To think this attack on London Jewish schoolchildren should have been headline news

[ThisPerkySheep]

I have been waiting for this story to go mainstream, and I’m shocked that it hasn’t.

So far, it seems only the Daily Mail has reported on it - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14142235/amp/Jewish-children-terrified-thugs-London-bus-rocks-Israel.html.

When are we going to start taking the threats against Jews in the UK seriously and actually do something about it?

Well many thanks to all the minimising and worse posters on this thread. You've made me realise that I was completely right to invest my time and money ( have to travel a fair distance) to go to the March Against Anti-Semitism this weekend. By God this March is needed. All anti-racists should be there if they can.

No, don't add to it. You're making it worse than it already is.

I don't think large groups of kids throwing missiles at buses is a daily occurrence, actually. It's probably very rare. It's difficult to get a good sense of scale but this sounds like a much bigger affair than your average street scuffle between teenagers.

I would be very interested to see if this is reported on further and find out if this was an unprovoked attack on Jewish school children or an incident in an ongoing issue between rival schools.

I'm fairly local and have seen multiple studies and fights between school kids over the years. The filming aspect is sadly also very common. I have definitely seen incidents including jfs kids on jubilee line who behave pretty badly (but not especially badly or notably worse than other schools). I would have assumed kids on private paid for buses weren't normally involved in this kind of issue to the same extent those in public transport. I have a definite bias for my first assumption being it was a badly behaved teenagers issue and that often parents don't seem to believe their little darlings can have done any wrong.

Really? Bloody hell. Yep. Should have made more news sources.

Despicable. You don't take out your grievances with a foreign government on kids who have nothing to do with it.

A relative taught in a Jewish primary school in London for over 35 years. She retired 10 years ago.

Her stories of what happened to her pupils through the years sadly tell me that this news isn't news. It's far more common than realised and these attacks have been happening since at least the 80s.

I was horrified when she told me about the lockdown drills the pupils were having throughout her career. Lockdown drills are far more common now, but they were unheard of in the UK in the 80s/90s

I've name changed for this as it's outing.
My (now adult) DCs went to that school not so long ago and got one of the 'school buses' (not that route) and I am very upset at this news (I did know about it, but it hasn't been widely reported). Those buses go straight in to the school grounds so are seen as 'safer' by parents as there's no walking to or from nearby bus stops or the tube, but unfortunately that doesn't stop individuals getting on the bus at regular stops, although they are usually full of school kids so who really wants to!
These assailants went on to the bus shouting anti-semitic abuse and throwing dirt. It wasn't just throwing stuff 'at the bus' (which is also unacceptable, but at least a bus is an inanimate object).
Obviously Jewish school children have nothing to do with the politcs of Israel or what is going on in Gaza, so to me it is just an excuse for rabid antisemitism to become more 'acceptable'. I hope the reason for less wider reporting was because of copy cat fears, but I doubt it.
Unfortunately the issues in Israel/Palestine are couching antisemitism in the veil of antizionism. Zionist has always been a byword for Jew.
To anyone posting vile messages on here, please try and educate yourselves, it's not hard. You're showing yourselves up for the ignoramuses that you are.
MN - any chance of banning posters who spout Jew hate (or hate for any race).

Maybe children on a private school bus travelling to school had it coming? Is that your point?

Erm… I was replying to someone who said that this wouldn’t be reported on if it was any other demographic. I disagreed.

I didn’t make it about anything.

It's not 'misbehaviour' - it's Jew hate. Let's get the terminology right here or we'll never progress.
I don't think teenage thugs getting on a bus and throwing dirt and shouting antisemitic abuse is 'not behaving well'. Come on! As I said in my repsonse to the OP, my DCs went to this school over a period of 9 years between them and never met such abuse.

JFS isn't a private school so your point is moot.
Yes, there used to be rivalry between schools. I went to JFS when it was in Camden and there were often fights between us and local schools but not like this, These were innocent kids on their bus, not rolling up their sleeves for a fight.

It was a question not an accusation.

Private school bus. Not private school. As in, not a public bus.

Because it’s school kids. 11 year olds going to school by bus. If you can’t see it’s particularly awful to terrorise children, I don’t know what to say to you.

We have a major problem round here with kids chucking stuff at other school buses. One of my kids currently has a minor injury from it.

I still think this should be in the news more because it's not the same.

Throwing rocks, actually biarding the bus and targeting it specifically to shout anti Semitic things is vastly different** to some bored kids taking advantage of being finished first to chuck a few stones and shout "your school is shit". So different.

As is the fact the bus driver didn't call the police or report it. That's the bit that should be headline for me. The adult in charge of the bus did nothing about reporting this attack. Presumably they too just felt like many on this thread.

It is a public bus though, a school route, but a public bus funded by TFL

I think I can pretty much guarantee that they are anti-Semites - random thugs might throw stones at a bus, but they don't rush onto it shouting 'Fuck Israel', they don't tend to have much of an interest in world politics. I doubt that they've developed an interest in the Middle East from reading the Guardian but have conflated anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.

This isn't about rivalry between different schools, this is about kids who have been exposed to anti-Semitic ideas in the home or community and are acting on them.

No..... And I don't think that's a sensible conclusion to draw from what I wrote. My point was I would be interested to find out if after the police investigation it is as described in the article or part of a bigger issue.

I've been at Edgware bus station/high street and seen multiple fights between teen groups over the years. I don't think these even make the local newspaper (even if say a glass bus window is smashed). Even stabbings don't make national news.

The JFS school statement itself makes reference to having previously co-operated with local schools around school rivalry incidents (which I have said this may or may not be).

@littleducks - you're very naive if you think this is rivalry between schools. And even if it was, what is your justification for the racist language?

To put religious hate crimes in perspective, a third of religious hate crime is against Jewish people, despite them being on 0.5% of the population. Religious hate crime against Jews in the UK has doubled since the Oct 7th terrorist attack by Hamas.

That's odd. I only have the article to go on but the police refer to it as a school bus and the DM say it is operated by a company called Uno. But if you have local knowledge on it then, I'll take your word for it.

It's clearly an antisemitic attack though, bus ownership not withstanding.

Absolutely this.
Its really appalling that people on this thread are trying to deny the racist anti-Semitism in this attack. The attackers sure weren't denying it.

These posters really need to look into themselves to reflect on why they are so keen to convince themselves this was not an anti-Semitic attack, given the attackers were so explicit to their victims that this was an ant- Semitic attack.

This is awful. Poor children they must have been very scared

The bus driver should have reported it

Those whose dc attend that school must be feeling terrible, they'll want their dc to be safe

Yes there are only about 300k Jewish people in the uk. We should also bear in mind when we see these stats that there are many Jewish people, like myself, who are not visibly Jewish...sorry I actually hate that term but couldn't think of a better way to express it. But just making the point that when I and many others walk down the road, people won't actually know they are....I dread to think what the stats would be otherwise.

None of those things are contradictory.

Schools frequently use private companies to run their school transportation, and the local authority covers the cost.

A bus is a “school bus” when it only takes pupils and no other passengers, even if an hour later it is in general use.