Teach children about hate in infant school says Green
EDUCATION AGAINST antisemitism and online hate should start in infant schools, according to Labour’s education spokesperson, Kate Green.
She was taking part in a fringe debate at this week’s Labour Party conference on combating online racism and misogyny chaired by the Holocaust Educational Trust’s (HET) Karen Pollock, which also included Danny Stone, director of the Antisemitism Policy Trust, shadow minister for domestic violence Jess Phillips and HET ambassador Gerry Bluer.
The Shadow Education Secretary said it was “vital” that any legislation embedded the need for schools to encourage all pupils to discuss and evaluate problematic online content from a young age.
She feared the government would instead favour legislation with a “narrow, legalistic, ‘what should we outlaw?’ approach.”
Mr Stone said that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism was never designed to be put into legislation such as the Government’s forthcoming Online Harms Bill.
He said the definition of what was anti-Jewish racism was always intended to be a “working definition” because “antisemitism changes, and is flexible.” The IHRA definition, with its examples of what might constitute antisemitism, was “a very helpful document — but it is not a panacea,” he added.
Discussing calls by organisations such as the Board of Deputies for the government to include the IHRA definition in a bill designed to ensure social media giants take more effective action against online harm, Mr Stone said: “Is it workable for social media companies?
“Actually if you take Facebook for example, they actually do capture a lot of the IHRA definition already. “There will be difficulties for them applying the double standard on Israel, for example. I t is all about context. I don’t think it’s right for the Bill. But I do ultimately think the regulator (Ofcom) should adopt it.”
He revealed his organisation was among those to have called for Facebook to ban Holocaust denial from its platform.
Ms Pollock referred to an incident in which Facebook suspended the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. She had challenged a Holocaust denier on social media using “raw imagery” of victims of the Shoah.
“Some of those images were of nude bodies, and the result was (with ) nudity being an offence meant that she was suspended, but the Holocaust denier was not,” explained Ms Pollock.
Facebook does capture a lot of the IHRA definition already ’