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)

Why do their views make it too unsafe for him to speak?

@EverythingYouLoseIsAStepYouTake

Just so we're clear, the 'moderate' Fatah party is the one that has been paying families of terrorists 'for slay' for decades.

I would not be happy with protestors turning up at my kids' school and would want the visit to be cancelled if that was a risk. I don't think it makes him antisemitic.

Tell that to the Palestinians. They don't.

The significant rights to be considered in this situation are the rights of every child in that school to not be placed at direct risk of harm or fear.

Who would be happy with their child's school pushing forward with any speaking event which they had been forewarned would attract a protest outside the school? With the obvious risk that protesters may try to gain entry to school, if there is a crowd there is a risk of people being injured, a child who has experienced previous trauma may be retraumatised by the experience.

The school has done the right thing in it's primary responsibility to childrens safety and welfare.

What threats against his safety have been made? I would like to see details of these.

It sounds like it was cancelled because it was controversial and would have led to protests. 'Concerns about safety' is a nebulous phrase. What concerns? What threats? Anyone can express a concern about safety, but in the reporting on this case there is a startling lack of detail regarding what these concerns were and from what basis they arose. I will be very critical of anyone who made threats against Egan's safety - please show me where they were made. Anyone who has made threats should be dealt with by the police.

Not everything can be ascribed to being 'anti semitic' indeed but I'm prepared to bet my house if he hadn't been Jewish but he happened to support this 'Friends of Israel' group it wouldn't have come up.

There's two separate things going on here:

A lot of people have a hard time understanding the distinction between supporting the actions of the current Israeli government and supporting the right of the Jews to statehood. They are two completely different things.

There's no evidence whatsoever that Damian Egan was a pro Netanyahu agitator: he's someone who (as a Jew) is a member of a group set up to promote good relationships with Israel.

If we expect all Jews living in this country to distance themselves from the state of Israel (as an entity and a idea, not this specific leadership) we are requiring different standards from them than we do of other citizens.

No one would bar a non-Jewish politician from speaking at a school because they had participated in a diplomatic partnership with Argentina, or Finland, or the USA. And on the flipside, a non Jewish person who had previously expressed support for the state of Israel (such as our own Prime Minister), would not be excluded or cancelled. Its a different set of standards.

Why should Jews be subjected to this additional layer of ideological verification of their views?

He was visiting in his capacity as a local MP, to talk to the children about being an MP.

Do you think it’s acceptable for the mob to prevent this happening if they don’t approve of all of his views? That there should be mob rule, where members of the public can bully and control others to get their way? That, in a supposed democracy, they get to dictate the movements of others and what they can do?

And why do you think teachers should get a carve out on this one issue, when they are required not to push political views when working?

Good point.

Ban the Jews! Their presence is likely to cause disruption from protesters or local residents. So we must ban them to keep everyone safe.

Absolutely this.

Funny how the Omnicausers never seem to have a problem with this particular manifestation of racism.

As someone said on Times Radio this morning, schools shouldn’t have a foreign policy. Mr Egan is vice-chair of LFI . He does not represent the Israeli government and for all I know may oppose some of their policies. He was going to speak to the students about the role of an MP, not about the ME conflict.

The NEU is very left-wing and very anti-Israel. This, and the fear of the school which I assume has a sizeable number of Muslim pupils, that parents would keep their children at home in protest at Mr Egan’s visit, resulted in the school caving into pressure from the teachers and the very aggressive Palestinian Solidarity movement. It is disgraceful but I’m afraid the way this country is going.

Not sure that matters, why would he be offended by what the teachers chose to wear.
Given it was parents, teachers and students who were all complaining i can see why they made the decision. Do i agree with it... dunno. But i can see how they thought it was more hassle than its worth.

Concerns for safety has been used to ban or cancel
Jewish participation on a few occasions, generally the details are not shared but it’s even worse that the go to is to always cancel the Jewish participation.

If they do rearrange the event as the Guardian suggests, are you ok with it going ahead?

Presumably supporting Israel is WORIADS and that it is therefore 100% as bigoted and discriminatory to ban him for being Jewish as to ban him for believing in the right of Israel to exist and protect itself.

It's Batley school in reverse. The usual public sector woeful mishandling of a situation. Blatant antisemitism disguised as horror at the situation in Gaza. All because its the only racism that's deemed as acceptable. I'm not even going to bother answering anyone who tries to say criticism of Israel is not antisemitism. Bore off with that well played out bollocks.

Some might argue that the right to protest is one of the fundamental pillars of democracy. It's a way for people to express their views in a direct way, and to stand up against decisions they find untenable. You can call it mob rule all you like but protest is far from an attack on democracy, it's an essential part of it.

As for this point about the 'carve out' of this issue for teachers; the news reports on this matter make vague references to teachers being 'inflamed' etc., but there is no evidence of a single teacher expressing a view on this. The only party to have made a claim about it is the NEU, and they're claiming to represent teachers, parents and local constituents. That's a very broad group of people and there is certainly no evidence of a single teacher having said or done anything inappropriate regarding expressing political views in schools.

I think it's important to cut through the very vague and somewhat sensationalist reporting on this and look for actual evidence. Not one news article provides an iota of evidence in support of the idea that 1) threats against Egan were made or 2) teachers acted inappropriately. Maybe such evidence will come to light in due course, but at the moment a lot of people are relying on some very scant reporting in support of their position on this.

The question in the header is just a lie.

It is shameful how low some people will stoop

"If we expect all Jews living in this country to distance themselves from the state of Israel (as an entity and a idea, not this specific leadership) we are requiring different standards from them than we do of other citizens."

I think Jews in the UK have every right to support Israel, just like I would expect someone of Indian / Hindu heritage to support India over Pakistan, and I would have no problem with them supporting the Indian Cricket team and not the England one.

That said I believe it would be reasonable to (try to) deport every single person, jewish, Indian, black, white, muslim, whatever if their loyalty is to another country or religion more than it is to the UK.

They were gonna wear yoghurt drinks?

No, it's not cause he is jewish, it's cause he is a hard-core zionist and supports a genocide.

Exactly.

People should be aware of the long history of antisemitism and that there has always been a convenient reason why they need to be treated this way.

It's not up to me - not my school or constituency. If the people affected wish to peacefully protest a future planned visit that remains their right. I obviously would not support anyone protesting Egan for being Jewish (which is not what has happened here).

Any threats to Egan's safety are unacceptable; protest is only legitimate if it is peaceful and does not threaten or cause harm to safety.

Expressing political views in a school IS inappropriate. There will be teachers, constituents and pupils at that school who don't agree with the ban but who feel intimidated into silence. So bad.

Where is your evidence that anyone has expressed a political view in a school? This has not been reported in any articles.