Violent attacks on ‘Zionist’ targets are not legitimate protest – Palestine Action ban must remain

This fact would once have shocked us. Today, sadly, it comes as no surprise.

Jewish communities have experienced a tidal wave of hatred over the past three years. Antisemitism within schools and colleges has been one of the most distressing aspects of that hostility.

Jewish parents are faced with an appalling dilemma. They can send their children to a non-Jewish school where they may be subjected to hatred from their peers and teachers, or to a Jewish school where their place of learning must be guarded like a prison and could become a target for hate-filled protestors, terrorists and hostile states.

Indeed, one of Sir David’s more shocking findings was that, in Jewish schools, teachers and school leaders have spent more time dealing with security arrangements than educational matters.

Again, none of this is surprising to any of us. We hear about what is happening in schools directly from our friends, neighbours and families.

That is precisely why these recommendations matter and why it is so crucial that they are swiftly delivered.

Many of the JLC’s proposals on safeguarding, definitions of racism, staff training, political impartiality, extremism and Jewish identity feature materially in Sir David’s report.

Yet, as we approach the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht, his recommendations on Holocaust education and wider curriculum changes seem most pertinent.

On the night of November 9,1938, a wave of anti-Jewish violence swept across Nazi Germany and Austria.

Synagogues were set ablaze, Jewish businesses were ransacked and destroyed, and thousands of Jews were subjected to violence, humiliation and arrest.

Kristallnacht remains a stark reminder of the consequences of unchecked antisemitism, and of the vital importance of educating future generations to recognise and resist hatred and extremism.

That is why recommendations 11 and 12 call for the not only for the national approach to Holocaust education to be strengthened, but also for schools to address contemporary antisemitism in the curriculum: equipping students with the tools to recognise and confront contemporary anti-Jewish hatred and conspiracy theories.

It is not sufficient for young people to recognise antisemitism only when studying the darkest chapters of European history.

They must learn to recognise and challenge antisemitism as it manifests in the world around them.

Unfortunately, there are those among us who did not receive such an education.

Next week, on November 4 and 5, the Supreme Court will consider whether the Home Secretary’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation under Section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2000 was lawful.

Too many public figures and organisations who should know better have misrepresented this challenge to a terrorism proscription decision as though it were simply a question of freedom of speech.

But Palestine Action is not simply a protest movement. Its activities have included violence, criminal damage and attacks which have met the legal definition of terrorism.

Before it was proscribed, Palestine Action’s violent activism spread from attacking companies they believed were linked to Israel, to targeting Jewish-owned businesses and premises in areas with large Jewish communities.

In November 2024, Palestine Action hit headlines after vandalising the offices of several Jewish charities and stealing a bust of Chaim Weizmann from the University of Manchester.

And in May last year, the group targeted a Jewish-owned business in Stamford Hill, North London, as well as a building housing Jewish-owned businesses in Prestwich, North Manchester, resulting in significant damage.

Windows were smashed, equipment destroyed, buildings defaced.‌

These incidents aren’t just about property damage. These attacks intimidate Jewish communities and make them feel unsafe.

The message taken by British Jews is unmistakable: you are not safe, and your identity places you at risk.

At a time when Jewish communities are already facing serious threats, we cannot treat violent attacks on so-called “Zionist” targets as a legitimate form of political protest.

That is why I believe the Home Secretary was right to proscribe Palestine Action and why I support the defence of that decision before the Supreme Court.

We must take a stand against Palestine Action’s use of political violence and terrorism.

And we must teach the next generation to recognise and reject antisemitism, giving them the tools they need to resist the most extreme and dangerous antisemites who target our community.