The Massachusetts Teachers Association’s leaders are facing heat after the MTA board called for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, and said Israel’s government is carrying out a “genocidal war on the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

Jewish groups are slamming the MTA Board of Directors for the motion that supports a cease-fire, and a local teachers union is urging the MTA Board of Directors to retract its “antisemitic dog-whistling” statement.

The MTA board recently approved the following motion:

“The MTA will join in solidarity with the UAW, CTU, and other labor unions across the country, in calling for an immediate and permanent cease-fire. The MTA President and Vice President will urge the president of the NEA to pressure President Biden to stop funding and sending weapons in support of the Netanyahu government’s genocidal war on the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

The Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston are now condemning this statement from the MTA board.

The MTA motion “camouflages within its call for a cease-fire an ill-founded attack on Israel — a perverse position given that Israeli civilians were the victims of the heinous Hamas-led terrorist attack on October 7,” said Rabbi Jonah Steinberg, the ADL New England regional director.

“The MTA has a responsibility, as representative of educators in our Commonwealth, to do its homework,” Steinberg added. “In this instance, it has not.”

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Any cease-fire resolution should include an explicit condemnation of the Hamas terrorist attack, a call for a return of the Israeli hostages, and for the removal of Hamas as a controlling actor in Gaza, according to the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston.

“The MTA’s cease-fire resolution does not address any of these realities,” JCRC added. “We expect better from our educational partners.”

The Newton Teachers Association is disassociating itself from the MTA board’s statement and “in particular from its antisemitic dog-whistling,” said Newton Teachers Association President Mike Zilles. Newton has a significant Jewish population and is home to several synagogues.

“The motion and rationale approved by the MTA Board captures how the tragedy impacts many innocent Palestinians in Gaza,” Zilles said. “But the statement fails completely to hold in mind the atrocities against Israelis on October 7, the complexity of the situation, and the trauma, pain, and fallout the Israeli, American, and international Jewish communities are experiencing.”

The motion will “provoke further antisemitism, and it is callous,” added Zilles, who said the Newton Teachers Association is calling on the MTA Board to retract its statement.

Last month, the MTA Executive Committee voted to join other labor unions in calling for a cease-fire and a return of the Israeli hostages, while condemning any hate crimes against Muslims, Jews, or anyone else.

“The Massachusetts Teachers Association abhors the atrocities and terrible loss of life occurring in the war between Israel and Hamas, beginning with the horrific attack of Oct. 7,” MTA President Max Page and MTA Vice President Deb McCarthy said in a joint statement this week.

“Our Board of Directors voted to support our members and students by promoting education about this difficult history and the present situation, as well as to call on the National Education Association to support a cease-fire, which it has now done,” they added. “These decisions stem from a belief that human suffering in the region must end and we must all work together to support a rapid move toward lasting solutions for peaceful co-existence in the region.”