A teacher of mathematics at Niles West High School in Skokie, Illinois, saw her e-mail account hacked to send messages described by school leaders as being of a “lewd, racist, antisemitic and homophobic” nature to thousands of students across the district on 11th November.

School administrators declined to comment on the abrasive content contained, however students have described the e-mails as ranging from swastikas and fascist propaganda to pornographic and indecent images.

A Jewish Niles West senior expressed shock at the overtly antisemitic content and stated that: “It’s hard not to feel targeted when you are part of the minority that those e-mails were about.” She added that it was inconceivable that the e-mails could have originated with the teacher, and there is no suggestion that the e-mails were the product of anything other than a hack.

Local leaders have denounced the torrent of “patently offensive” e-mails, and reportedly reassured the public that Student Services teams would work directly to support students affected by the incident in the days following.

Skokie police and Dist. 219 staff are working together to investigate the incident and identify the perpetrator. A representative has said that student access to district e-mail accounts has been temporarily suspended and instructions have been given for greater online security, including the changing of all passwords.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has expanded our coverage of antisemitism worldwide. Please contact us if you would like to share feedback or volunteer to assist with this project.

A Florida high school principal who was fired in November 2019 for suggesting that there was doubt over the historical truth of the Holocaust has been reinstated.

William Latson, the Principal of Spanish River High School in Boca Raton, allegedly told the parent of a student in an April 2018 e-mail that “not everyone believes the Holocaust happened.” His comment came in response to the parent’s request to ensure that Holocaust education was treated as “a priority”.

In the same e-mail, the principal said that “we are a public school” and educators had “to be politically neutral” adding: “I can’t say the Holocaust is a factual, historical event because I am not in a position to do so as a school-district employee.”

On Wednesday, the seven-member Palm Beach County School Board voted 4-3 in favour of rehiring Dr Latson.

The Palm Beach County School District said in a statement in July 2019 that Dr Latson had “made a grave error in judgment in stating, ‘I can’t say the Holocaust is a factual, historical event.’ In addition to being offensive, the principal’s statement is not supported by either the School District Administration or the School Board.”

Dr Latson later apologised, saying: “I regret that the verbiage that I used when responding to an e-mail message from a parent…did not accurately reflect my professional and personal commitment to educating all students about the atrocities of the Holocaust.”

In August, Administrative Law Judge Robert Cohen, the judge in Dr Latson’s appeal, ruled that the offence was “not serious enough to warrant termination.”  

“These acts of poor judgment on Dr. Latson’s part should result in a verbal or written reprimand,” wrote Judge Cohen. Last week, Schools Superintendent Donald Fennoy recommended that Dr Latson be reinstated and given $152,000 (£117,000) in back pay.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has expanded our coverage of antisemitism worldwide. Please contact us if you would like to share feedback or volunteer to assist us with this project.

Image credit: WPTV News segment

A cross-party group of more than twenty MEPs from fifteen countries have requested that the European Union withholds future funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA) until antisemitic incitement is removed from its school textbooks.

Austrian MEP Lukas Mandl sent the letter on Wednesday to the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and Neighbourhood Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi. The recent move by the MEPs follows the publication of a report into the content of PA textbooks by the research body, IMPACT-se.

The report outlined the inclusion of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery, as well as incitement to violence and hate speech, across all subjects and levels of education in the texts and other cultural mediums including school plays and sporting events. The legislators stated that these textbooks are taught by teachers and education sector civil servants who are financed through the EU’s PEGASE system of support. The PA has also attracted controversy for naming around 28 schools after terrorists and at least three schools after Nazi collaborators. This, the MEPs argued in their open letter, is in direct violation of the UNESCO standards for peace and tolerance.

Legislators from four major political parties have made a further call for the discontinuation of the collaboration between the EU Commission and the Georg Eckert Institute. The German organisation was asked in 2019 to analyse PA textbooks, however a subsequent presentation of its interim report has uncovered a series of alleged professional errors. For example, the report had reportedly made multiple Arabic translation errors, demonstrated a miscomprehension of local culture and mistakenly included – and complimented – Israeli textbooks that were wrongly understood by researchers as being PA textbooks. It has been argued by Vice-Chair of the European Parliament’s Budget Committee Niclas Herbst that this research blatantly ignored overt antisemitism and justified messages of terror.

The report cost the EU approximately €220,000.

