWA educator told The Post in an exclusive interview that an administrator at her school confronted her with scissors days after she got into a heated argument with another teacher over what she described as the indoctrination of young girls.“[The school official] told me, ‘We’ll make you wish for death, and if you don’t stop arguing, we will cut your tongue,’ ” she recalled through a translator.The 40-year-old geography teacher, who has spent 15 years working for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said the incident underscored the dangers of challenging extremist rhetoric in Gaza’s classrooms — a problem she believes has only intensified since the war with Israel.“Today [the danger is] more intense than ever because the children are actually suffering” from Israeli attacks, she said.The confrontation occurred at a UNRWA school in Gaza City that has since closed amid the war and been converted into a shelter for displaced Palestinians.

The teacher said the threats left her afraid to speak out, particularly because she feared retaliation against her family.But she has now decided to come forward given because she realized Gaza’s education system is cultivating a new generation of extremists.“As a teacher, it’s my duty to convey an accurate picture and call upon the world to save our children from these ideas,” she said.“My most important message is that we need to care about who is teaching our kids.”The teacher, whose name The Post is withholding for her safety, said she initially sought employment with UNRWA because she believed a school operated under the auspices of the United Nations would offer children protection from Hamas’s culture of violence.Instead, she said, she disc...