Catch up on our Palestine Webinar

Last week, IDEA hosted the second webinar from our 2025 series, ‘Exploring Contemporary Crises and Issues through Global Citizenship Education, ' focusing on Palestine.
If you missed out, you can watch the full video below!
The webinar had voices from Northern Ireland, Palestine, academic researchers and teachers offering powerful perspectives and practical supports for educators.
We examined our responsibilities as educators when we discuss conflict-related violence and displacement? What approaches can we use to do this?
A native of Belfast, Brendan Ciarán Browne , PhD, FTCD is Assistant Professor of Conflict Resolution, and a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin opened the webinar with a passionate input. He has spent much of his professional career working in Palestine or focused on the Palestinian struggle, anticolonialism and resistance.
“As educators we must be continuously educating ourselves, understanding and be truly committed. The cause of liberation of Palestine required you to be up-to-date not only on the foundational work... but the swathes of materials being produced by our colleagues in Palestine, [who] are being erased off the face of the earth. You have to be committed to do the educational work yourself.”
“You have to unashamedly declare your position as being against anti-Palestinian racism. As being for Palestinian determination and resistance. If you can’t make that commitment, then you don’t have a right to occupy the space to talk about Palestine. Many people have vulnerabilities that undermine their ability to do this. If you have those vulnerabilities, we are sympathetic but if that is the case- vacate the space.”
“Let’s own our language. Let’s be bold and determined to call Zionism what it is.”
Watch his full input below!
We examined our responsibilities as educators when we discuss conflict-related violence and displacement? What approaches can we use to do this?
A native of Belfast, Brendan Ciarán Browne , PhD, FTCD is Assistant Professor of Conflict Resolution, and a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin opened the webinar with a passionate input. He has spent much of his professional career working in Palestine or focused on the Palestinian struggle, anticolonialism and resistance.
“As educators we must be continuously educating ourselves, understanding and be truly committed. The cause of liberation of Palestine required you to be up-to-date not only on the foundational work... but the swathes of materials being produced by our colleagues in Palestine, [who] are being erased off the face of the earth. You have to be committed to do the educational work yourself.”
“You have to unashamedly declare your position as being against anti-Palestinian racism. As being for Palestinian determination and resistance. If you can’t make that commitment, then you don’t have a right to occupy the space to talk about Palestine. Many people have vulnerabilities that undermine their ability to do this. If you have those vulnerabilities, we are sympathetic but if that is the case- vacate the space.”
“Let’s own our language. Let’s be bold and determined to call Zionism what it is.”
Watch his full input below!
Bana Abu Zuluf
is a Palestinian educator and interdisciplinary PhD researcher in International Law in the School of Law and Criminology in Maynooth, Ireland. Bana focused on demystifying Palestine
“I know people are keeping an eye on what’s happening in Gaza but they are not understanding it in the broader light of Zionism and its project in Palestine. There is a danger tendency to complicate what’s going on in Palestine. In fact, it’s quite simple.”
“Looking at settler colonialism and the displacement of Palestinians... it’s very important not to focus on certain events but to focus on it as a structure. I think educators need to focus on it has a structure. And when speaking about genocide they need to relate to it as a part of colonial erasure.”
“I want educators to go deeper and look into Zionism as a settler colonial ideology. The issue here is that the people see Israel, Zionism, and settler colonialism. They don’t really merge those together.”
Check out her full input below!
“I know people are keeping an eye on what’s happening in Gaza but they are not understanding it in the broader light of Zionism and its project in Palestine. There is a danger tendency to complicate what’s going on in Palestine. In fact, it’s quite simple.”
“Looking at settler colonialism and the displacement of Palestinians... it’s very important not to focus on certain events but to focus on it as a structure. I think educators need to focus on it has a structure. And when speaking about genocide they need to relate to it as a part of colonial erasure.”
“I want educators to go deeper and look into Zionism as a settler colonial ideology. The issue here is that the people see Israel, Zionism, and settler colonialism. They don’t really merge those together.”
Check out her full input below!
Andrew Phelan
, co-founder of Teachers for Palestine offered more practical insights from his perspective as a Post-Primary Physical Education teacher, currently teaching in a school in Dublin and how Teachers for Palestine began. He gave a fast paced tour of all the ways which teachers can educate about Palestine.
“We noticed... you can’t do that fundraiser here, or you can’t teach about that history in your class. You can’t bring in a speaker from Palestine here. You can’t do those things. Because it’s too political is what Principals were saying. This is not coming from the Department of Education.... because some Principals were doing it and doing a fantastic job.”
“We started to look at all the different subjects, and it’s very important to see there’s lots of different avenues in our curriculum. There are loads and loads of opportunities and there’s actually no excuse for us not to teach it.”
Andrew took participants through the Let’s Talk About Palestine resources for educators LetsTalkAboutPalestine “You don’t have to go to your Principal. You can just teach your subject using the curriculum and using Palestine as your lense. There’s really no excuse there.”
You can watch Andrew's input in a video below!
“We noticed... you can’t do that fundraiser here, or you can’t teach about that history in your class. You can’t bring in a speaker from Palestine here. You can’t do those things. Because it’s too political is what Principals were saying. This is not coming from the Department of Education.... because some Principals were doing it and doing a fantastic job.”
“We started to look at all the different subjects, and it’s very important to see there’s lots of different avenues in our curriculum. There are loads and loads of opportunities and there’s actually no excuse for us not to teach it.”
Andrew took participants through the Let’s Talk About Palestine resources for educators LetsTalkAboutPalestine “You don’t have to go to your Principal. You can just teach your subject using the curriculum and using Palestine as your lense. There’s really no excuse there.”
You can watch Andrew's input in a video below!
Finally, Aline Batarseh, Executive Director of Visualizing Palestine. Aline is a Palestine from occupied Jerusalem, based in the US. Aline talked about Visualizing Palestine and their approach using data and research to visually communicate Palestinian experiences and provoke a change of traditional narratives. She also spoke about how educators can practically use the resources when you are educating about Palestine.
“We have to address what’s happening in Palestine as a whole rather than as a fragment. This is a challenge when we talk about Gaza. The Israeli genocide in Gaza is not an isolated incident and it is our responsibility to place it in historical context. During the Nakba commemoration in 2024 we produced this visual to really show this ongoing Nakba, this ongoing expulsion, ongoing destruction of homes of villages of people’s lives, ongoing massacres, ongoing colinisation and Zionist idealogy.
See Aline's input below!
“We have to address what’s happening in Palestine as a whole rather than as a fragment. This is a challenge when we talk about Gaza. The Israeli genocide in Gaza is not an isolated incident and it is our responsibility to place it in historical context. During the Nakba commemoration in 2024 we produced this visual to really show this ongoing Nakba, this ongoing expulsion, ongoing destruction of homes of villages of people’s lives, ongoing massacres, ongoing colinisation and Zionist idealogy.
See Aline's input below!
Related Articles
Related Articles