In 2018 and May 2019 the European Parliament condemned the failings of the PA and insisted that it no longer wanted “European taxpayers to finance the teaching of antisemitism.” Earlier this year the Norwegian Government, another major donor to the PA, announced that it would withhold half of its funding to the PA’s education sector.

Despite commitments made by the PA’s Education Minister, a recent IMPACT-se report on the revised 2020-21 PA textbooks discovered that there had been almost no relevant changes made to the curriculum.

MEPs have requested that the Commission put a 5% reserve on funding for the PA until changes to the antisemitic material are evident in all educational texts.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has expanded our coverage of antisemitism worldwide. Please contact us if you would like to share feedback or volunteer to assist with this project.

A petition has been launched urging school authorities in Marin County, California to take immediate action against high school students who were active on an antisemitic social media page.

Earlier this month, an Instagram account titled “Redwood students organised [against] semitism” was discovered. The social media account, accompanied by an antisemitic caricature, named specific, local Jewish students and urged its followers to contribute additional Jewish names to a public Google document. The online list was decorated with images of bullets and a swastika. Several other accounts linked to the high school have also been found to feature antisemitic content.

The petition, which has attracted thousands of signatures, is addressed to the Tamalpais Union High School District’s (TUHSD) superintendent, Tara Taupier. It voices concern and disappointment at the lack of action taken against antisemitism by young people in the area. Redwood school officials were allegedly alerted to potential suspects in the case as early as March this year. Demands have been made for the swift discipline of the offenders to reflect a transparent zero-tolerance policy for antisemitism.

The Redwood student behind the petition said that her and fellow students were fearful that online harassment and psychological abuse could become a physical threat if this form of hatred was “swept under the rug”, and she drew parallels between the Google document and lists used during the Holocaust to record the Jewish population.

Others in the community have said that they are frightened of signing the petition and consequently being identified as Jewish.

Ms Taupier said that Marin County education, law enforcement, religious and community officials recently conducted an online forum on the controversy. The superintendent stated that members of various institutions united to express abhorrence at the incidents and share information and resources on combating antisemitism in the county.

Local law enforcement is working alongside the Northern California Computer Crimes Task Force to continue its investigations into the incident.

The social media account has been removed from the platform.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has expanded our coverage of antisemitism worldwide. Please contact us if you would like to share feedback or volunteer to assist with this project.

The walls of the Mamiani High School in Rome have been targeted once again with offensive vandalism, with a swastika found on the school’s property.

The message of the graffiti read “Rome is a Nazi!”, and it was surrounded by swastikas. The graffiti has been removed.

The school’s Principal, Tiziana Sallusti, reported the incident to the authorities after students discovered the inscriptions on the morning of 22nd September.

The wall was recently repainted following a similar incident. There have also been previous reports of fascist graffiti, as well as violence among young people of opposing political factions, within Rome. The Principal stated: “It has already happened in the past – this is not an offence to the Mamiani, but to Rome and Italians.” A warning has now been issued to all students.

Local police immediately opened an investigation, and there have been calls for the immediate instillation of a video system to protect the institution and its students.

The incident comes days after antisemitic posters appeared in the northern Italian city of Milan.’

The posters, which were not entirely legible, claimed that the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service, was behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a popular and baseless antisemitic conspiracy theory.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has expanded our coverage of antisemitism worldwide. Please contact us if you would like to share feedback or volunteer to assist with this project.

Image credit: Osservatorio Antisemitismo

A school textbook has been removed from sale after research revealed that it included the question: “How could it be argued that the creation of Israel was a long-term cause of the 9/11 attacks?” It is understood that this is the only time Israel is mentioned in the entire book.

The history textbook, titled Understanding History: Britain in the Wider World, Roman Times – Present and designed for secondary school pupils aged eleven to thirteen studying history at Key Stage 3 level, was published by Hodder Education, an imprint of Hachette, one of the world’s ‘big six’ publishing houses.

The problematic question alludes to a popular nonsense antisemitic conspiracy theory that Israel or its intelligence services were somehow connected to or to blame for the 9/11 Islamist terrorist attacks.

The researcher David Collier brought the offending material to light, and the Hodder Education Group said on Thursday that it was removing the textbook from sale and would publish a revised issue.

In a statement, the publisher said: “We appreciate the phrasing of the question is not as precise as it might have been and we are very sorry for any offence this has caused.”

