On 15th February 2023, Loreto High School hosted ‘Solutions Not Sides’ (SNS), an organisation initiated by One Voice which has had at least 3 employees simultaneously working for the Israeli government and at least 28 former Israeli military personnel among its workforce, to teach students about Palestine. Furthermore, a Palestinian student was singled-out by the school leadership and pressured to attend the event. 

SNS falsely presents the Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people as a mere “conflict” in which "both sides" are guilty of wrongdoing. SNS does not uphold the right of return for Palestinian refugees, the illegitimacy of settlements, or the Palestinian right to resistance as fundamental principles. It tolerates and platforms racist and colonial viewpoints and presents them as legitimate opinions. For SNS, the basic right of Palestinians to self-determination in their historic homeland is a matter for debate. 

Further, in the real historical context where false “dialogue” between Palestinians and the Zionist state has always been used to further weaken the Palestinians, the disingenuous call for such “dialogue” is actually just a cover for the continuing domination of Zionism.

Palestinians call this phenomenon ‘normalisation’ and it is racist apologia for apartheid and colonialism! The Palestinians are having their lands occupied and colonised; their people imprisoned and murdered. It is very clear who is the occupier and the occupied, the oppressor and the oppressed, the coloniser and the colonised. There is no equivalence between the two. If SNS truly cared about peace, they would campaign for justice instead of providing cover for Zionist crimes.

To host such a partisan and racist organisation, with clear links to the Israeli state, in a school and regard it as an authority on Palestine is outrageous and unacceptable. To go further and single out a Palestinian student and put them in a situation where their basic rights and very humanity are a matter for debate, is fundamentally racist. 

We also note that the associated Loreto College hosted SNS in 2021, and also singled-out a Palestinian student for attendance, and received many complaints from students for doing so. In November of 2022, an organisation with the same agenda - Friends of Roots UK - had its events cancelled across Manchester and Britain, including at Chorlton High School. It is becoming increasingly clear that there is no place for normalisation with Israeli settler-colonialism in our schools and communities. Students, young people, parents and community members will not tolerate racism!

We call on Loreto High School to:

1. Commit to never hosting SNS or similar normalisation organisations in the future.
2. Apologise for the racism of singling-out a Palestinian student to attend the event.
3. Apologise for hosting SNS.
4. Take no punitive action against students for opposing SNS. 

No to Normalisation!