October 20, 2026
Date: 25 November, 10.00am - 4.00pm Location: Brandsma Room, Carmelite Centre, Aungier St, Dublin 2 This workshop will provide an opportunity to explore the findings and recommendations of the Global North-Global South Partnerships in GCE Research , commissioned by Concern Worldwide . The event will bring together organisations working in Global Citizenship Education (GCE) to discuss the research findings, share experiences of partnership-building, and reflect on good practices for equitable and meaningful collaboration. Participants will also have the opportunity to consider how partnerships can be developed and strengthened to support GCE work and contribute to mutual learning across different contexts. The workshop is open to organisations and practitioners with an interest in Global Citizenship Education, research, and international partnership development.

October 6, 2026
IDEA calls for GCE to be included in Northern Ireland’s new curriculum framework IDEA recently shared its views on the new draft Northern Ireland Curriculum Framework as part of the public consultation, which closed on 30 September. Our submission welcomed the framework’s aim to give learners “access to powerful knowledge and develop the skills needed to participate fully in society, the economy and civic life.” However, we also highlighted a key gap: “global” has been dropped from the scope of citizenship education within the curriculum. Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is not mentioned at all. Alongside an important focus on the local reality in the North, we consider it vital that the curriculum also addresses the global reality. As UNESCO puts it, “economically, environmentally, socially and politically, we are linked to other people on the planet as never before” (UNESCO, 2026). We recommended integrating key dimensions of GCE and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into the framework without creating a new strand or making widespread amendments. Changes to the language and framing could embed GCE and ESD principles in the core capabilities and in subjects such as Geography, History, English and Drama, and Personal, Social, Civic and Careers (PSCC). Our recommendations echoed the key asks of the CADA submission . IDEA also contributed to that submission through a focus group discussion and by reviewing and providing feedback on the draft. Our recommendations were to: Include GCE and ESD as concepts in the capabilities document and cross-reference them in the subjects for Geography, History, English and Drama and PSCC. Include the concept of global citizenship in the capabilities document and in PSCC, as a distinct but complementary concept to citizenship and civic understanding. Include the concepts of solidarity, justice and local-global interconnection and interdependence (and thus shared responsibility) in the subjects English and Drama and PSCC. Increase the progression of human rights knowledge in PSCC across Stages towards its global application by Key Stage 3. Add shared responsibility and justice as key dimensions of sustainable development and global inequality to the environmental and ecological responsibility capability, as well as to Geography. Include addressing misinformation, disinformation and factchecking under the language and communication capability and in English and PSCC. Build on Northern Ireland’s experience of peace education by including opportunities, particularly in History and PSCC, for pupils to explore connections between peace and reconciliation locally and globally as part of GCE and ESD. Thank you to IDEA members who reviewed our submission and provided feedback. You can read our full submission here .

September 26, 2026
Date: Tuesday 01 December, 10.00am – 4.00pm Location: Richmond Barracks, Inchicore, Dublin 8, D08 YY05 IDEA is looking forward to welcoming all members of the Code of Good Practice for Development Education to our next Code network meeting on Tuesday 1 December, in Richmond Barracks in Inchicore, Dublin. There are places for two representatives, staff, volunteers, etc., from each Code member. One of the commitments in joining the Code is to contribute to the Community of Practice for this Code, including sharing successes and learning with other Code members and attending at least one of two Code network meetings annually. If you have questions, please contact code@ideaonline.ie.










