(JNS) Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) is urging educational leaders to root out antisemitism in New York City schools after a pro-Palestinian teachers’ group published a biased statement of solidarity with Palestinians.

“I am deeply concerned to hear of the antisemitic and anti-Israel letter led by a group known as ‘New York City Educators for Palestine’ regarding the recent Hamas-Israel escalation, and I urge you to do everything in your power to combat antisemitic and anti-Israel bias and discrimination in public schools,” the legislator wrote in a letter to U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, New York Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa and New York City Department of Education Chancellor Meisha Porter.

In a July 11 statement, the group New York City Educators for Palestine expressed solidarity with “Palestinian teachers and students who live within the occupied territories, as well as within Israel’s borders,” and recognized the challenges they face as a result of Israel’s “program of ethnically cleansing Palestinians.”

The statement also claims that there are 10 attacks a month on Palestinian educators by Israeli authorities and calls on the United States and various education unions to boycott Israel until Israel ends “the ongoing occupation and colonization of all Palestinian land ….”

Zeldin said the letter accuses Israel of “terrorism, ethnic cleansing and other talking points all too commonly used to fuel violent attacks on and discrimination against Jews,” and that using such anti-Israel rhetoric in schools “will only escalate and embolden antisemitic attacks and vitriol throughout our country.”