Israel lobby targets NASUWT for resisting Israel

The UK Israel lobby has turned its fire on the NASUWT teaching union – Britain’s second-biggest – for daring to adopt a boycott of Israel. The NASUWT executive passed the ‘BDS’ motion more than three weeks ago, but suddenly the lobby is attacking now. Probably because the NASUWT isn’t the actual main target.

The spearhead of the latest attack appears to be notorious ‘usual suspect’ Nicole Lampert in the Mail. Lampert is a dyed-in-the-wool Israel fanatic and full-throated exponent of the ‘Labour antisemitism’ scam. She has complained about pro-Palestine graffiti and amplified attacks on Jewish author and opponent of genocide Michael Rosen. According to Reverse Canary Mission, she:

leverages her platform in major British media to deny Israel’s genocide in Gaza, equate criticism of settler-colonialism with antisemitism, and portray Palestinian advocacy as a dangerous threat to Jews.

Lampert has attacked medical staff for testifying to Israel’s murder of children in Gaza. She attacked Britain’s biggest teaching union for its “obsession” with Palestine. Apparently, it’s “incredible” that anyone involved in the Palestine Solidarity Campaign should have a senior NEU role. In 2024, she blocked Skwawkbox on social media for pointing out that survivors and Israeli media freely admit that Israel killed hundreds of its own citizens on 7 October 2023.

Given her output, she’s obviously obsessed with Palestine too, and defending Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people. No surprise, then, that she is fronting an attack on another teaching union opposing Israel’s genocide and apartheid.

It’s even less surprising that she’s ranting about the “far left” and quoting unnamed “Jewish members” in their supposed horror. And – of course – she throws in a quote from front-group ‘Labour against Antisemitism’ (LAAS). (Lampert has close links to LAAS, but doesn’t disclose them in her hit piece.)

This wasn’t just a case of Lampert being a bit slow off the mark. An array of Israel lobby groups jumped on Lampert’s nonsense to attack the NASUWT as well, like “Britain’s apartheid apologist”, the so-called ‘Campaign against Antisemitism’ – which gives a hint as to why the attack is happening now:

The obsession with the world’s only Jewish state is bending more and more trade unions out of shape.

The NASUWT, the UK’s second largest teaching union, has reportedly adopted a boycott of certain goods and services which are attached to Israel.

The motion – which was…

— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) May 26, 2026

“The obsession with the world’s only Jewish state is bending more and more trade unions out of shape.” Uh-huh. So the attack on the NASUWT isn’t just an attack on the NASUWT. It’s a sign of panic among Israel lobbyists that a number of unions – especially in education – are taking a stand against Israel. Not just for its blatant genocide in Gaza, but for its apartheid and its regional warmongering.

The NEU, Britain’s biggest teaching union, has already boycotted Israel for years and regularly votes to renew the boycott. In 2025, it also voted to join a campaign to force educational establishments to divest from arms companies, many of which are Israeli. A year earlier, it ignored the Tory government’s pearl-clutching to condemn Israel’s genocide and racism.

SFC27

And today, 27 May 2026, the University and College Union (UCU) annual congress begins in Harrogate. Among its items for discussion are motions against Israeli and US attacks on Iran, Israel’s attacks on Lebanon and a call for the UK government to increase public sector wages instead of arms spending.

But the one that really has the Israel lobby in a spin at the moment is SFC27, on the threat posed by Zionism and its mouthpieces to academic freedom and speech. In full, it reads:

SFC27 Academic freedom and freedom of speech require industrial strength – London regional committee

Congress notes:

1. Palestine-related staff, student, and trade-union repression across HE and FE.
2. Far-right harassment and institutional repression at KCL, including Usama Ghanem’s suspension and possible deportation.
3. 91% support for branch concerns in KCLUCU informal ballot (55% turnout) and 82% support in formal industrial action ballot linking academic freedom to divestment from genocide (49% turnout).
4. Staff-student action prevented fascist group Betar from organising at KCL. Congress believes industrial strength is the strongest defence of staff-student freedoms and safety against threats posed by Zionist pressure and political and/or financial investment in genocide.

Congress resolves to:

a. Advise HE and FE branches about dangers posed by Zionist groups.
b. Strengthen support for branches to oppose Zionist and institutional repression including through industrial action.
c. Make defence of academic freedom, freedom of speech, and divestment part of UCU’s national and local industrial strategy.
d. Adapt this motion for TUC submission.

The motion directly takes on the Israel lobby’s attacks on UK education. Israel has seen its genocide destroy whatever residual support it had among young people – and across the rest of the UK population. For the Israel lobby, ignorance is bliss. Israel has just multiplied its annual propaganda budget by five times to $730m to try to reverse its destruction of its own image.

Unity among the UK’s major education unions against its war on free speech on Israel and its crimes is a major obstacle for the Israel lobby. If all their staff are organised in opposition to the apartheid colony, universities and other educational institutions will be under much more pressure to throw out their investments in, and collaborations with, the occupiers. So lobby groups are trying all their usual tricks on the UCU to try to stop it joining the fray.

In that context, it’s not hard to imagine why the pro-Israel propaganda industry is now recycling weeks-old news about one education union, just as another starts its congress to debate an inconvenient and, indeed, explosive motion.

Featured image via Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images