Sir David Bell’s report into anti-Semitism in schools (which will be published this afternoon but has been widely trailed) is an important document with a series of worthwhile recommendations. He finds that three in five Jewish students have experienced anti-Semitism – a statistic that should be profoundly shocking but is now entirely unsurprising – and that fewer than half think that there is any point reporting it, given that schools have consistently refused to take serious action when it is reported.

Islamophobia and right-wing extremism are often seen as a more significant concern than anti-Semitism

Islamophobia and right-wing extremism are often seen as a more significant concern than anti-Semitism

In that context, Sir David’s recommendation that schools and colleges should be forced to recognise anti-Semitism as a specific category of harm – as opposed to the general requirement to tackle racism – and to take explicit action to tackle it is eminently sensible.

But for all Sir David’s good intentions, his report suffers from the same fundamental flaw as almost all such official analyses of anti-Semitism: his terms of reference did not allow him to examine the........

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