Chicago Teachers Offered Pay, Professional Credit for ‘Palestine’ Training

AMP has faced scrutiny from both chambers of Congress over alleged connections involving individuals associated with the organization and Hamas-linked groups.

By United with Israel Staff

Chicago Public Schools teachers are being offered professional development credit and potentially additional district pay to participate in a yearlong Palestine-focused training program that directly builds on an earlier workshop attended by activists associated with American Muslims for Palestine.

The new program, “From the United States to Palestine: Reading the World, Reimagining a Future Rooted in Solidarity,” will run from June 2026 through June 2027, with its opening session held at the Chicago Teachers Union.

According to the registration form, the Professional Learning Community is intended for educators who attended an October 2025 professional development workshop with Dr. Sawsan Jaber, giving them an opportunity to “re-engage” with concepts from that training “over an extended period of time and with greater depth.”

The new program is described as focusing on “radical dreaming, liberatory curriculum, critical literacy, and global citizenship.” Teachers will receive professional development hours, while those who obtain approval from their school administration may also receive CPS extended-day pay for the opening session.

The training is also explicitly intended to reach the classroom. The registration materials ask participants why they want to “learn about Palestine” in a way they “can use in your classroom.”

The individuals involved in the previous workshop are therefore particularly noteworthy.

That earlier training included Tarek Khalil, an education coordinator for American Muslims for Palestine, as well as Rifqa Falaneh and Deanna Othman, who have also been associated with AMP.

AMP has faced scrutiny from both chambers of Congress over alleged connections involving individuals associated with the organization and Hamas-linked groups.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee launched an investigation into AMP and its partner organization, Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation, citing alleged Hamas connections and their involvement in anti-Israel campus protests. The House Ways and Means Committee has separately sought an IRS investigation into the organizations over alleged ties to designated terrorist groups. The allegations have not resulted in a finding that AMP itself is a terrorist organization.

Falaneh, another participant in the earlier teacher training, was identified in a congressional letter as an organizer of the 2024 protest that blocked access to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. On social media, she has referred to Israel as the “Zionist entity” and linked followers to the anti-Zionist Decolonize Palestine website.

The previous workshop also included Dr. Ahmad Yousaf, who traveled to Gaza with MedGlobal. The Middle East Forum has alleged problematic connections involving MedGlobal, including its cooperation with Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry, and has separately raised allegations concerning organizations previously led by MedGlobal founder Zaher Sahloul. MedGlobal’s work with Gaza health authorities does not by itself establish support for Hamas.

The registration form for the new program does not say whether Khalil, Falaneh, Othman, Yousaf or other participants from the previous workshop will return. What it does establish is that the yearlong training is a direct continuation of Jaber’s earlier program, designed to revisit its concepts in considerably greater depth.

Jaber herself has drawn scrutiny over her approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The former Maine West High School English Department chair has reposted social media content urging Palestinians not to characterize Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups as terrorists, instead describing them as “legitimate resistance.” The reposted material declared that “Resistance is an obligation.”

She is also suing her former school district, alleging discrimination based on race, religion and national origin. In court filings cited by the NAVI K-12 Extremism Tracker, Jaber discussed her advocacy for Palestine and noted that a “genocide” unit taught within her former English department included a lesson on Palestine.

The latest program therefore represents more than a standalone seminar. Chicago educators are being invited to spend a year delving more deeply into material introduced during the previous Palestine-focused training, earn professional development credit for doing so, potentially receive CPS compensation for the opening session, and consider how what they learn can be incorporated into their classrooms.

For parents concerned about anti-Israel activism entering public schools, those details are likely to raise serious questions about what Chicago teachers are being trained to teach their students.