The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) abruptly canceled the screening of a film documenting Hamas violence on Oct. 7, 2023, after anti-Israel activists objected to the film being shown at the union's conference center, event organizers told the Washington Free Beacon.
The news comes three months after the far-left union hosted a Marxist, anti-Israel conference at which speakers called on attendees to support Iran's "axis of resistance" and advocated for violence against the United States and Israel.
Defending Education, a nonprofit group that supports parental rights and fights antisemitism in the education system, organized the October 19 screening of Screams Before Silence, a documentary by businesswoman Sheryl Sandberg that chronicled the sexual violence Hamas terrorists committed while carrying out the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks on Israel. The CTU Foundation agreed to host the screening at its event space in Chicago before reversing course on Friday, just two days before the planned event, according to Defending Education's director for combating antisemitism, Rabbi Jonathan Greenberg.
The union, which represents more than 300,000 students in Chicago Public Schools, claimed that Greenberg violated his rental agreement because he failed to disclose that Israel's consul general in Chicago planned to attend the screening. Greenberg said he informed the union of the consul general's attendance on September 28, nearly a month before the event was canceled, and was told by facility employees that there was no problem. He said he believes the event was actually canceled because of complaints from "radical Islamist and communist organizations in Chicago" who had been informed of the screening days prior.
"CTU advertises itself as a bastion of education," Greenberg told the Free Beacon. "They don't care about education. Dissenting opinions are no more welcome inside their buildings than they are in their classes. And if you don't toe the party line, then you're not welcome."
Greenberg said the screening will still take place at a different location in Deerfield, Ill., on November 19.
The CTU Foundation (CTUF)—the union's philanthropic arm—says on its website that its event spaces are open for rental by the general public as part of its mission to "the advancement, enhancement, and support of public education." It did not respond to a request for comment.
CTU's decision to nix the film screening comes three months after the union hosted a radical Marxist conference that advocated for anti-American violence in its event space, the Free Beacon reported in July.
That conference, which was hosted by the Anti-War Action Network, featured discussions on how to shut down a major U.S. port to force out an Israeli company, while one speaker railed that the "the enemy is at home. … Change doesn't ask for permission. It'll be violent. It'll be stormy. It'll be unpredictable." Another speaker praised the October 7 attacks in Israel as a "radical restructuring of the world order" and part of a "war of national liberation against the Israeli Zionist colonizers [that] is one of the main determinants in the crisis of capitalism and U.S. imperialism, and will help lead to their defeat."
Breakout rooms at the conference were named after various anti-American dictators and the Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh, who killed two people in an attack on an Israeli supermarket in 1969. The conference map featured an image of Iran, and speakers crowed that the "U.S. is losing" and praised the "principled Iranian support for the axis of resistance in Palestine, Lebanon, and Yemen."
While the conference was hosted at the CTU's facility, and CTU signage and merchandise were advertised throughout the convention hall, the union told the Free Beacon that it had no involvement in the event other than renting out the space. The CTU Foundation said it "welcomes the public use of its meeting facilities in keeping with the CTUF's mission to the advancement, enhancement, and support of public education."
