Lies over pro-Israel MP "banned" from school

The government and the media are lying to you

Our politicians and our media lie to us, routinely, in many different ways. There are outright untruths, distortions, deceptions. And there’s a specific form of lying which is called ‘lying by omission’. You strip out one or more key facts in order to give your audience a completely false impression of an event.

Nowhere is this more apparent than issues related to Israel’s genocidal oppression of the Palestinian people.

Which brings me to the case of a Jewish MP who was, we are told, banned from visiting a school.

This case first emerged because Steve Reed, who is a Labour government Cabinet Minister, said the following at a Jewish Labour Movement event:

“I have a colleague who is Jewish, who has been banned from visiting a school and refused permission to visit a school in his own constituency, in case his presence inflames the teachers. That is an absolute outrage.”

He added: “They will be called in, and they will be held to account for doing that, because you cannot have people with those kinds of attitudes teaching our children.”

Sounds outrageous, doesn’t it? If a Member of Parliament is banned from visiting a school because they are Jewish, then that is outright antisemitism and genuinely scandalous.

So, what exactly is going on? Well, if you turn to the Daily Telegraph for honest reporting of news events, then my deepest condolences, but they claim to have the story of what happened.

Their shocking headline - ‘Jewish MP banned from school after pro-Palestine campaign’.

The article reads as follows:

A Jewish MP was banned from visiting a school after a campaign by pro-Palestine activists.

Damien Egan, the Labour MP for Bristol North East, had planned to visit Bristol Brunel Academy in September.

However, the visit was cancelled after the Bristol branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign intervened, reportedly helped by Left-wing members of the National Education Union (NEU).

It goes on to report Steve Reed’s comments, then adds:

In a Facebook post on Sept 5, the Bristol branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign described Mr Egan’s ban as “a win for safeguarding” and the power of union reps, parents and campaigners “standing together”.

It added: “Victory for parents, teachers and the community. The planned school visit today (Friday Sept 5) by Damian Egan, MP for Bristol North East, has been cancelled after concerns were raised by the NEU trade union staff group, parents and local constituents.

“This is a clear message – politicians who openly support Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza are not welcome in our schools.”

They then report the statement of the school:

“Mr Egan was due to discuss democracy and the role of an MP, while helping to raise aspirations among students who may have an interest in pursuing similar career paths.

“On the evening before Mr Egan’s scheduled visit, we were made aware of plans for a public protest outside the school. As this protest was scheduled to coincide with the end in the school day, we opted to postpone Mr Egan’s visit to ensure everyone would continue to feel safe when entering and exiting school and to prevent any disruption to our students’ learning.

“We have remained in contact with Mr Egan, and an alternative date for his visit was arranged some time ago. We have also been in contact with the police and followed their advice.”

Disturbingly, they also introduce another element:

Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, has previously warned of threats to free speech in school rows over alleged insults to Islam. In an article for The Telegraph last week, he claimed communities had been left to “police themselves” as officers gave in to Islamists.

Mr Jenrick cited the case of Batley Grammar School, where a teacher remains in hiding after being threatened for showing a caricature of the prophet Mohammed during a lesson.

He claimed that unless the rise of Islamist extremism was addressed, there would be “the ubiquity of Sharia courts, cousin marriage, hate preachers in mosques (enjoying charitable status), rampant anti-Semitism”.

So what’s the truth here? Was a Labour MP banned just because they were Jewish, and was that his being Jewish conflated with support for Israel?

You can see the Telegraph’s delight here as it involves some of its favourite targets - leftwingers, trade unionists, school teachers, Muslims. This rag has become ever more extreme - a culture war rag which whips up division.

What minor, teeny-weeny detail might this newspaper and that Labour Cabinet minister have omitted?

As you can read, the paper quoted the Bristol Palestine Solidarity Campaign post, which says: “This is a clear message: politicians who openly support Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza are not welcome in our schools.”

