Calls for school governor to be removed over “inflammatory” poem

There are calls for the chair of the governors of a school in Canning Town to be fired over an “inflammatory” poem.

Dante Micheaux became chair of the governors of the Eastlea Community School, which is run by Newham Council, in 2016.

One of his poems, titled “Siding with the Israelis” and published in 2010, has caused controversy.

Among the concerning lines are “I will become a conqueror of refugees exiled in their own home, an exploder of babies in bassinets, a barbed-wire fence dissecting families, so we can lie in the dust & watch snails race up Golgotha,” which appears to contest the right of Jews to self-determination and justifies terrorist violence against Jews. In another line, the narrator pledges to “piss on the pilgrims that have come to pray [in Jerusalem] – show you what a Zionist can be.”

Newham Council is reportedly investigating the matter.