However, the fact that an antisemitic conspiracy theory could make its way into a textbook for children by a reputable publisher illustrates just how commonplace such anti-Jewish beliefs have become. Campaign Against Antisemitism calls for answers as to how the offending question was included in the book and what measures or training the publisher is taking to prevent the problem recurring in future.

The revelation comes as the Government pledged to act against textbooks in the Middle East funded by taxpayer money that encourage children to commit violent acts against Jews, using the language of genocidal antisemitic terrorist organisations, and which are reportedly taught in classrooms by teachers who describe Jews as “pigs and apes” and call for them to be murdered, and praise Hitler.

A school in Lincolnshire intends to edit its 95-year-old logo to remove its historic association with an antisemitic blood libel.

St Hugh’s School’s logo features a ball flying over a wall, which represents the story of ‘Little Saint Hugh’ who, in antisemitic folklore, was murdered by a Jewish family after losing his ball over their wall and being invited to retrieve it.

It is understood that the myth was known to the school’s founders, who wanted it to “remind [the] boys to maintain control, both of the ball and where they were allowed to play with it.”

The school’s new headmaster reportedly discussed the issue with the governing board and it was decided to remove the circle from the logo (representing the ball), retaining only the bricks “to reiterate the significance of the educational building blocks.”

The headmaster said: “As a school, we base every element of the education that we offer on fundamental British values and we hold dear the principles of mutual respect and inclusivity,” adding that the school cirrculum includes a visit to the National Holocaust Centre and Museum in Nottingham “which complements the work done in school in RE, PSHE lessons and tutorials” and stressing that “there is no place for discrimination of any kind” at the school.

Former pupils include the late television host, David Frost.

The Government has said that it will investigate educational material for children comparing Gaza to Holocaust, in breach of International Definition of Antisemitism.

The material – a course titled ‘Genocide Memorial Day’ – is recommended for children aged twelve and over, and was reportedly designed and circulated by a controversial pro-Iranian charity known as the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC). The material was reportedly uploaded to the respected TES digital educational service, an open resource platform for teachers formerly known as the Times Educational Supplement, and also emailed to educators across the country in January.

The material makes repeated equations between the Nazi treatment of the Jews and Israeli Government policy. It also describes the “Israeli assault on Gaza” in 2009 as a genocide and includes images of Hamas flags. Hamas is proscribed as a terrorist organisation and seeks the genocide of all Jews worldwide.

A one-minute video produced by the IHRC promoting ‘Genocide Memorial Day’ also minimises the Jewish element of the Holocaust, such as by referring to the “eleven million victims of the Nazi Holocaust.” Alongside the Holocaust it also lists what it describes as genocides in Gaza.

The Definition says that “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism.

The IHRC’s ‘Genocide Memorial Day’ is to be marked on the third Sunday in January in a brazen attempt to conflate it with and undermine Holocaust Memorial Day. This is not the first attempt to do so. Labour’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and the Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, also tried to convert Holocaust Memorial Day into ‘Genocide Memorial Day’ in 2011 when they were both backbenchers.

One leading Holocaust educational campaigner accused the IHRC, through its material, of “using false equivocations of the Holocaust and deliberately conflating, downgrading and revising the Holocaust.”

Brandon Lewis, the Immigration Minister, called the revelation “stark and concerning” and promised to ‘follow up directly” on the matter with a parliamentary colleague in order to ensure that it “gets the proper attention”.

The IHRC is also behind the Al Quds Day marches in London, where Hizballah flags have been displayed and antisemitic statements have been made, such as blaming “Zionists” for the Grenfell fire disaster. Hizballah is an antisemitic genocidal terrorist organisation that has been proscribed and recently had its assets frozen by the British Government.

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.

A woman shouted, “what are you doing? Is that because you are Jewish?” at a Jewish mother parking by a school in order to collect her children.

The incident occurred yesterday in Golders Green, and the assailant, who was a passenger in a nearby passing vehicle, was described as a white woman with a large build. Her light brown hair was tied back in a ponytail and she was wearing a light-coloured woolly jumper. The driver of the vehicle was reportedly a white woman with straight black hair.

The passenger was in a car with the registration number PN15FWP.

The incident was reported by Shomrim North West London, a Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

If you have any more information, please contact Shomrim North West London on 0300 999 1234.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis of Home Office statistics shows that an average of over three hate crimes are directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales, with Jews almost four times more likely to be targets of hate crime than any other faith group.

