Sir David Bell’s report into anti-Semitism in schools (which will be published this afternoon but has been widely trailed) is an important document with a series of worthwhile recommendations. He finds that three in five Jewish students have experienced anti-Semitism – a statistic that should be profoundly shocking but is now entirely unsurprising – and that fewer than half think that there is any point reporting it, given that schools have consistently refused to take serious action when it is reported.
Islamophobia and right-wing extremism are often seen as a more significant concern than anti-Semitism
In that context, Sir David’s recommendation that schools and colleges should be forced to recognise anti-Semitism as a specific category of harm – as opposed to the general requirement to tackle racism – and to take explicit action to tackle it is eminently sensible.
But for all Sir David’s good intentions, his report suffers from the same fundamental flaw as almost all such official analyses of anti-Semitism: his terms of reference did not allow him to examine the causes of the Jew hate he found, only its extent. Which begs so many questions.
None of those questions will even be asked by Lucy Powell, the Education Secretary, in her response to the report in the Commons this afternoon, let alone answered. She will doubtless make a big deal of the fact that Labour commissioned the report and will – as all politicians always do – tell MPs that anti-Semitism has no place in schools. It’s the line we always hear whenever there is a major incident – demonstrating in reality that the opposite is true and that there is a very large place for anti-Semitism in Britain today.
Any analysis of the growth of anti-Semitism in the years since Israel began its military operation in Gaza in response to the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023 would have to include the words and actions of Labour ministers who have deliberately turned on Israel, in an attempt to appease the sectarian Muslim voters who started to desert Labour in the last general election. Ministers’ rhetoric – such as Ed Miliband speaking last month of Israeli war crimes and ethnic cleansing – has the effect of licensing Jew hate. The government cannot even bring itself to condemn the regular hate marches – sending the message that Jew hate on the streets is entirely legitimate. Add to that the obsession of so many Labour backbenchers with Israel and you have a recipe for the spread of anti-Semitism.
Then there is the elephant in the room which few are willing to identify: that much of the problem in schools lies with Muslim children (see this report from Parents Against Anti-Semitism). All too often, this is swept under carpet in fear of accusations of Islamophobia.
A typical incident was reported earlier this year, in which two Muslim girls approached a child and stated: ‘We will send our family to behead yours like Jews deserve.’ The incident was reported to the Metropolitan Police but their response was that the girls involved were considered exemplary students and no substantive action would be taken, except talking to them via Police Community Support Officers. Islamophobia and right-wing extremism are often seen as a more significant concern than anti-Semitism.
When it comes to having a clear-sighted approach to the issues around anti-Semitism it is difficult to think of a worse possible education secretary than Lucy Powell. Infamously, she claimed that the Manchester Arena suicide bombing which killed 22 people had nothing to do with Islam. Asked on the BBC after the murders, ‘How serious is the problem of Islamist radicalisation in Manchester?’ she replied: ‘I’m not sure that this is the right moment to totally go into that, because I don’t even want to ascribe what has happened to the Islam faith.’ Powell also denied the evidence of links between the bomber, Islamist radicalism and certain mosques, telling the Manchester Evening News: ‘I’m particularly worried about that kind of narrative that somehow there’s areas or hotspots of Manchester that are hotbeds of radicalisation.’ She also, of course, described concern over the rape scandal as a right-wing ‘dog-whistle’.
Sir David is to be commended for his report. It is not his fault that it was limited to the extent of school anti-Semitism rather than the causes. But we already know what will happen now, because it always happens. Instead of dealing with the facts of Jew hatred in Britain in 2016, the report’s findings will be attacked with reference to the Gaza war – as if Jewish children at school in Britain are soldiers in the IDF, which itself demonstrates the problem of anti-Semitism.
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