School students boycott Wes Streeting assembly over Palestine stance

Novara Media reports that around 300 17 and 18-year-olds at Beal High School in Ilford in east London either refused to attend or walked out of an assembly with shadow health secretary Wes Streeting last Friday. 

One student involved told Novara Media: “We heard Wes Streeting (below) would be coming down to do a talk on university and personal statements.

“But as a year group, we wanted to show our support to those in Palestine. Keir Starmer (has) stated he does not support calls for a ceasefire.

“None of us agreed with this, so collectively we showed our position by not attending.”

According to a parent of a child who attends the school, the conflict is “politicising young people like nothing has before”.

A group of councillors in Burnley, including the council leader, became the latest Labour figure to resign over Starmer’s stance on the issue.

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The school was forced to draft in younger pupils to make up the numbers at the event and when approached for comment, Beal High School said its annual assembly with Streeting was “calm, purposeful and successful… as ever”.

On the same day, hundreds of children in Bristol walked out of class in protest at the failure of UK politicians to back a ceasefire in Gaza.

The action was initiated by parents who wanted their children’s views on the conflict in the Middle East to be heard.

Although one organisers thought it would only be primary school children and their parents who turned up but “there was a huge swathe of teenagers too”.

In August 2018, Greta Thunberg, who was 15 at the time, left lessons in protest at climate inaction.

Amina Rahman, 16, attended the Bristol protest and told Novara Media: “The climate strikes have been going on for a while, but this (Israel’s oppression of Palestine) has been going on since 1948, since the Nakba.

“There are children in Palestine right now who are my siblings’ age who are suffering and dying, and it hurts me so much.

“They (Israel) are over here doing war crimes, and our Government is supporting them.”

For Rahman, the turnout in Bristol of around 400 people was “beautiful” with young people leading chants and giving speeches.

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Although she explained it was “organised by adults,” she added it was “led by me and my girls”.

Teenagers in Bristol are now planning on staging school strikes for Palestine every Friday.

“People like Greta Thunberg, she got the whole world to listen,” Rahman said.

“We’re gonna keep on trying. We’re gonna keep on doing it.”