Education minister: ‘People have got to stop using Israel as excuse for antisemitism’

Higher education minister Robert Halfon has told a packed Holocaust Educational Trust (HET) parliamentary reception in Westminster “people have got to stop using Israel as an excuse for antisemitism.”

Reflecting on official figures showing record levels of anti-Jewish hate in Higher Education, the minister said in his brief he would “not tolerate the sort of antisemitic incidents that have gone on in the past.”

He pointed to the National Union of Students failure in the past to tackle antisemitism and to  the “awful” Professor David Miller case at Bristol University.

The Conservative MP for Harlow spoke of the vital importance of Holocaust education to teach futures generations about the horrors both of the Shoah, and of other genocides in the world as well.

“Young people must be taught about the Holocaust and understand why it took place,” he added.

Halfon also said:”I believe it is my duty as a Jewish person to also teach about other nation’s genocides.”

Wednesday’s HET event was notable for the impressive cross party turn out of MPs and peers, including former minister Sajid Javid, and Labour front benchers Rachel Reeves, Yvette Cooper and Middle East minister Bambos Charambous.

Lord Hunt, Lord Mann, Lord Pickles and Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle also attended, as did the MPs Alex Sobel and Rosie Duffield.

Minister without portfolio Nadhim Zahawi also delivered an impassioned speech to the crowd, who included several survivors, praising the work of HET.

He said he did not what to dwell on the “idiotic and appalling tweet” from MP Andrew Bridgen, who had compared safety of Covid vaccines with the Holocaust that same day.

Zahawi spoke of his visit to Auschwitz which borough home to him the shocking and haunting scale of mass murder that went on in the death camp.

The minister urged more young people to visit, saying young HET ambassadors return “determined” to tell the story of what they witness to their peers.

In speech which left many in tears survivor Janine Webber, who turns 91 this year,about her horrific experience.

Born in Lwów in Poland (now L’viv, Ukraine) Janineand her family soon had to leave their apartment and move into an area on the edge of the city, in preparation for the establishment of a ghetto.

She recalled the horror of seeing her her father being shot and of never seeing her grandmother again.

With other members of Janine’s extended family falling victim to disease or deportation to Bełżec extermination camp, her uncle found a Polish farmer wiling to hide Janine and her aunt Rouja.

She was later given a false Catholic identity and eas then sent to a convent in Kraków, from where she was taken with three other girls to live with a priest. She finally moved to live with an elderly couple, where she worked as a maid until Kraków was liberated in early 1945.

In another well-delivered speech Anna Volstad,a HET ambassador at school in East Barnet, said:”In a world where young people are constantly bombarded on social media, it is more important than ever for us to be equipped with the facts to challenge conspiracy theories which often target young, impressionable people.”

HET chief executive Karen Pollak and Craig Leviton were also both warmly applauded as they addressed the audience.