School urged to sack governor over ‘inflammatory, antisemitic’ Israel poem
'Our children should be protected from people like him', Board of Deputies spokesperson says over poem vowing to 'piss on the pilgrims' at Dome of the Rock
A secondary school in East London faces calls to remove an author from its board of governors over a poem described this week by the Board of Deputies as “inflammatory” and “antisemitic.”
Dante Micheaux was appointed chair of governors at the council-run Eastlea Community School in Canning Town in 2016.
He is the author of two poetry collections entitled Circus and Amorous Shepherd: Poems and has won several literary accolades over the years.
But a 2010 poem entitled “Siding with the Israelis” has drawn fierce criticism from the Board of Deputies, the Jewish Chronicle reported on Tuesday.
A spokesperson told the newspaper: “No one who writes this inflammatory, antisemitic material is fit to be a school governor.
“Our children should be protected from people like Micheaux. The school should remove him from his position immediately.”
Newham Council, the local authority which runs the school, is looking into the controversy, according to the report.
The poem states: “I will become a conqueror of refugees exiled in their own home, an exploder of babies in bassinets, a barbed-wire fence dissecting families, so we can lie in the dust & watch snails race up Golgotha.”
In another line, the narrator promises to “piss on the pilgrims that have come to pray” at the Dome of the Rock.
Eastlea Community School was approached for comment.
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