A schoolgirl's 3-minute video confirms there is no future for British Jewry

Update: As you can see from clicking the link, the video has now been removed from the Speak Out Challenge website but here is a screenshot below I saved, and the whole video is actually interspersed with the response video from Brian of London at the bottom of this page. Also worth mentioning that the antisemites on twitter are apoplectic at my actions that they say have led to this girl being 'censored'. In fact, the Speakers Trust had already decided not to send the girl through to the Grand Final and, moreover, in my letter to the CEO I specifically said I was not asking for the video to be removed. I was asking for the right to respond to the lies (and specifically have the School hear the response). Brian's video does this.
Another Update: This explain the 'Peace loving' schoolgirl's perverse views on 'Palestine'. 

(SEE FURTHER UPDATES AT BOTTOM OF PAGE)

This is actually a good news and bad news update to the posting yesterday about how a 3-minute anti-Israel hate speech full of lies and blood libels by Leanne Mohamad of Wanstead High School won the 2015-16 Jack Petchey “Speak Out” Challenge Redbridge Regional Final.

The good news is that I have had a response** (see below) from the  CEO of the Speakers Trust (who run the competition on behalf of the Jack Petchey Foundation); she states that the judging panel have now decided unanimously against sending Leanne Mohamad through to the Grand Final. The reason is that they had the same concerns to those I raised. Note, in particular, how the speech was in breach of the two 'fundamental rules made explicit during training'.

The bad news is that the more I think about Leanne Mohamad's speech, and the jubilant reaction to it, the more it is evident that there is no long-term future for British Jewry (and it seems Brian of London agrees with me). Here we have a very well-educated child in an affluent suburban school who has been groomed and brainwashed into accepting a 'Palestine' narrative that is even more extreme than that proposed by Hamas. Yet, she seems to have had the full support of all the school's teachers and pupils as well as the local authorities who clearly bought into, and supported, the same narrative because so much of Britain's political and academic class is controlled by the Islamic/leftist alliance that deems 'Palestinians' as the ultimate victims of our age and Israelis as the ultimate villains.

A very large proportion of schoolchildren are being brought up with the same extreme views as Leanne Mohamad. People with these views are already dominant in Britain's Universities with their "Israel apartheid" weeks and their closing down of any pro-Israel speech on campus.  Things are clearly going to get a lot worse with the influx of immigrants who have been fed the same antisemitic propaganda from birth. In 5 years time Leanne Mohamad may be intimidating Jewish students on a University campus with her lies and in 15 years time it is highly likely that Leanne Mohamad will be a member of Parliament (she is after all just a younger version of many like her now in the Labour party). Judging by the comments yesterday of Teresa May someone like her would be welcome in the Conservative party and could even become Prime Minister.

Leanne's narrative is driven by hateful antisemitism that refuses to acknowledge any rights of the Jewish people, and completely ignores the reality of Palestinian terrorism and rejectionism, the fact that the 'poor Palestinians' are the recipients of more aid per person than any other people in the world, and that most of the billions of dollars given in aid that have not ended up in terrorist bank accounts has been spent on terror tunnels and weapons. It is a narrative that is clearly promoted not just in Leanne's mosque, but also by the BBC, Sky News and almost every main stream newspaper. That is why not a single person in authority at Wanstead High School or on the various Redbridge committees even questioned the legitimacy of what Leanne was saying or noticed that her speech was in breach of both of the competition's fundamental rules.

The 'official' Jewish leadership of the UK ultimately bears some responsibility for allowing this narrative to take hold, when the simple truth was all that it needed to expose it. Now Jewish parents in the UK are having to send their children to schools and colleges where the Leanne Mohamads dominate all debate, while the Jews cower in silence. That is the future for Jews in the UK.

**Response from Julie Holness, CEO

Thank you very much for your email, which my colleague Rebecca Griffiths has this morning forwarded to me. We take your concerns very seriously. 

Every year thousands of young people are trained in the art of public speaking. They are encouraged to speak out on something they feel passionately about and of course they bring with them their history and culture and beliefs. 

There are, however, two fundamental rules that are made explicit during the training:
- the speech must have a positive and uplifting message - in fact this is one of the core terms of the agreement with the Jack Petchey Foundation.
- a speaker should never inflame or offend the audience or insult others and this, by definition, means that propaganda is ruled out absolutely from the outset.

It is, however, the school that votes through its most talented speaker in an Assembly final and an independent panel of judges from the local community who select their regional winner. Speeches at this level will have been further developed and even rewritten, with the training guidelines but without our input on content. Judges do not mark a speaker down because they disagree with a point of view but they are clearly briefed on the those guidelines. Unfortunately, with over 18,000 young people trained annually, a speech that does not observe these ground rules may very rarely get through on passion and delivery. 

Last Saturday a Speakers Trust and Jack Petchey Foundation judging panel decided unanimously against sending Leanne Mohamad through to the next stage and she will not be speaking at the Grand Final. These were precisely our concerns. 

As a Speakers Trust trainer I was responsible for managing the schools in Redbridge and I have a close affinity with the region. Please let me know if you would like me to forward your email to Wanstead High School so that your comments and reservations may be heard. 

If you wish to discuss this further you have my home office number below, which you are welcome to use at any time. 

Kind regards,
Julie Holness
Chief Executive Officer
Speakers Trust
Getting the Public Speaking

And here is my follow-up:

Dear Julie

Thank you for your very fast response to my letter, which is greatly appreciated.
I am pleased to hear that the judging panel found that the speech by Leanne Mohamad was in breach of both of the fundamental rules you cited and that, as a result, she will not be speaking at the Grand Final. 

What I do not understand is that if, as you say, these "two fundamental rules are made explicit during the training" how on earth was it possible for a speech like this not only to be accepted in the first place but to actually win the Redbridge Final? It seems that there must have been a complete breakdown of the competition processes at many levels. It also seems to me that political activists in Redbridge and the School have hijacked the competition to promote what is, ultimately, a deeply antisemitic narrative. 

What I would like to know is how the damage done is going to be redressed. The lies and blood libels in Leanne's speech, which went totally unchallenged, actually go far beyond what even the terrorist organisation Hamas claims. To say these blood libels are deeply offensive to me and my many family members in Israel (some of whom have been murdered by the Palestinian terrorists whose narrative Leanne presents) is an understatement. Yet I see that the video is STILL on your website http://www.speakoutchallenge.com/leanne-mohamad-winner-jack-petcheys-speak-challenge-redbridge-regional-final-2015-16/  on a page which congratulates Leanne as the Redbridge winner. 

I am not, incidentally suggesting that the video must be taken down or censored. But if it is left there must be a clear statement about how it has breached the rules, why it is so offensive and why nothing like that can ever be accepted in the future. There must also be a proper video response. 

As far as the School is concerned I have already written to the Head Teacher, but I think you should also seek answers from them to the above questions.  It frightens me to know how such extreme, hateful and ignorant views have not only become main stream in such a school, but have become a mark of excellence with apparently unanimous support.

Yours

Edgar

See also: How to win a UK child's charity award - make a speech full of lies and blood libels against Israel 

UPDATE: The Jewish Chronicle has picked up the story, although curiously (given that it failed to cover the story first time when the child won the competition) it headlines with the good news that the Panel unanimously voted the speech out of the final.

UPDATE: Brian of London has produced a superb response video. This is what I will ask the head Master of Wanstead High School to show to all the pupils. Please watch it all:





Update: This explain the 'Peace loving' schoolgirl's perverse views on 'Palestine'.