cause he is Jewish

Why not say that to the people defending Israel as well?

For those who are saying his visit was cancelled due to his "political views" are you kidding me - people walk in and out of a school all of the time and a huge amount of them will be supportive of Israel but are not banned. This event had nothing to do with Israel. The people threatening actions targeted him because he was Jewish, he had a public profile and supported Israel.

I am so sick of people trying to pretend antisemitism doesn't exist and its just about disagreeing with someone else's political views. If a school stopped a black person from attending a random school event because they had publicly supported "black lives matter" would anyone agree when they claimed it wasn't racism, it was just a concern with their political viewpoint? Of course not - it would quite rightly be seen as blatant racism.

This thread is about the cancellation of Damien Egan's talk at a British school about democracy and his career as an MP. CITME is that way 👉

Israeli soldier describes arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza

https://news.sky.com/story/israeli-soldier-describes-arbitrary-killing-of-civilians-in-gaza-13393422

Yup. The poster is doing that thing that anti-Israel propagandists do so very, very well which is they take something that is happening to Jews and Israelis and pretending it's actually happening to them. So because this MP is considered by useful idiots to be pro-Israel there have been efforts to ensure he can't do his job properly, so they're now pretending that's what is happening to the anti-Israel brigade. It's pathetic.

Absolutely, it's always the same attempts to inflame and derail.

Agreed. Making sweeping statements like this just exhibits the poster’s sheer lack of understanding of Middle Eastern politics, war, terrorism, etc. The CITME board won’t be providing the nuanced information needed to change this unfortunately.

Great, and how many people has Damien Egan killed? Or are you supporting him not being allowed to visit the school purely because he doesn't believe in eradicating the state of Israel? And if that's not the reason you're supporting him not being allowed to visit the school, why are you supporting it? What exactly has he said or done that makes you think he's not safe to have at a school?

No, there isn't. What nonsense.

I keep typing a longer response and deleting it. No point really, this is a ridiculous thing to say.

Not in any way.

ETA and also not at all what this thread is about. If you want to talk about the conflict, CITME is that way 👉

IDF kills indiscriminately, Hamas kills indiscriminately. Both as bad as each other.

Yes - accused - but that doesn’t mean the country is filled with bad people. Have a look at our politicians! Or any other countries really. Plenty of bad apples everywhere. No one escapes wartime looking perfect because war is brutal and cruel and terrible.

From the statement by the school (not university) he was due to visit; Damien Egan is British MP who "as a high-achieving alumnus of the CLF [Cabot Learning Federation], and in common with other local MPs from across the political spectrum – was invited in September to visit Bristol Brunel Academy, a secondary school situated in his constituency of Bristol North East ...to discuss democracy and the role of an MP, while helping to raise aspirations among students who may have an interest in pursuing similar career paths."

Unlike some people, I'm sure he's capable of talking about more than one subject, I'm relatively sure there are rules about not lobbying in schools of which, as an MP, he'd be cognisant of and maybe you could do just the bare minimum in looking up what Labour Friends of Israel actually do and their policy initiatives.

The Bristol Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the NEU representatives who want to suppress free speech, free will, education, aspiration and threaten the safety of Jews and children in a completely different democratic country bear considerably more relation to Hamas, who most definitely consider the Palestinians to be expendable.

Some members of the Israeli regime are accused of brutal war crimes.

Also Lobbying for Hamas =/= lobbying for Israel.

in case anyone is unclear - Hamas is a brutal terrorist organisation. Every member of Hamas is hateful and deserves no support whatsoever. Israel is a country filled with all different people with a variety of beliefs. There are good and bad people like anywhere else. There are no good people in Hamas.

I doubt they would have sanctioned a Hamas speaker’s visit to the school. But perhaps you have evidence that disproves this(?)

What an odd analogy. Hamas are a proscribed terrorist organisation, Israel is a state. Not comparable, are they.

What is it specifically about Egan’s activities and the activities of the Labour Friends of Israel that you feel warrants him being deprived of the freedoms that other UK subjects have?

I think it sounds a lot like teachers at the school don't mind killings of children as long as those children are Israeli. And I agree, someone like that shouldn't be working in a school. So at least we can agree on one thing.

What do you mean by "lobbies for Israel"? I suspect you don't actually know what the group in question actually stands for and are doing as others on here and just regurgitating fun little soundbites from TikTok.

Fascinated to hear some people defending the decision to cancel the talk because of safety concerns due to the protest... when same people usually insist these pro- Palestinian protests are always peaceful and not full of hate. Which is it? Dangerous to kids or not?

I’m not sure anyone for any nation should be allowed to lobby at universities.

The argument that Palestinians don’t have rights skates too close to the idea that they are expendable.

I think this is not the case. My 2 are in year 7 and 11 and have never been 'indoctrinated'. Also, education starts at home, if there is anything school do that you don't like from a political perspective, you talk about it and teach your offspring to think critically and express themselves clearly in discussion without the need for hyperbole.

If pro Israel is bad then why is pro Palestine good? Palestine is controlled by Hamas, a terrorist group. There’s very little rights for women and girls in Palestine including girls being married when they’re a child. Both countries have done awful things to each other.

He is vice-Chairman for Labour Friends of Israel that lobbies for Israel.

If the university had allowed a lobbyist for Hamas people would be up in arms.