cause he is Jewish

[Carycach4]

Apologies cant see a thread about this.
Staff at Bristol Brunel academy blocked a visit by Damien Egan, their local MP because he is Jewish. Clear case of antisemitism. AIBU to thinking that headteacher and those driving this decision should be sacked and reported to the Teacher Regulation Agency?
(Apologies thread title isnt correct, but i can't edit it)

So how exactly do you propose we determine where people's loyalties lie before deciding whether to deport them? I'm assuming every single person would have to sit this test because anyone could potentially have loyalties to another country, unless you think it should only be for specific groups? And if they can't be deported because they country they're supposedly loyal to won't take them, then what? I suppose we can just round them up and put them somewhere...

YABU and you know it!

I don’t support Netanyahu or his policies and I think he should be tried for war crimes.

However, that doesn’t mean I don’t love my Jewish relatives or that I’m anti Semitic. Far from it!

You can be a traitor without being violent. I would ideally like all traitors and people who would happily commit treason out of the country.

Split loyalty is a bit of a contradiction. Surely one is loyal or one is not loyal. One can have an affinity to three countries, but surely you cannot be loyal to three countries unless the three countries interest always align?

What? Ofcourse you can be loyal to more than one country.

One way would be to read their words - if they confess to treasonous thoughts then we could deport them.

Realistically, of course, we cannot deport everyone whose loyalty is not to the UK. My point was (and I quote myself) "I believe that it is reasonable to support the idea that if people's loyalty is to something other than UK, then we should try to deport them if we can."

Note - "it is reasonable to support..." not "I support..."
Note - "if people's loyalty is to something other than UK..." can equally apply to questioning everyone or looking out for the people whose actions or words are a confession. I was thinking of the latter not the former
Note - "we should try to deport them if we can." I recognized and acknowledged that it is not always possible to get rid of undesirables.

To paraphrase myself "in an ideal world it would be great if everyone in the UK was loyal to the UK, and that everyone not loyal were to leave".

What happens when the two countries go to war and both seek to conscript you? Can you still be loyal to both then?

Israel doesn't conscript diaspora Jews who are not Israeli. This is a paranoid fantasy. Are you seriously worried that Israel and Britain will go to war and Britain's Jewish community will mass emigrate to join the IDF to fight Britain, or try to bring down Britain from within?

All 250k of us bring down Britain 😂😂😂

Do you realise how anti semitic this post is? You are saying that a foreign nation (which is made up of Jews, christians, muslims and is constitutionally a secular country) will conscript non-national Jews… in, what, some sort of holy/religious war?

Less than 0.5% of the population, apparently. No wonder the politicians don't care about your vote. There are also plenty of Jews who are vocal in criticising Israel. I really think that as far as threats to national security go, this isn't one to keep people up at night.

I expect you are confused when they say they are anti the current Israel government which yes, many people are including Jewish people.

To say they are "anti Israel" would be like me saying I'm "anti British" when it's my nationality. Very strange thing to say.

Does this British MP support Netanyahu and his policies (rather than the state of Israel existing) and is he in any way responsible for it? He isn't going to a school to speak about Israel, so why is his personal presence being protested? What do those doing so imagine it will achieve?

Should Jewish people everywhere be "tried" in lieu of Netanyahu for his policies? I don't think the OP is being U here. Nor why they should "know it either. Theirs is a fair question. I can't see any other reason to protest a UK man talking about his own job on the basis he happens to be Jewish and believes Israel has the right to exist. He is not Netanyahu.

I guess I feel I can be proud of 3 different places for different reasons, disagree with them all at various points, and support them all through the Olympics without feeling it's a problem.

However... what would I do if two of them went to war? I honestly don't know. At the moment that's a crazy selection of options. Mostly I guess I would do whatever I needed to do to protect my children. I'm far less patriotic for any country than I am passionately interested in the safety of my family.

I was talking in a general sense. I was not talking about any group in particular.

If I were to single out a religious group on the uk who I fear contain many potential traitors, then jews would not be the first religious group that came to mind.

So what's an example of a "treasonous thought" that would have a British citizen deported, and what it that country refused to take them?

