{"id":89619,"date":"2025-09-12T18:06:48","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T23:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=89619"},"modified":"2025-09-12T18:06:48","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T23:06:48","slug":"buenos-aires-mayor-vows-to-punish-teacher-who-waved-palestinian-flag-during-school-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/buenos-aires-mayor-vows-to-punish-teacher-who-waved-palestinian-flag-during-school-ceremony\/","title":{"rendered":"Buenos Aires mayor vows to punish teacher who waved Palestinian flag during school ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By JUAN MELAMED<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) \u2014 BUENOS AIRES \u2014&nbsp;The mayor of Buenos Aires is moving to punish an elementary school teacher who posted a video of himself unfurling a Palestinian flag and asking his students to applaud \u201cfor the teachers in Gaza and the children of Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_89620\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-bg-2160x1200-2-14.avif\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-89620\" class=\"wp-image-89620\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-bg-2160x1200-2-14.avif\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-89620\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Federico Puy, a teacher in Buenos Aires, is facing penalties after unfurling a Palestinian flag at a school assembly. (Screenshot)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The city is opening disciplinary proceedings against Federico Puy, a left-wing activist and teachers union leader, over the incident, which took place Thursday on the Argentine holiday known as Teacher\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted to pay a small tribute to the teachers of Gaza, to the children in Palestine who are being killed by the massacre carried out by the State of Israel, and also to those traveling on the flotilla trying to reach the West Bank,\u201d Puy told assembled students, according to the widely circulated video. \u201dSo I brought a Palestinian flag and I ask for a big round of applause.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His audience applauded as instructed.<\/p>\n<p>The Argentine Jewish political umbrella organization DAIA decried the incident and said it represented a bastardization of Teacher\u2019s Day, which honors an educator who was influential in Argentina\u2019s development and became its president in the 19th century.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis behavior is extremely serious, not only because it distorts the main purpose of the event, but also because of the impact that an educator\u2019s words, silences, and gestures can have on students and families,\u201d DAIA said in a statement. \u201cLegitimizing Jew-hatred by abusing such a sensitive role as that of a teacher undermines the basic principles of democracy and equality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Explicitly political advocacy in the classroom is banned under Argentine law. But the bid to punish Puy also comes as Argentina is one of the few countries whose government remains staunchly supportive of the Israeli government two years into the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Jorge Macri, elected in 2023, is a member of Propuesta Republicana, a center-right political party that has allied with President Javier Milei, a personal and political supporter of Israel. A cousin of the party\u2019s leader Mauricio Macri, a past mayor of Buenos Aires who was president of Argentina from 2015 to 2019, Jorge Macri was endorsed by Milei.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"es\" dir=\"ltr\">Una bandera Palestina en m\u00ed escuela. Un acto diferente. En el d\u00eda del maestrx, m\u00ed homenaje a las y los maestros de Gaza, a las infancias asesinadas por el ej\u00e9rcito de Israel y a la resistencia palestina. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4h3K6iuTlb\">pic.twitter.com\/4h3K6iuTlb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Federico Puy (@fedepuy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/fedepuy\/status\/1965889929663381547?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 10, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat happened in this school is very serious and the person responsible will be sanctioned with the full weight of the regulations,\u201d Macri tweeted. \u201cUsing the classroom to impose an ideology is indoctrination we will not allow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Education Minister Mercedes Miguel noted that the country\u2019s Teacher Statute establishes a duty to \u201ceducate with absolute independence from partisan or religious beliefs, promoting democratic principles and respect for human rights.\u201d He called Puy\u2019s conduct \u201cinadmissible\u201d and said an administrative inquiry would be opened under city rules requiring political neutrality in schools.<\/p>\n<p>Puy is the press secretary of the Ademys teachers union, which issued a statement defending him and denouncing the ministry\u2019s response as \u201cpersecution.\u201d His supporters, including a lawmaker who raised his case in the legislature, argued that he did not make a partisan statement and that his message supporting the children of Gaza, who have largely not attended school for nearly two years, was in keeping with the theme of Teacher\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n<p>Teachers unions in the United States and beyond have long been a frontier of tension over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, dating before the current war in Gaza.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Buenos%20Aires%20mayor%20vows%20to%20punish%20teacher%20who%20waved%20Palestinian%20flag%20during%20school%20ceremony\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":89620,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,27],"tags":[1867,2813,8790,8795,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89619"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89621,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89619\/revisions\/89621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}