The Board of Deputies has called for an East London secondary school to sack its chair of governors after he was revealed to be the author of an “inflammatory, antisemitic” poem.

In 2010, poet Dante Micheaux wrote Siding with the Israelis, which attacks Israel for “desecrating” the Holy Land “with combat boots”.

Newham Council, which runs Eastlea Community School in Canning Town, said it was “unaware of this poem” until it was brought to its attention by the JC.

A council spokesman confirmed Mr Micheaux was the chair of governors, having taken the role in December 2016.

Newham Council said: “We take any hate speech, including anything based around race, religion, gender or sexual orientation very seriously. We are now looking into the matter.”

The poem also contains lines referring to urinating on pilgrims from the Dome of the Rock and “delivering all the lands for the chosen in a single night”.

It reads: “I take a country by force that was promised by faith, naming the resistance Terrorism & my army Innocence...

“I tell another lie about wanting to be Jewish when I was ten, deny that I walked Muslim children to school after my city was bombed, warn the Somali ambassador that her son is no longer safe with me.

“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.”

A Board of Deputies spokesperson said: “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.”