The Department for Education (DfE) has released a so-called ‘independent review’ on antisemitism in schools and colleges in England. But far from being ‘independent’, the entire document is a blatant attempt to justify and intensify the repression of pro-Palestine students and teachers.
Its recommendations, which the government has said it will accept wholesale, include all schools adopting the amorphous and controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism; banning Palestine flags and symbols, and policing the National Education Union (NEU) over its support for Palestine.
In fact, “Palestine” is mentioned no less than 27 times in the report.
Hypocrisy and cynicism
Having to cite a range of responses, David Bell, the report’s author, acknowledges that some teachers complained about the double standards faced by those who support Palestine in schools. But these double standards are on full display in the response to the report.
Labour education secretary Lucy Powell – who likes to pretend to be on the ‘left’ – defended the report, saying, “I don’t think that our schools should be a place where it’s about making protests and statements about geopolitical events around the world.”
But her predecessor, Bridget Phillipson, was pictured last year waving Ukrainian flags in a primary school classroom.
Next to this blatant hypocrisy, what is put forward in this report is a clear hierarchy of racism – and one which is completely distorted. Islamophobia is by far the most prominent form of racism in Britain today, whipped up by the establishment and by the far right alike. But no serious action is taken by the government to prevent this in any way shape or form.
The establishment whipping up Islamophobia includes Bell himself, who in 2005 authored a report that singled out Muslim faith schools (attended by just 3 percent of Muslim school children!) for resulting in British culture losing its “coherence”.
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Meanwhile, the 2026 report was written with the support of a ‘reference group’ that involves several educators from institutions that explicitly aim to teach children to advocate for Israel and defend its actions in the so-called ‘war’ against Gaza.
We’re sick and tired of being told that people are being made to feel ‘unsafe’ by seeing someone wearing a watermelon badge in support of Palestine, while genuine racism is either ignored or encouraged by the establishment.
To make this hypocrisy crystal clear, a report published in 2020 by the YMCA highlighted that 95 percent of black school children in Britain had witnessed or heard racism. 500 people shared their experiences. But no substantive action has been taken by the DfE to address its findings.
But the DfE is happy to implement all of the Bell recommendations, and spend enormous amounts of money, time, and resources on muddying the waters on the question of antisemitism.
Making the facts fit the narrative
The headline figure the media has spread is that ‘3 in 5 Jewish students face antisemitism in English schools’.
As Mark Twain once pointed out, “there are lies, damned lies, and statistics”. This figure is based on only 29 students who said they had been harassed, to which were added those who had only witnessed bullying or harassment.
But that didn’t stop the media using unrepresentative, manipulated numbers to paint a picture of rampant anti-Jewish racism coming from pro-Palestine activists in schools and colleges.
The report itself is filled with the assertion that antisemitism in schools is growing in response to what it euphemistically calls “the events of 7 October 2023” and the “conflict” that followed. The conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism is simply the other side of the dangerous, antisemitic lie that Zionism is the same as Judaism.
When there is a danger of anti-Zionist feeling being twisted into anti-Jewish prejudice, the solution would be to teach and discuss the real nature of Zionism, and the true reason why the British establishment supports Israel: i.e. not because of a Jewish conspiracy, but because of imperialism.
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But the so-called ‘impartiality’ that teachers are asked to display does not include actually teaching the truth.
This muddle of a report leaves us with no new or useful information.
We know that there has been a rise in all kinds of racism among certain sections of the youth. This is not because they were born this way. It is because of the racist, backward, and reactionary ideas which are consciously perpetuated by the British ruling class.
One communist school student told me that he is targeted at school for his Jewish ethnicity and for his pro-Palestine positions – by the same kids.
When the report actually includes meaningful numbers, on page 30, the reality that it tries to obfuscate becomes clear:
“In 2025, an estimated 3 percent of British adults disagreed with the question ‘I am just as open to having Jewish friends as I am to have friends from other sections of British society’. This compares to an estimated 25 percent of British adults who disagree with the statement ‘I am comfortable spending time with people who openly support Israel’. This rises to 49 percent for those aged 18-24”.
What is it that the DfE has a problem with, then? Antisemitism or anti-Zionism? The alarmist tone taken throughout the report regarding criticism of Israel speaks for itself.
Zionism is imperialism
In spite of the report’s disingenuous tone, it’s quite clear that the British ruling class does not give a damn about fighting racism in any of its forms.
Teachers and students – disproportionately Muslims and Asians – already face the threat of being referred to ‘Channel’ and ‘Prevent’ for holding allegedly ‘extremist’ views.
These ‘anti-terrorism’ programmes were once involved in the case of a Muslim nursery school child who drew his dad “making cucumber” but unfortunately pronounced the last word as “cooker bomb”.
These are the tragicomic results of trying to turn school staff and students into spies!
Why does anti-Zionism generate such a moral panic among them, then? Because Zionism is a key part of the ideological arsenal that underpins Britain’s imperialist interests in the Middle East.
While Andy Burnham’s cabinet tries to win back some pro-Palestine voters with empty words about how they “got it wrong” previously, they are meanwhile tightening the screws even more to try to stop the widespread anti-imperialist mood from boiling over.
Fight for democratic rights!
Most concerning of all is that the Bell report includes a full-frontal attack on the National Education Union (NEU), when it claims:
“Some Jewish staff feel excluded or insufficiently supported by education unions, particularly due to union activity and messaging relating to the Israel-Palestine conflict.”
This has nothing to do with antisemitism and everything to do with taking away teachers’ democratic rights to express political positions and organise accordingly.
The NEU has rightly come out with criticism of the Bell report. As General Secretary Daniel Kebede said:
“The IHRA’s contested framing risks blurring the line between antisemitism and legitimate criticism of the Israeli government and the genocide in Gaza” and the report “wrongly calls into question the professionalism of teachers.”
Now the NEU needs to back up this verbal opposition with action.
The union’s predecessor, the National Union of Teachers, strongly opposed the Prevent strategy when it was first announced. But the NEU puts forward no independent position about the programme now that it is law. Instead, the union leaders have chosen to work within the limits set by this repressive framework.
We can’t let the same happen with the IHRA definition, the review of the Teachers’ Standards, or any of the recommendations from the Bell report that put at risk the freedom of expression of teachers and students.
To rally and unite both students and teachers, the leadership should mobilise for the 20 November international youth strike against militarism and war, which the University College Union (UCU) is already building towards.
A mass show of force among teachers and students would help expose the hypocrisy of Burnham’s pro-war government, and would link together the questions of fighting austerity, militarism, and repression.
Across Europe – particularly in France – our fellow teachers and students are showing the way: militant mass action is the only way to fight for our democratic rights, and against the imperialist system that upholds all forms of racism.
