British-Palestinian schoolgirl expelled from public speaking competition
▻https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20160530-british-palestinian-schoolgirl-expelled-from-public-spea
►https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T37AAsE-Ekw
A British-Palestinian schoolgirl has been expelled from a public speaking competition after a video of her moving entry went viral last week.
Leanne Mohamad, a 15-year-old student at Wanstead High School in London, won a regional final of the Jack Petchey Speak Out Challenge with her speech ‘Birds not Bombs’, in which she describes the historical and contemporary reality for Palestinians under Israeli settler colonialism.
The Jack Petchey-sponsored competition is run by Speakers Trust, and bills itself as the world’s biggest youth speaking event.
Responding to complaints by anti-Palestinian blogger Edgar Davidson, Speakers Trust CEO Julie Holness said that they took his “concerns very seriously”, and confirmed that Mohamad would not be sent through to the next stage of the contest, and “will not be speaking at the Grand Final.”
