(Brigg and Goole) (Con): Thank
you, Mr Speaker.
“I believe that not all Jewish people are bad.”
“Palestinians are dying whilst the Zionists are laughing their
lives away.”
“How do you send letters believing the western media on how Hamas
is a terrorist group? For all I know the only terrorist group is
the Zionists.”
Those are not my words, but words produced by pupils as young as
11 in schools in this country, one of whom signed off their
letter saying that they sought “vengeance”, although that word
was crossed out. Pro-Palestinian activists were invited to
another school in the north-west of England to educate pupils on
the history of Palestine, and displayed slides to those students
that denied the existence of the state of Israel. We know that
other schools have allowed absences for people to attend
protests, where, of course, there have been many examples of
antisemitism. This is completely unacceptable. Will the Prime
Minister look at what is going on in our schools and hold an
independent review of how we can do more in our curriculum to
educate about the perils of antisemitism?
The Prime Minister: I thank my hon. Friend for raising what is a
deeply concerning issue. As I have said before, there is no place
for antisemitism or the glorification of terrorism in Britain,
especially not in our classrooms. That is why we welcomed the
recent report from , the Government’s independent
adviser on antisemitism, and in particular his recommendation on
how schools can tackle antisemitism. We will continue to work
together with on this vital issue. I look
forward to hearing further suggestions from my hon. Friend, too.