This thread has taken a turn ... from antisemitism to treason 😂

I'm struggling to find any evidence of Damien Egan visiting Israel in order to demonstrate his support for the onslaught on Gaza and "openly supporting Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza" as per the Bristol Palestine Solidarity Campaign' statement for trying to ban him from talking about his career in a school. As his husband is Israeli, it's perfectly possible they visited for personal reasons and also he can go where he likes.

He's been vocal in Parliament asking what's being done to neutralise Hamas influence and prevent their re-arming and about how to effectively supply aid to the Gazans and restore confidence in the aid organisations on the ground in Gaza, specifically UNWRA. He's expressed concerns about extremism and antisemitism, particularly in relation to how the Iranian regime's funding of Hamas and PIJ has negatively impacted upon the Palestinian people. He's supported the proscription of Palestine Action so maybe there's a clue there as to why he's been targeted by PSC.

If merely visiting a country is now indicative of automatically supporting the worst of that country's government and bad actors then maybe everyone should think twice about where they choose to holiday. Morocco? Currently occupying Western Sahara. Turkey? Currently occupying part of Cyprus and increasing violation of women's rights, femicide at an all time high. China? Currently carrying out a genocide of the Uyghur people. The US? Currently too many human rights abuses to name. Mexico for the World Cup? Where the tally of bags of human body parts excavated on one of the stadium sites now stands at 428, femicide at an all time high. South Africa? Brought the ICJ case against Israel but currently Israel's top supplier of coal when they took over after Colombia's export ban so they must support the Israeli government too.

Any issue with Qatar paying for British MPs of various parties to visit Qatar? Should those MPs then be protested and banned from visiting schools? Their accepting funded trips there despite the unexplained deaths of thousand of labourers during the construction of the World Cup stadium in 2022 indicates their clear support for slave labour and extreme human rights abuses.

Entirely fair enough. I have no problem with people of Indian origin cheering on India over England at the cricket. If it came to a war and they signed up for the Indian Army - very very different!!!

Presumably in order to protect your children you would support the side where your children lived (for now the UK), or you would realize that you no longer felt safe where you lived, decide that there was a better option for you and your children and you would move?

I find it hard to believe that in protecting your kids you would stay here whilst supporting a country who were attacking us. I don't think you are the problem here, the problem (to use the obvious example) is militant jihadists and islamists

Indeed. Some people still not getting it, I see.

ALL Israelis are not Netanyahu or supporters of the current government. (Including many who were murdered on Oct 7 - do those who say they're "anti Israel" honestly think those who live in kibbutzes are known for their far-right sentiments in general? What about those who were known peace activists?). Just as not everyone who happens to live and be born in Gaza is a Hamas supporter; as we have seen, Hamas will happily kill them or put them in the firing line too.

Everyone who thinks Israel should be allowed to even exist as a nation is not "a genocide supporter". It IS anti-semitic to claim that this is the equivalent. Is every Russian a Putin supporter too? Do the "anti Israel" people hate all Russian citizens in the same way as they do Israelis? I'm curious as to what people who say they are "anti Israel" as a country think should happen to all the Jewish people ( who, as in most democracies, have a range of political views) who are Israeli citizens. What do they think will happen to them if Israel no longer exists as a nation? (Edited to make sure you don't think I'm accusing you, Twiglet!)

You think the police would ignore a call from a headteacher about a threat posed to the safety of 1000+ children leaving school?

threatening to wear keffirs

I assume you mean keffiyehs, and they can't hurt you.

A desire to help a foreign nation, by saying you would like to be sharing state secrets.

If we could not deport them we would need imprison them if they had committed an imprisonable crime and lump it if they hadn't.

Cancelled for safety reasons? That handy get out clause.

If, after an Islamic state inspired terrorist atrocity, a Muslim guest was invited to speak at a school I would expect this visit to go ahead. He or she would not be responsible for the atrocity. A similar courtesy should be extended to people of other faiths. Instead, a coterie of bullying activists appear to have drummed up hatred for this MP and have taken it upon themselves to police who should and should not be allowed to address the students. What a bunch of narrow minded bigots.

It’s disgusting. Doesn’t surprise me it’s in Bristol though.

I’m Jewish, I’m not a fan of Netanyahu, but I fully support the right of Israel to exist. Does that mean I’m a bad person and should be banned from certain spaces?