On 29th July 2024 Axel Rudakubana brutally murdered three innocent children, Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, injuring ten others. On the 30th July Islamophobic conspiracies spread across social media, blaming a Muslim immigrant, fuelling far right protestors to begin rioting and attacking the Southport mosque and police, with riots spreading through twenty cities across England and Northern Ireland for the following six days.

In times of war, pain pulls at us. Fear urges us to retreat into binaries, but history shows us that these divisions, however emotionally satisfying in the moment, do nothing to heal. They only deepen wounds and prolong suffering.

Over the past year, SNS has been working with the Local Government Association delivering training in how to create brave and safe spaces for discussions around Israel-Palestine. 

We are delighted to have featured recently in the Department for Education’s Educate Against Hate newsletter (see image below). The letter highlighted a recent successful case study in one of our Olive Branch schools. For more information about our Olive Branch Award for Schools, please click here.

Let us be clear: there is no justification for human suffering on the scale we are seeing in Gaza. And, true to our principle of non-violence, there is no military solution that will bring a just and lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians.