A victory for anti-Zionists in the UK
A Palestinian flag flaps by the message ‘Stop bombs’ projected on the Elizabeth Tower, underneath Big Ben, at the Palace of Westminster during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Parliament Square in London on 21 February 2024
David Miller writes in Al Jazeera on 8 April 2024:
On February 5, the Bristol Employment Tribunal handed down a judgement [PDF] that I had long been waiting for. It ruled that my October 2021 sacking from Bristol University, where I’ve been working as a professor of political sociology for over three years, was unfair and wrongful.
The tribunal did not stop there. It also ruled that the reason for my sacking was not my alleged singling out of students and student societies in statements and comments, as the university suggested, but my anti-Zionist beliefs. Having heard me outline my views on Zionism in detailed court submissions and in more than two days of cross-examination, the court determined that they were sufficiently coherent, cogent and deeply held as to qualify as protected philosophical beliefs in the sense referred to in the Equality Act 2010.
I was relieved and jubilant to receive such a verdict, as this saga had been ongoing since April 2019. That was when the first complaint about a lecture I had given at the university was submitted. The complaint came from the Community Security Trust, a charity that claims simply to protect Jews from antisemitism, but since its very conception has focussed all its efforts on promoting Zionist talking points and trying to silence pro-Palestine campaigners with baseless accusations of antisemitism.
While the verdict is a great personal victory, a complete vindication of my views and stance throughout this years-long witch hunt, it also has ramifications well beyond me and my academic career.