Making the Labour party a safe place for Jewish people by eradicating antisemitic abuse from within the party

Joined February 2017
Antisemitism campaigners tell Burnham: ‘Don’t work with Greens on councils’ - Controversial ‘Zionism is racism’ policy means power-sharing deals should end, say Labour activists 🧵 @andyburnham @UKLabour telegraph.co.uk/politics/202…
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📣 Alex Hearn, of Labour Against Antisemitism, said: 'It is staggering that the BBC invited him to come on air and then gave him free rein to launch a disgusting attack against a Jewish guest and tell her she was wrong about her identity and experiences of anti–Semitism.'
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Sir Ed Davey facing calls to rule out local council alliances between Liberal Democrats and Greens: - The Liberal Democrat leader ruled out a pact with the Green Party nationally thejc.com/news/politics/sir-…
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Macklemore should be banned from the UK because his concert will raise money for a terror-linked pro-Palestine group: our letter to the Home Secretary telegraph.co.uk/gift/0742835…
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A few weeks ago, Mark Blake, the hard left leader of @haringeycouncil (which was won by @HaringeyGreens) had to issue an extraordinary statement to the thousands of Jews in the area that we would not be less safe after his party’s ’Zionism is racism’ motion. But now he’s written to the area’s three Labour MPs and it rather does expose the pure Jew hatred at the heart of his movement. He writes: ‘The weaponisation of antisemitism does a disservice to Jewish people and especially to Palestinians. Palestinians, and those who stand alongside them, must not be required to abandon their critique of a political ideology that has been used to dispossess Palestinians of their homes, displace them from their land, and justify a genocide.’ Mark Blake knows the local synagogues and Jewish schools have death threats. That they have to be surrounded by security guards, steel gates and CCTV cameras. He knows that Jews living in his area are afraid and under attack. And yet he continues to put a target on our backs with his dangerous and inflammatory rhetoric. In fact, he’s so proud of it, he stuck it on Instagram.
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He’s absolutely right. The sheer callousness of these morally righteous pricks never ceases to amaze me
If you need to see how far the left has fallen into a sewer of antisemitism, just look how they react towards a report written on the antisemitism Jewish schoolchildren experience in British schools. An appalling disgrace that no other community would be expected to tolerate.
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If a right wing commentator posted a 16-tweet thread trying to dismiss and undermine an official report into any other type of racism, Owen Jones would be the first to call them racist. But when it comes to antisemitism, he is first in line with the 'debunking'. What a hypocrite.
When the government announced the review, the terms of reference stated: “It is not a review of the level of antisemitism in schools and colleges.” Yet the alleged level because the headline - based on a sample of 70 students. 29 said they'd personally experienced antisemitism
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Shows how little the @NEUnion understands of what goes on in schools. There already IS a hierarchy of racism - antisemitism is a footnote in the antiracism strategy. Maybe if Jewish pupils were treated the same as other minorities we wouldn’t have this problem. They’re not “privileged” they’re discriminated.
The nastiest aspect of the reaction to the Bell Report about school antisemitism is the claim it *privileges* Jews. Indeed @NEUnion says it will create a "hierarchy of racism" if it's outside wider antiracism training. Yet NEU's *own antiracism training* erases antisemitism. 1/7
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This statement from teaching union boss @DanielKebedeNEU is deeply troubling not just for opposing the use of an internationally accepted definition of antisemitism but for his repeated use of the word ‘genocide’. He should understand that there is no official finding of genocide: that can only be decided by the ICJ. And while there are political machinations afoot to change the definition of genocide so that it can, in affect, mean any deaths in war, at the moment the definition remains static. The idea that a man (a man who called to ‘globalise the intifada’ and then said he didn’t know what it means) who throws around the genocide libel has any idea of truth let alone what antisemitism is and how it manifests means his continued tenure at the head of the NEU is a travesty for all the good teachers out there who don’t want to see any children bullied for their ethnicity.
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The NEU antisemitism training loop
The nastiest aspect of the reaction to the Bell Report about school antisemitism is the claim it *privileges* Jews. Indeed @NEUnion says it will create a "hierarchy of racism" if it's outside wider antiracism training. Yet NEU's *own antiracism training* erases antisemitism. 1/7
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📺 On Talk TV talking to @petercardwell about the teaching union backlash against recommendations to protect Jewish schoolchildren.
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“Andy Burnham has been urged by a Labourgroup to sack his national security adviser after his wife was accused of making anti-Jewish comments. Labour Against Antisemitism has written to the Prime Minister to demand that Jonathan Powell ‘resign or be sacked’ as the group claims his wife, Sarah Helm, poses ‘security concerns’.” dailymail.com/news/article-1…
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Since October 7th I have supported at least 15 families, & teachers, in the East Sussex area who have had issues with antisemitism in their children’s schools or workplace. Many local authorities have adopted sophisticated anti-racism strategies for their schools but antisemitism is always an afterthought, if it figures at all. The most minoritised children in our school systems are Jewish children, often only 1 or 2 in a yr group of 350+. Many now hide their identity, afraid to admit their religion or heritage. Anti-racism strategies & policies have shut out the Jewish community. It is time the govt ensured Jewish children are safe in our school system. I hope @BrightonHoveCC will be adopting these recommendations asap.
🚨 NEW: The Government has accepted all 27 recommendations from the report to end antisemitism in schools and colleges 1. Recognise antisemitism as a distinct form of hatred, not just general racism 2. Strengthen political impartiality guidance, including limits on teachers wearing pro-Palestine badges 3. Establish a national hotline for school leaders dealing with antisemitism 4. Improve teaching about contemporary antisemitism and modern Jewish life 5. Teach pupils to recognise and challenge antisemitic conspiracy theories 6. Include antisemitism explicitly in school safeguarding policies 7. Train teachers to recognise and tackle antisemitism 8. Work with the Home Office and the Prevent programme to help schools identify when antisemitism may be linked to radicalisation 9. Encourage schools to adopt the IHRA working definition of antisemitism 10. Improve procedures for reporting antisemitic incidents, including signposting 11. Ensure antisemitic bullying and complaints are investigated and acted on consistently 12. Make clear in staff conduct policies that antisemitism is unacceptable 13. Strengthen Holocaust education, including antisemitism's role in the Holocaust, and encourage schools to mark Holocaust Memorial Day 14. Create more opportunities for pupils to engage with Jewish communities, including visits to synagogues 15. Make sure Judaism and modern Jewish life are properly represented in religious education 16. Improve media literacy so pupils can also identify online antisemitism 17. Provide better resources for teaching the Israel-Palestine conflict fairly and sensitively 18. Ensure schools have clear policies for dealing with antisemitism involving external speakers 19. Ensure education unions have clear antisemitism policies 20. Establish a dedicated support service to help schools, colleges and councils deal with antisemitism 21. Use some of the Government's security funding to help Jewish schools and colleges undertake educational visits safely 22. Run a campaign to tackle antisemitic behaviour at transport hubs near Jewish schools and colleges 23. Provide Jewish school and college leaders with mentoring and more security advice 24. Strengthen accountability for schools that fail to deal properly with antisemitism 25. Enable Ofsted and the Independent Schools Inspectorate to assess how schools tackle antisemitism 26. Make local councils identify local patterns of antisemitism and help schools respond 27. Share effective practice and guidance between schools and colleges
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The NEU which is the largest education union in the UK just REJECTED the government’s key recommendations on antisemitism. Despicable but unsurprising given that their head Daniel Kebede shouted to “Globalise the Intifada” in 2021. This is a huge part of the problem.
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Sir Ed Davey facing calls to rule out local council alliances between Liberal Democrats and Greens: - The Liberal Democrat leader ruled out a pact with the Green Party nationally thejc.com/news/politics/sir-…
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📣 Labour Against Antisemitism’s letter to the PM about Jonathan Powell – now on the BBC (bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cke8…), and in the sun (thesun.co.uk/news/40767967/l…)
🚨 In a letter to Andy Burnham, Labour Against Antisemitism said: “Your national security adviser’s wife, Sarah Helm, has written of ‘the Jewish lobby’ and its access to prime ministers. “Partners are part of developed vetting. Either Jonathan Powell lacks full clearance, vetting missed this, or saw it. Each is indefensible. “You promised zero tolerance on anti-Semitism. Mr Powell’s position is untenable, and his wife raises security concerns. He must resign or be sacked.” telegraph.co.uk/politics/202…
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