Jeremy Corbyn defended schools' plans to send children to a festival featuring a campaigner who vandalised the Warsaw Ghetto, and claimed the Board of Deputies' opposition to the trip underscored its "record of denunciation of all things Palestinian".
In 2011, the-then backbench MP slapped down the Board for opposing plans to send children from eight primary schools to the Tottenham Palestine Literary Festival, where speakers included Ewa Jasciewicz, who spray-painted "Free Gaza and Palestine" on the wall of the Warsaw Ghetto, investigative journalist Iggy Ostanin has uncovered.
"The Board of Deputies are hardly objective in this matter. Their record of denunciation of all things Palestinian is well known," Mr Corbyn told the Islington Tribune.
He added he planned to attend the fesrival, saying: “It’s a great opportunity for children to understand the wealth and joy of Palestinian literature and a little of the history of the region."
Schools were ultimately barred from sending pupils to the event by then-Education Secretary Michael Gove, who warned them doing so might breach their obligation under the Education Act to give children "a balanced presentation of opposing views" when learning about political issues.
Ms Jasciewicz was listed as a participant on the event's website. In 2018, her presence at the World Transformed conference, organised by pro-Corbyn campaign group Momentum, was branded "highly inappropriate" by Labour deputy leader Tom Watson.
The 2011 festival had been organised by a branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Board President Vivian Wineman said at the time: "I can think of few organisations which would be less appropriate to run a workshop in a school than the PSC."
A Board spokesperson told the JC: "Far from denouncing all things Palestinian as Mr Corbyn suggested in 2011, the Board of Deputies is active in promoting peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
"Indeed, our Invest in Peace programme through which we have brought Israeli and Palestinian peace campaigners to audiences around the country is perhaps an approach that the Labour Party could seek to emulate.”