A man who called in bomb threats to Jewish schools has been imprisoned for four years.

Andreas Dowling called in more than 100 bomb hoaxes, targeting schools, colleges and police stations in the UK, US and Canada. The court heard that Jewish schools were an “over-represented” target of the hoax calls, and he taunted them by telling them that a bomb would go off at 4:20 pm, a reference to Adolf Hitler’s birthday on 20th April.

Mr Dowling was arrested in June following an investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing South West. He pleaded guilty to 130 counts of communicating false information with intent.

On Monday, at Exeter Crown Court, Mrs Justice May sentenced Mr Dowling to four years and five months’ imprisonment.

Image credit: Avon and Somerset police

Newberries Primary School in Radlett has dismissed a teacher after she reportedly told her pupils: “You better finish off your work quick, or I’ll ship you all off to the gas chambers.”

The comment was made to a class of 28 ten-year-olds, eleven of whom are Jewish.

The teacher was then challenged by one of the pupils over her comment, following which she said she was joking and apologised, before asking the children not to tell anyone.

News of the remark spread quickly on school chat groups, however, and parents complained to the head teacher, with some apparently threatening to withdraw their children if the teacher was not sacked.

The board of governors held an emergency meeting and the teacher was dismissed the following day, as she was an agency worker and therefore had no permanent employment contract with the school.

Campaign Against Antisemitism commends Newberries Primary School for its swift and unequivocal response to this incident. We also encourage anyone to disclose the teacher’s name in order that a complaint can be made to relevant regulatory bodies.

It has emerged that in 2011, Jeremy Corbyn defended eight schools’ plans to send children to a festival featuring a vandal who daubed “Free Gaza and Palestine” on the Warsaw ghetto.

Eight primary schools had intended to send children to the Tottenham Palestine Literary Festival, where speakers included Ewa Jasciewicz, who spray-painted “Free Gaza and Palestine” on the wall of the Warsaw Ghetto. According to a report in The Times, in 2002 Ms Jasciewicz called for “activists” to “do” the Israeli parliament or “a sophisticated politician bump-off” rather than targeting Israeli civilians.

The move was opposed by a Jewish charity, the Board of Deputies, but investigative journalist, Iggy Ostanin, has discovered that Mr Corbyn told the Islington Tribune that: “The Board of Deputies are hardly objective in this matter. Their record of denunciation of all things Palestinian is well known.” He added that he planned to attend the festival, saying that: “It’s a great opportunity for children to understand the wealth and joy of Palestinian literature and a little of the history of the region.”

Mr Corbyn added that the festival, which was organised by a branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign would be entirely neutral and educational, saying: “It’s not in any way biased, but a festival which will encourage children to broaden their horizons. The children were looking forward to it. I’d like to think there is still time to resolve the issue.”

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign, of which Mr Corbyn remains a Patron, has had its own antisemitism problems.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism.

Almost 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

Ethan Saunders, a teacher at the Jewish Free School (JFS), is reportedly facing an inquiry following comments he is alleged to have made during a guest speaker’s lecture to sixth form pupils on Monday.

The comments were reportedly made during the question-and-answer part of a lecture on left-wing antisemitism by renowned sociologist Dr David Hirsh, who had been invited to speak to fifty sixth formers about his new book, Contemporary Left Antisemitism.

After telling students about comments made by figures such as Ken Livingstone and Professor Moshe Machover in which they compared Zionists to Nazis, Dr Hirsh told the JC that “a teacher stood up at the back and, in a fairly kind of belligerent way, said: ‘I don’t agree with anything you said.’ He said that I hadn’t told the whole story to the students; it was a pretty clear allegation not only that I kind of got it wrong, but that I was speaking in bad faith. He said: ‘You haven’t explained to the students about the Ha’avara Agreement and the real collaboration between the Nazis and the Zionists. You haven’t explained that it was Israel that was responsible for nurturing Hamas at the beginning, and Hamas is a creature of Israel.’” Dr Hirsh said that Mr Saunders also said that Ken Livingstone was “correct” to say that “Hitler was supporting Zionism” by agreeing to the Ha’avara Agreement, which allowed Jews to emigrate from Nazi Germany to what would become Israel, on condition that they forfeited most of their assets to the Nazis.

