Anti-Semitism

Debate between Bob Blackman and Lord Stunell

Thursday 20th January 2011 Westminster Hall

[Andrew Stunell]

I do not think I want to get there yet. I was about to say that Universities UK has established an academic freedom working group. The aim of that group is to consider how universities can best protect academic freedom, freedom of speech, freedom on campus and freedom to study under the contemporary conditions of geo-political conflict, racial and religious tension and violent extremism. The Universities UK working group will include representatives from the FE sector, so it will be very wide ranging. When the report is published, my right hon. Friend the Minister for Universities and Science will respond with a ministerial statement, so we are setting store by that report and will certainly respond strongly to it. I can announce today that I am asking the cross-Government working party, which I referred to initially, to take up this issue alongside its work on anti-Semitism on the internet. Those will be the two focal points of that work.

The debate is particularly timely, with Holocaust memorial week being next week. As I have said, the Government have now published our response to the report of the all-party inquiry into anti-Semitism. We have backed that response up with facts and figures in a number of cases. As has been reported in the debate, £2 million has been allocated to pay for the security of Jewish schools in the state sector. On Monday, I shall visit North Cheshire Jewish primary school, which is in the constituency adjacent to mine. I know from my previous visits to the area that the security required there is a shock to all non-Jewish visitors, who expect a primary school to be a primary school, perhaps not with open access, but certainly with friendly, welcoming access rather than high fences and armed guards. There, in a quiet suburban neighbourhood, far away from any threat of upset or trouble, one would have thought, it has proved necessary to have such high levels of security. I think that the whole House acknowledges that it is right that Jewish faith schools should have assistance with the extra protection that they need.[Official Report, 27 January 2011, Vol. 522, c. 4MC.]

[Bob Blackman]

I thank my hon. Friend the Minister for his remarks about the security of schools and, indeed, synagogues, but will he comment on the other issue that children face when they are going to school? Often, children attending Jewish schools are targeted on public transport and in going to those schools. We must take action to stop that happening, as well as making children safe when they get to school.

[Andrew Stunell]

The announcement about security at schools is the acute side of the treatment. We also need to deal with the chronic issues, which have rightly been drawn to the attention of the House during the debate. Part of that involves understanding and assessing the problems. We reported at the end of last year that agreement had been reached for all police forces to record anti-Semitic hate crimes, and the first official anti-Semitic hate crime statistics were published on 30 November last year.

As I have said, the Government are committed to hosting a seminar later this year to ensure continued progress on tackling anti-Semitism and all other forms of hate on the internet. We certainly understand the importance of tackling anti-Semitic discourse and we supported the publication of the report entitled “Playing the Nazi Card”. We have also appointed Sir Andrew Burns as the UK envoy for post-holocaust issues. He has started work on looking at holocaust-era assets and developing an international tracing service.

We have made a public commitment to fund the Lessons from Auschwitz project for the coming financial year. We are committed to remembering the holocaust and have committed £750,000 in the form of a grant to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust for the 2011 commemorations and related educational activities. We have committed £2 million to Faith in Action, a small grants programme to support local inter-faith activity. A large number of those projects have directly involved Jewish communities across the country. More broadly, we supported inter-faith week to the tune of £200,000 in 2010.

The Government take this issue seriously; the Department takes it seriously; and I personally, as the Minister, take it seriously. I look forward to working with other engaged hon. Members on both sides of the House in the coming year to make a reality of all our wishes on this very important topic.