Government sets Ofsted on Bristol school after Palestine row

The government has set school regulator Ofsted on a Bristol school that dared to listen to parents and teachers who didn’t want a genocide-supporting MP lecturing their kids. The punitive move comes immediately after Keir Starmer told MPs:

We will be holding to account those who prevented this visit to this school.

A planned visit to the school by ultra-Zionist MP Damien Egan, who visited Israel during its genocide in Gaza, was cancelled after parents said they would keep their children home rather than expose them to Egan’s extremism. Teachers had said they would wear Palestine t-shirts during the visit.

Egan’s allies claimed this ‘endangered’ him, while fellow Israel fanatic, front-bencher Steve Reed, implied Egan was blocked for being Jewish. The Starmer government, along with state and corporate ‘mainstream’ media, have amplified Reed’s dishonesty to demand action.

Ofsted inspection

After Starmer’s threat, Ofsted announced a ‘snap inspection’ on the Bristol Brunel Academy, with inspectors arriving on Thursday morning, 15 January. Schools that fail Ofsted inspections can have their ‘funding agreement’ terminated and face other punitive ‘special measures’.

Ofsted’s chief inspector Martyn Oliver echoed the Israel lobby’s usual talking point, claiming that the move would be detrimental to “children from the Jewish community” – as if the whole Jewish community supports genocide and would be traumatised by humanitarians opposing it:

I am troubled by the message this sends to children, especially children from the Jewish community. Those of us privileged enough to be working in education have a professional and moral duty to stand against discrimination.

In 2023, school head Ruth Perry died by suicide while waiting for an Ofsted inspection report. Ofsted apologised for its role in her death. Coroner Heidi Connor warned that more teachers would die “unless action is taken”. The Department for Education and Ofsted promised changes to protect the health and mental health of school staff.

Now we have a regime run by a ‘Zionist without qualification’, who is happy to wage war on anti-genocide protest to protect Israel’s interests, threatening a school for listening to parents and teachers to protect their children.

Featured image via the Canary