The notion that Adolf Hitler was in some way supporting the right of Jewish self-determination in Israel, despite having railed against it, it extremely offensive. The Ha’avara Agreement was nothing more than the formal robbery of German Jews fleeing for their lives.

Dr Hirsh noted: “I’ve no idea what he teaches his students, but I have to tell you that [at this event] what he was clearly trying to teach his students was something which I would worry about. What he was trying to teach them was certainly a cause for concern.”

Today’s Jewish pupils are the leaders of the future, and if this account is true, then it is highly disconcerting that teachers holding such views are given a platform at JFS and we welcome the swift decision to open an investigation.

Campaign Against Antisemitism recently spoke to 200 students at JFS about antisemitism, focussing on the growth of online antisemitism. If you are interested in hosting a speaker please e-mail [email protected].

An investigation by the Sunday Telegraph has uncovered antisemitism and far-right extremism at Rainhill High School, the nominated school for players enrolled in Liverpool Football Club’s academy. A series of whistleblowers have said that they believe that far-right extremism is endemic at the school, claiming that the management are failing to tackle the problem.

A whistleblower has told the Sunday Telegraph that “The lads have tried measuring other pupils noses to see if they are Jews and shouting ‘we are the SS, kill the Jews’ during a lunch break.” The newspaper was also told that Nazi memorabilia, including a helmet, and a flag associated with white supremacy were paraded through corridors, and that students sometimes “walk around humming Nazi marching music.”

One student was featured in a photo on the front page of the school’s newsletter allegedly giving the “Isis salute”, a gesture of support for the self-proclaimed Islamic caliphate. The headmaster later apologised, saying it was “issued in error” and removed the newsletter from the school’s website.

According to the newspaper, parents and teachers have raised their concerns with Ofsted and their trade union due to fears that the school was failing to tackle the problem. The school, however, has reportedly denied the allegations made in the investigation, but said that three students have been referred through Prevent, the Government’s counter-extremism strategy. One of the students had allegedly desecrated a cenotaph and another who had told a fellow pupil: “you’re so skinny you should be in Auschwitz.”

Headmaster John Pout told the Sunday Telegraph: “In my opinion we have not got an issue with right-wing extremism at Rainhill High School. The three isolated cases that have been brought to our attention have been dealt with quickly and thoroughly. We have been commended by Merseyside Police for our actions on these incidents.”

Pupils at the school have been identified as talented football players and some play for Liverpool Football Club’s under-18 team, but the club declined to give a comment to the Sunday Telegraph.

Children at Jewish schools in the London neighbourhoods of Roehampton, Ilford and Brent were put on emergency alert this week after a series of bombs threats were received. From 10:30 on Monday morning, the Metropolitan Police Service began responding to reports from the schools that they had received calls warning them that bombs had been planted on their premises.

Whilst specialist officers searched the schools, other Jewish schools, including at least one primary school, adopted emergency lockdown procedures, and all Jewish schools across the UK were placed on heightened alert.

The Metropolitan Police Service said: “Police officers attended the schools. All three incidents were stood down a short time later. An investigation into the threat will be conducted.”

It is understood that hoax calls were also made to a small number of non-Jewish schools.

A number of Jewish community centres in the United States were also targeted, but at this time there is no evidence to suggest that the threats were coordinated.

Threats to Jewish schools are by no means unprecedented and Jewish schoolchildren grow up used to having to be educated under guard, with airport-style security measures often used and regular drills on security procedures.

The schools inspectorate, Ofsted, discovered “a narrow Islamic-focused curriculum” and “inappropriate books and other texts including…antisemitic material” in unregistered schools in Birmingham, during a surprise inspection in November last year.

The discovery was noted in a letter from Sir Michael Wilshaw, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools to the Secretary of State for Education.

Campaign Against Antisemitism was adamant that the police should investigate the antisemitic material found by the Ofsted inspectors, as well as Ofsted taking regulatory action against the schools and potentially prosecuting those who operated them.

We immediately made enquiries of Ofsted to ask whether they would refer the matter to West Midlands Police and hand over their evidence, but Ofsted ignored our approaches completely, while West Midlands Police responded that: “There is no trace of any such referral from Ofsted being made to West Midlands Police.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s specialist Freedom of Information Team then made a mandatory application to Ofsted requiring it to disclose what they had or had not done in response to the discovery of the antisemitic material. Ofsted has today responded to our team, writing:

“This matter was not referred to West Midlands Police at the time of the inspection, as inspectors felt there was insufficient evidence to suggest that a criminal offence had been committed. We subsequently reviewed this decision, and Ofsted’s Regional Director for the West Midlands agreed that a referral to West Midlands Police should be made. This has now been done.”

