UK appeals court upholds anti-Zionist beliefs as protected under equality law
Pro-Palestinian protesters march through central London during a demonstration, 7 May 2024
Areeb Ullah reports in Middle East Eye on 4 August 2026:
A UK Appeals Tribunal has upheld a landmark ruling that anti-Zionist beliefs remain protected under equality laws, rejecting the University of Bristol’s challenge to findings that it unlawfully discriminated against a professor by dismissing him over comments expressing those beliefs.
In a judgement handed down on Tuesday, the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) upheld an employment tribunal’s findings that Professor David Miller’s dismissal over his anti-Zionist beliefs amounted to unlawful direct discrimination because of his protected philosophical beliefs.
The appeal tribunal held that the lower tribunal “had not erred in any of its conclusions on liability”, including its finding that Miller’s beliefs about Zionism qualified for protection under the Equality Act 2010.
“It is coherent to describe as “racist” an ideology [Zionism] that promotes the establishment of a state [in this case, Israel] for only one race of people [Jewish] in a territory that formerly contained a large number of people of a different race [Palestinians],” said the judgement.
“Such an ideology, which supports the migration of members of the first group into the territory with the support of an imperial power to dislodge an indigenous population, could also coherently be described as colonial and imperialistic.”
An earlier tribunal, in 2024, had ruled that Professor David Miller’s dismissal over his anti-Zionist beliefs amounted to unlawful direct discrimination by the university, which challenged that decision.
The EAT rejected Bristol’s challenge and held that the lower tribunal “had not erred in any of its conclusions on liability”, including its finding that Miller’s “philosophical beliefs” about Zionism were “protected” under law.
Miller, a professor of political sociology who joined the University of Bristol in 2018, was dismissed for gross misconduct in October 2021 following public comments he made earlier that year about Zionism, Israel and Jewish student organisations. His research focused on lobbying groups, including organisations linked to states such as Israel and South Africa.
In its 2024 ruling, the employment tribunal had found that Miller had been dismissed because of comments expressing his anti-Zionist beliefs, which it held were protected philosophical beliefs under the Equality Act 2010.