MEND has produced a guide for schools on how to facilitate discussions on Palestine/Israel after it received hundreds of reports from students and parents complaining of schools curtailing or prohibiting expressions of Palestinian solidarity and shutting down debate.
The organisation, which aims to encourage British Muslims to be more actively involved in media and politics, said democracy involves differences of opinion and it is fundamental that schools be able to discuss contentious issues.
While antisemitic language and behaviour must be confronted and should not be tolerated, MEND said, the mere advocating for the human rights of Palestinians or criticising the actions of the Israeli government cannot be regarded as antisemitic.
And the shutting down of these expressions of opinion sends a false and discriminatory message that they are antisemitic and, therefore, these students themselves are somehow racist.
You can read the full guidance here but it is summarised in the graphic below:
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