Incitement to racial and religious hatred is a serious crime, and it is made only more serious if the perpetrators are teachers and those being indoctrinated are the children in their care.

We now hope that West Midlands Police will be able to compile a case against those responsible for the presence of the book in a school. We are following the case with interest.

On 6th February this year, IT teacher Mahmudul Choudhury was convicted of racially aggravated harassment alarm or distress for using his Facebook page to praise Hitler for murdering Jews.

Former students including Jewish students were among his Facebook friends and reported him to the Police. The image of Hitler (see below) was posted on 11th July 2014 and bore the caption “I could have killed all the Jews, but I left some of them to let you know why I was killing them… YES MAN, YOU WERE RIGHT… Share this picture to the the truth a whole world.” Choudhury added an additional caption saying: “Yes now we could see why.” Choudhury was convicted and fined by South East London Magistrates’ Court.

Following Choudhury’s conviction, Campaign Against Antisemitism, was astonished that Choudhury remained free to return to the classroom and teach children. We therefore initiated formal proceedings with the Department for Education’s National College for Teaching and Leadership, and applied to the Secretary of State for Education for a Prohibition Order.

A professional conduct hearing was convened on 5th October at our behest, which Choudhury failed to attend. Following the hearing, the Secretary of State has now issued a Prohibition Order banning Choudhury from teaching, for life, with immediate effect.

The professional conduct hearing found that “prohibition is both proportionate and appropriate,” noting that “Mr Choudhury not only re-posted an image supporting the holocaust; he added a comment in support of that message. This was a significant factor in the panel forming the opinion that prohibition is proportionate and appropriate. Accordingly, the panel makes a recommendation to the Secretary of State that a prohibition order should be imposed with immediate effect.” The panel also said it had “seen little evidence that Mr Choudhury has any insight into or remorse for his actions.”

On behalf of the Secretary of State for Education, Paul Heathcote of the National College of Teaching and Leadership wrote: ”Mr Mahmudul Choudhury is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. Furthermore, in view of the seriousness of the allegation found proved against him, I have decided that Mr Mahmudul Choudhury shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach.”

Teachers have a special responsibility in society to educate and nurture our children. Mahmudul Choudhury specifically shared a post on Facebook which tried to justify the mass murder of over six million Jewish people by the Nazis. He did this knowing that others would see it, including former students. Someone with these views should never be allowed to teach Britain’s children, or be in any position where they could potentially shape and influence young minds. At a time when Jews are being specifically targeted and murdered by extremist killers in Europe and beyond, this is even more distressing. In all of our discussions with the government we have called for zero tolerance of antisemitism under the law. We therefore commend the Secretary of State for Education for this decision.

Speaking at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, the Prime Minister announced new powers to inspect “intensive” religious schools and to shut down any that teach antisemitic views.

The Prime Minister said: “In some madrasas we’ve got children being taught that they shouldn’t mix with people of other religions; being beaten; swallowing conspiracy theories about Jewish people…So I can announce this today: if an institution is teaching children intensively, then whatever its religion, we will, like any other school, make it register so it can be inspected. And be in no doubt: if you are teaching intolerance, we will shut you down.”

Mr Cameron continued: “For too long, we’ve been so frightened of causing offence that we haven’t looked hard enough at what is going on in our communities…This passive tolerance has turned us into a less integrated country; it’s put our children in danger. It is unforgivable. So let me say it right here: no more passive tolerance in Britain. We’ve passed the laws – now I want them enforced.”

The announcement follows a major speech delivered by David Cameron in July in which he identified antisemitic conspiracy theories as a gateway to Islamic extremist ideology.

We welcome the Prime Minister’s call for firm enforcement of the law. We have found that in many cases we have had to press far too hard for the police to investigate, and been dismayed by the outcomes in a number of cases.

We will continue to work with the authorities to improve the way that they handle antisemitic crime. If you would like to help with this work, please volunteer with us, or donate to support our work.

Justice, justice, you shall pursue - צדק צדק תרדף
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