{"id":332341,"date":"2026-10-23T06:57:03","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T06:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=332341"},"modified":"2026-10-23T07:18:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T07:18:23","slug":"quick-takewhats-up-with-the-uks-antisemitism-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=332341","title":{"rendered":"Quick Take\u2026what\u2019s up with the UK\u2019s \u201cAntisemitism Review\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kit Knightly \u2013 Off-Guardian Oct 21, 2026<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Earlier today, the British government published their apparently long-awaited review into antisemitism in the education system.<\/p>\n

The purpose of the review was \u2013 allegedly \u2013 to assess the scale of antisemitism faced by Jewish pupils in British schools. The real aim seems to have been to torture definitions until they manage to create a problem of the desired scale.<\/p>\n

The report\u2019s findings can be summed up in a headline plastered on every front page: 60% of Jewish school children have experienced antisemitism in school<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The BBC calls it \u201cshocking\u201d<\/a>. So does ITV<\/a>. Sky News reports on the \u201cvast scale\u201d<\/a> of antisemitism.<\/p>\n

The government itself calls the report a \u201cgenerational moment\u201d<\/a>, as the Education Secretary Lucy Powell \u201cpromises action\u201d.<\/p>\n

Everyone is very upset. Nobody really seems to be engaging with just how odd that numbers is \u2013 60% really doesn\u2019t make much sense.<\/p>\n

Firstly, because 70% of Jewish pupils go to all Jewish primary schools<\/a> and 50% go to all Jewish secondary schools. Which implies a sizeable percentage of the alleged \u201cantisemitism\u201d is being experienced at Jewish schools<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And secondly, because \u201c60% experiencing antisemitism\u201d is a HUGE increase from last year, where a report from Jewish Policy Research<\/a> group found it was 24%<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Why the disparity? Does it make any sense?<\/p>\n

If you read the report<\/a> you start to see where these divergent figures come from, it\u2019s a question of definitions.<\/p>\n

For one thing, it\u2019s all based on survey data. Which is near-enough pointless at the best of times, and clearly open to falsification and manipulation.<\/p>\n

Secondly, the report uses the infamously broad definition of \u201cantisemitism\u201d<\/a> adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which essentially conflates criticism of Israel with anti-Jewish bigotry.<\/p>\n

Thirdly, it chooses to include in its definition of \u201cexperiencing antisemitism at school\u201d, anything that happens while travelling to or from school<\/em>, and all digital or online interactions during school hours<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So, under these definitions, a child who overheard someone calling Netanyahu \u201cHitler\u201d on the bus, or saw a tweet saying Israel had no right exist during lunch, just \u201cexperienced antisemitism at school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suddenly, that 60% doesn\u2019t seem high at all, if anything it\u2019s rather low.<\/p>\n

Questions arise about how real any<\/em> of these statistics really are. It\u2019s pretty clear this report \u2013 like all government reports \u2013 is much more a means to a legislative end than a real investigation.<\/p>\n

Something made all the more obvious by the fact the government has already said it plans to act on every single one of the report\u2019s recommendations the same day it was published<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the list, I\u2019ve emphasised the ones I find potentially troubling.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Recognise antisemitism as a distinct form of hatred, not just general racism<\/li>\n
  2. Strengthen political impartiality guidance, including limits on teachers wearing pro-Palestine badges<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Establish a national hotline for school leaders dealing with antisemitism<\/li>\n
  4. Improve teaching about contemporary antisemitism and modern Jewish life<\/li>\n
  5. Teach pupils to recognise and challenge antisemitic conspiracy theories<\/strong><\/li>\n
  6. Include antisemitism explicitly in school safeguarding policies<\/li>\n
  7. Train teachers to recognise and tackle antisemitism<\/li>\n
  8. Work with the Home Office and the Prevent programme to help schools identify when antisemitism may be linked to radicalisation<\/strong><\/li>\n
  9. Encourage schools to adopt the IHRA working definition of antisemitism<\/li>\n
  10. Improve procedures for reporting antisemitic incidents, including signposting<\/li>\n
  11. Ensure antisemitic bullying and complaints are investigated and acted on consistently<\/li>\n
  12. Make clear in staff conduct policies that antisemitism is unacceptable<\/li>\n
  13. Strengthen Holocaust education, including antisemitism\u2019s role in the Holocaust, and encourage schools to mark Holocaust Memorial Day<\/li>\n
  14. Create more opportunities for pupils to engage with Jewish communities, including visits to synagogues<\/li>\n
  15. Make sure Judaism and modern Jewish life are properly represented in religious education<\/li>\n
  16. Improve media literacy so pupils can also identify online antisemitism<\/strong><\/li>\n
  17. Provide better resources for teaching the Israel-Palestine conflict fairly and sensitively<\/li>\n
  18. Ensure schools have clear policies for dealing with antisemitism involving external speakers<\/li>\n
  19. Ensure education unions have clear antisemitism policies<\/li>\n
  20. Establish a dedicated support service to help schools, colleges and councils deal with antisemitism<\/li>\n
  21. Use some of the Government\u2019s security funding to help Jewish schools and colleges undertake educational visits safely<\/li>\n
  22. Run a campaign to tackle antisemitic behaviour at transport hubs near Jewish schools and colleges<\/li>\n
  23. Provide Jewish school and college leaders with mentoring and more security advice<\/li>\n
  24. Strengthen accountability for schools that fail to deal properly with antisemitism<\/li>\n
  25. Enable Ofsted and the Independent Schools Inspectorate to assess how schools tackle antisemitism<\/li>\n
  26. Make local councils identify local patterns of antisemitism and help schools respond<\/li>\n
  27. Share effective practice and guidance between schools and colleges<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u201cImprove media literacy\u201d? \u201cteach pupils to recognise conspiracy theories\u201d? \u201cwork with the home office to identify radicalisation\u201d?<\/p>\n

    That\u2019s creepy Orwell talk.<\/p>\n

    Also, \u201climits on teachers wearing pro-Palestine badges\u201d<\/em>?<\/p>\n

    Really?<\/p>\n

    This is absurd to the point that, if they were actually trying to encourage resentment of Israel and the Jewish people, I\u2019m not sure what they\u2019d do differently.<\/p>\n

    —<\/p>\n

    Off-Guardian is kept alive by support from readers.<\/p>\n

    Donate<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Source\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The British government has just published a review into antisemitism in the education system. Having reviewed its recommendations, Kit Knightly wonders if they are actually trying to encourage resentment of Israel and Jewish people? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":332343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-332341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-posts"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=332341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332342,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332341\/revisions\/332342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/332343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=332341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=332341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=332341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}