Toward a curriculum strike for Palestine

Vigil against the genocide in Gaza at the Israeli embassy in Mexico City in October of 2023. Photo © María Ruíz.

Opinion • No dejemos de hablar de Palestina • August 15, 2025 • Leer en castellano 

Last week, students and teachers at universities across Mexico returned to class. And instead of following our lecture plans, a group of professors decided to teach about Palestine.

In the first few days of the academic year, we’ve discussed many of our concerns with our students. We’ve talked about our frustration at the impunity surrounding the genocide in Gaza, about how hard it is to get organized with limited resources, and about confusing media coverage that hinders access to accurate information.

We’ve also examined the internal divisions in Zionist debate since the early 20th century, and learned about the difference between Zionism and Judaism. We’ve identified and critiqued the colonial logic at play; the separation between lives that are valued, protected, and defended, and those deemed worthless.

Our decision to focus solely on Palestine stems from the devastating certainty that if the genocide in Gaza is allowed to continue, the words we use in our classrooms to communicate, nurture, and defend the humanities and social sciences will lose their meaning.

Students at the UPN 171 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, learned about Palestine instead of their regular subjects when they returned to class on August 14, 2025. Photo courtesy of authors.

Various university colleagues in Mexico have suspended routine academic activities in our classrooms, sparking off a curriculum strike. Our initiative has been shared informally among professors and teachers through WhatsApp groups, with no centralized call to action. We write anonymously today to honor the collective character of these actions, as well as to protect participants who prefer not to be identified.

So far, individual professors have begun the school year with discussions on Palestine at the National Autonomous University of Mexico; the National Pedagogical University-Unit 171 in Cuernavaca, Morelos; Ibero University and the Autonomous University of Mexico City; and the National School of Post Secondary Studies in Morelia, Michoacán.

Protesting for Palestine

In the weeks before the start of the school year in Mexico, the conversation among teachers was rooted in the deep concerns we shared.

How were we going to start a new school year alongside genocide?

We asked ourselves how we could possibly uphold the normal behavior that was expected of us and continue to teach as if nothing was happening. And above all, we asked what would be the point of doing so during a massacre that undermines all that sustains human life?

In May of 2024, following the invasion of Rafah, a group of people protested violence against Palestinians in front of the Israeli embassy in Mexico City. Photo © María Ruíz.

At the heart of these questions is the role of educational institutions. We believe that instead of business as usual, they should be places for critical thinking and action.

And we know our academic work only makes sense in this historical moment if we actively oppose atrocity. 

That’s when we started thinking about a strike. Not a conventional strike, where we walk out of our classrooms, but a curriculum strike, where what we put on hold is “normalcy” and the requirement to continue with our coursework, teaching as we would on any other day.

This week, individual professors around the country joined in and launched the curriculum strike. We sit together, side by side, building shared awareness of what is happening. Building understanding that allowing genocide in Gaza will condemn us to silence and allow the impunity of that destructive power.

Nothing is more urgent right now than to take a stand against this horror.

This is our duty as human beings. And we have the power of knowledge and dialogue on our side. The most important task we face in the classroom is to sit in our discomfort until the status quo is revealed for what it really is—impossible. 

In November of 2023 one of the first protests for Palestine was called in México. Hundreds of people marched from the Victorial Alada statue to the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City. Photo © María Ruíz.

We will talk about Palestine for as long as necessary and for however long each of us is able. Some professors have hung Palestinian flags in their classrooms to show that theirs is a space where people are working together against brutality.

We recognize that each university and classroom has its specificities, and we invite others to tailor this initiative to their specific context, while sharing the common goal of keeping Palestine in the conversation.

Our starting point is that everyone's efforts count. The aim of the curriculum strike is to build a common understanding against barbarity.