Tim Watson

It is not difficult to predict the combined effect of imposing a hierarchy of racisms in which antisemitism sits at the top and of enforcing the IHRA definition on schools, effectively outlawing robust criticism of Israel. The new Bell review will require school administrations and teaching staff to police classrooms and playgrounds as never before and to crack down on any demonstration of normal, empathetic behaviours among pupils. Henceforth concern for the suffering of Palestinians will be classed as aberrant, as “radicalisation”. Expressing solidarity with Palestinian children killed or injured in Gaza risks being flagged as a safeguarding threat to Jewish pupils. As will displaying pro-Palestinian or anti-genocide badges. As will holding bake sales to raise money to feed and house Gaza’s children living in Gaza’s ruins. As will wearing traditional Palestinian costume on national identity days celebrated in many of Britain’s more diverse schools. Already since the Gaza genocide, record numbers of pupils have reportedly been referred to the government’s Prevent “counter-extremism” programme for wearing pro-Palestine badges and stickers. Acts of fellow feeling for the oppressed, for the victims of what the world’s highest court warns is an apartheid regime, will be banished from schools. Daniel Kebede, head of the National Education Union, has warned: “Recommending the IHRA definition risks tightening the chilling grip already stifling classroom discussion of the Gaza genocide.” The logic of the government’s hierarchy of racisms will be fully on display. Pupils will be denied the right to identify with traumatised Palestinian children in Gaza, so that Jewish children in Britain can be left in peace to identify with a foreign state – Israel – even as it is widely accused of committing genocide. Presumably, the government’s hope is that, if caught early enough, pupils can be trained out of their normal instincts to care for the less fortunate, for those who suffer. They can be taught that such feelings are shameful and evidence of Jew hatred. And by extension, they can be made to believe that the British state’s years-long collusion in Israeli atrocities is not a crime but the moral thing to do. Any pupils who stray from the correct path, who refuse to be cowed, will be subjected to mandatory Zionist re-education, implemented through fiercely pro-Israel lobby groups masquerading as Jewish community organisations. That is the prospect too for British children who have Palestinian, Arab or Muslim heritage, including those who have had family members killed, maimed, ethnically cleansed or tortured by Israel. For years they have watched the suffering and humiliation of their communities, while knowing that the British government – their government – is complicit in those crimes. Now they will have to permanently hide and suppress their true feelings to avoid punishment. Those who fail to do so will be subjected to British state-sponsored instruction programmes run by pro-Israel groups to “correct” their wrongthink, to force these children to love the very state that has murdered and abused their compatriots and loved ones. This is an extract from my latest article A new UK hierarchy of racism will gag Israel critics from Westminster to the playground. Find a link to the rest in the reply post below ⬇️