They then failed to print the very next sentence:

“Egan is vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel and has visited Israel since the current onslaught on Gaza began, demonstrating his support.”

This is the central fact of the entire story, and The Telegraph made an editorial decision not to print it, thereby deceiving its readers. This is lying by omission.

The BBC, too, begin their report as follows:

A visit by a Jewish MP to a school in their constituency was cancelled, after concerns were raised by local pro-Palestinian campaigners.

Palestine Solidarity Bristol said it had opposed the visit by Damien Egan, the Labour MP for Bristol North East, due to his support for Israel.

But they, too, have failed to report that he is the vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel. You can complain here.

What actually happened is that the Bristol Palestine Solidarity Campaign and local teachers objected to a leading figure of Labour Friends of Israel, a pro-Israel lobbying organisation, from visiting the school.

It is worth, as ever, emphasising the context. The International Criminal Court - which the UK is a founding member of - has issued arrest warrants against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahy and his former defence minister for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It is a consensus of genocide scholars - including Israeli genocide scholars - that Israel has committed genocide against the Palestinian people. This consensus includes an independent UN commission and NGOs like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Medecins Sans Frontieres. It includes Israeli human rights organisations like B’Tselem.

Israel has wiped Gaza from the face of the earth, killed - according to multiple credible studies well over 100,000 people - and that only refers to violent deaths. It has deliberately starved the Palestinian people, as well as presiding over industrialised kidnapping, torture and rape.

We could go on - the monstrous crimes committed by the Israeli state are endless. As I keep saying, no crime in history has been so documented as it happened, and no crime in history has been so confessed to as it happens.

And I shouldn’t need to keep saying any of this, because there should be a consensus that Israel has committed the most repugnant crimes imaginable.

It’s like being a member of Labour Friends of South Africa during Apartheid - except it’s even worse, because it is not to belittle the crimes of Apartheid South Africa - abhorrent enough as they were on their own terms - to point out that Israel’s crimes are much worse.

Imagine a Labour MP was vice-chair of ‘Labour Friends of the Bosnian Serb Republic’ after the 1995 Srebrenica massacre - and a group called the Bosnian Solidarity Campaign called for their visit to a school to be cancelled. Would that be outrageous, or the right thing to do?

Let’s consider the specific track record of Labour Friends of Israel.

Back in 2024, they organised a ‘solidarity visit’ of Labour MPs to Israel, including a meeting with the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, who they posed with:

Isaac Herzog is the man who, at the beginning of the genocide, said:

It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible. This rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved—it’s not true. They could’ve risen up, fought against that evil regime

That was genocidal incitement, shamelessly promoting collective guilt - and indeed Israeli soldiers repeatedly filmed themselves parroting his rhetoric as they went on their genocidal rampage.

They have even opposed the pathetic timid moves by the government to respond to pressure over their complicity in genocide.

They criticised the government for withdrawing its objection to the International Criminal Court’s case against Israeli leaders, describing it as “morally suspect and legally dubious”.

They opposed the government’s partial suspension of arms export licences to Israel. And they issued a statement in which they declared “we strongly disagree with the decision to recognise a Palestinian state at this point.”

Labour Friends of Israel is a lobbying organisation which is complicit in genocide. Portraying opposition to a visit by the vice-chair of this lobbying organisation as being antisemitic is utterly disgusting. It is shameful to stoke fears amongst Jewish people on utterly false grounds like this.

The attack on this Bristol school is drenched in racism. It is flagrant anti-Palestinian racism. The objection here is to people who treat Palestinians as being human beings with lives of equal worth - who are being smeared as dangerous, hateful extremists.

If you saw Palestinians as human beings with lives of equal worth, you would not object to local people and teachers opposing a school visit by the vice-chair of an organisation which lobbies in favour of the state which has committed genocide against those Palestinians.

Those Bristol teachers are now in the firing line, and are being threatened by the government on the basis of lies. We must stand by them.