David Williams

I'm not going to name the school, but the @BBC's coverage of the antisemitism in schools report featured interviews with children from a Jewish school. Here's the rub, though. The school's own published curriculum explicitly teaches Zionism, celebrates the establishment of Israel and describes preparing pupils to become "positive advocates for Israel" at university. It even references bringing in organisations such as StandWithUs to prepare pupils for that advocacy. Now, let me be absolutely clear. There is nothing wrong with teaching Jewish history, culture or identity. And antisemitism must be challenged wherever it exists. But when children are actively encouraged to advocate for a particular state, rather than critically examine its history, policies and actions, surely we have to question whether this is education or ideological conditioning? And here's the staggering hypocrisy. We're being told that schools must exercise political impartiality when discussing Palestine, while a school can openly describe preparing children to advocate for Israel. Political impartiality cannot be a principle applied selectively, depending on which side of a conflict children are encouraged to support. And the BBC has a responsibility to scrutinise that distinction, not simply present children's views without examining the educational environment in which those views have developed. Children deserve an education that teaches them how to think, not what to think. @NEUnion @educationgovuk