“By the end of today there will be no political badges in the NHS... I expect that by the end of the day.”
Former defence secretary Penny Mordaunt, who co-authored the report with Mann, said Jew hatred now presents an “urgent” issue for the entire country. She and Mann were appointed in November to co-chair the commission into antisemitism that produced the report on behalf of the Board of Deputies.
The 20-page report investigates the state of antisemitism in the UK sector by sector and lays out 10 practical steps to combat it.
Also speaking on Tuesday, Mordaunt said the report will be going on the prime minister’s desk and there is “no reason” why the recommendations, which are offered “politely but unapologetically” to key stakeholders and sector leaders, cannot be fully implemented within the next 12 months.
“The ink is dry on this document,” she said, “but John and I are just getting started. He and I will waste no time in ensuring that we get a good response from government and the implementation of these recommendations, which have the capacity to have a real difference to people in a very short space of time.”
~2.jpg?f=3x2&w=732&q=0.6)
[Missing Credit]
The recommendations set out in the report concern sectors such as healthcare, contract compliance for arts organisations and festivals, the obligations of trade unions, and the police.
Within the NHS and healthcare industry, for example, the report found a “specific unaddressed issue of antisemitism” and recommended every NHS trust in the UK, of which there are more than 200, to undergo “basic training on contemporary antisemitism”.
Mann and Mordaunt further proposed that a “summit” be held with NHS leaders from across the UK to tackle antisemitism.
Responding to the JC’s request for comment, the NHS did not address the report’s call for a summit with NHS leaders or for contemporary antisemitism training to be carried out across NHS trusts.
An NHS spokesperson said it is “completely unacceptable” for anyone to experience racism or prejudice in the health service and that the NHS takes any instance of antisemitism or discrimination “extremely seriously”.
Other recommendations in the report include that Judaism should always be seen and understood in the workplace as an ethnicity as well as a religion to ensure antisemitism is dealt with appropriately, and that the Police Chiefs Council and the College of Policing create proposals to bring about “consistent decision making and standards” across all police forces throughout the country.
[Missing Credit]
There is a recommendation to create a new “Antisemitism Training Qualification” to complement existing equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) training, and a recommendation that primary school teachers particularly in faith schools are taught how to avoid passing on harmful antisemitic tropes during lessons.
Mordaunt said the sectors featured in the report were arrived at after “following the evidence”, and rising antisemitic prejudices across British society presents “an urgent issue not just for the Jewish community but for the United Kingdom as a whole.”
The establishment of a commission to investigate antisemitism sector by sector was a manifesto promise by Board President Phil Rosenberg, who has recently completed his first year in office. Rosenberg said on Tuesday that since October 7, antisemitism has infected “every area” of society, but the recommendations set out in the report are “well thought out, practical” and designed to be implemented “swiftly and dramatically”.
He said the Board will now begin to develop action plans to ensure the report’s recommendations stick. Jewish people, he said, are today too often “overlooked” by inclusive policies and protections afforded to vulnerable groups, and going forward the Board will “insist that ‘Jews Must Count’, and we will use the recommendations of this report to ensure that they do.”
One of the individuals Mordaunt and Mann interviewed for the report is a trade union member who was at a branch meeting when a motion was passed supporting the right to armed struggle against Israel, annulling other agenda points relevant to the profession. The union member witnessed people shouting, “intifada revolution” at a union-backed event and has repeatedly felt “isolated” and pressure to hide their views and the fact they have family members in Israel.
Having originally joined the trade union over 10 years ago for reasons of professional indemnity, they told the JC the body has since devolved to “being obsessed with passing pretentiousness geopolitical motions” and alienating most of its Jewish reps, particularly after October 7. The union’s communication channels are “incessantly filled with anti-Israel posts” that have no bearing on or relevance to union members.
“You can’t kick back in these kinds of environments, even if you were unafraid to, because all it takes is one nutter to find out where you live or work and you’re suddenly very unsafe,” they said. “And there are definitely nutters committed to the cause.”
They hope the compiled report and recommendations “spark conversation, raise awareness among key decision makers, especially in the trade unions, and lead to real change.”
