Bristol school workers who blocked pro-Israel MP stand vindicated

Damien Egan is vice chair of Labour Friends of Israel (Photo: Parliament/Maria Unger)

The Labour government has egg on its face after it tried to smear Bristol school workers who stood up for Palestine as “antisemitic”.

The Ofsted inspectorate has found that Bristol Brunel Academy is “diverse and inclusive” and that “no discrimination is tolerated” in it.

Politicians and the press launched a witch-hunt this month against NEU union members who were set to protest against Labour MP Damien Egan from visiting the school. He is the vice chair of Labour Friends of Israel—a right wing group that backs Israel’s genocide.

Jon Reddiford, NEU national executive member in the south west of England, told Socialist Worker, “The inspection told us what we already knew about the school.

“I’m pleased to read it and it may mean there is less of an attack on the right to protest in the future. There was never any antisemitism—the issue was objecting to someone supporting a genocidal regime.”

Jon said that the inspection was “there to bully and pressure NEU members and try to force them into line”.

Last September, NEU members found out that Egan would visit the school and decided that they would wear symbols of Palestinian solidarity on the day. They were planning on wearing keffiyehs, watermelon badges and displays of solidarity.

Local residents decided to organise a protest against Egan’s visit. NEU members told the headteacher that this action was planned, who then postponed Egan’s visit.

The media jumped on the story this month after Labour communities secretary Steve Reed spoke at the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) conference on Sunday. “I have a colleague who is Jewish who has been banned from visiting a school,” he told the Zionist pressure group.

Keir Starmer came out against the school and a snap inspection was announced. Ofsted could have put the school into special measures—a tool used to punish schools.

Instead, it said that the school showed “a profound commitment to providing an inclusive learning environment that promotes tolerance and respect for the diversity of modern Britain”.

“Staff, including those from minority groups, spoke of the harmonious and religiously tolerant atmosphere in the school,” its report said.

The NEU national executive passed a motion last weekend in support of the Bristol workers. It slammed the “use of Ofsted in this circumstance” as highlighting “the very political nature of Ofsted and how it is there to discipline schools”.

It said that the NEU will not “concede any ground on our right as a union to protest against social injustice and against supporters of a genocidal regime”.

The British state is turning more and more to authoritarianism and ramping up repression against the Palestine movement.

But there are frictions within the state over how best to proceed—and that means pressure can be brought to bear.

At the beginning of the witch-hunt, there were loud echoes of the “Trojan Horse” conspiracy in Birmingham in 2014. The then Tory government sent an Ofsted hit squad to the city after a fake letter claimed that “extremist Muslims” had plotted to take over schools.

A wave of Islamophobia saw Ofsted find five schools to be failing and deem another “inadequate”.  Teachers were sacked or suspended from their jobs and investigated for serious misconduct—and some were banned from teaching.

The right wing press was itching for a repeat in Bristol, but the Labour government didn’t feel it could simply send a hit squad.  

The witch-hunt in Bristol comes after two years of the mass movement which has changed how millions of people view Palestine.

But the purpose of the inspection was still to intimidate the union members. Jon said, “When Egan returns to the school, will NEU members have the same confidence to wear keffiyehs and badges? That was the agenda behind the inspection.”

When Egan tries to visit again, the Bristol school workers need to know that vast numbers of people stand with them over Palestine.