Jewish students ‘were not consulted’ over IHRA poll

CITY UNIVERSITY’S Students’ Union is to hold a referendum on the implementation of IHRA’s antisemitism definition.

A debate will be streamed on 18 March, with voting to be held later this month.

The union’s decision to hold a yes or no vote has been criticised by the Union of Jewish Students. UJS said on Monday it was “disappointed” by the move. It said City’s Students’ Union had “failed to consult Jewish students until after the decision was made” and had remained “adamant about the referendum going ahead” despite its concerns.

“This will now be the second time, this academic year, where Jewish students haven’t been consulted on this motion, with the first motion falling at the student member meeting in November 2020,” UJS said.

A spokesperson for City Students’ Union said it promotes “freedom of speech as an essential part of our democracy” and is working to ensure the vote is carried out in a safe environment.

A spokesperson for its board of trustees said it “recognised that this issue had been discussed at various student forums but felt the concerns raised from both sides of the argument warranted a full and transparent response from the student voice”.

Last month academics at University College London voted to reject IHRA’s antisemitism definition.

The union remained adamant about the vote going ahead’

AN EDUCATIONAL website that stated “Jewish leaders wanted Jesus to be guilty” has come under fire after a mother posted about her shock on Twitter while homeschooling her child.

Anti-racism activist Joanne Bell, 44, from north London, said the “antisemitic” resource — which has since been taken down - was shared with her child, who is in Year 2.

Its publisher, a free website called TopMarks, has apologised for the offence caused.

A passage said Jewish leaders had “found it difficult to find anything that he had done wrong, even though they paid people to lie about him.” Another read: “The chief priests, who wanted Jesus to die, persuaded the people to set free a murderer called Barabbas.”

Ms Bell objected to the “extremely emotional” language and the biblical tale’s framing as a “truth-based story”.

She said it appeared to “maximise” the blame put on Jews rather than Romans and that it depicted Jesus as a white male while portraying Judas as “hook-nosed”.

Ms Bell declined to name her child’s school but said its headmaster was “horrified” by the material when she shared her concerns.

“It passed that a teacher had chosen the material but had not run it past the two religious education leads,” she said.

“They’re going to be doing another lesson when they’re in school when they can talk about the context and hopefully undo some of the damage.”

A TopMarks spokesperson said: “We are sorry for any offence to or misrepresentation of the Jewish community, it was not our intention, and we have removed the Bible story.”