Cambridge don accuses rival of antisemitism in new racism row
A PUBLIC row between two leading Cambridge academics has intensified amid accusations of antisemitism.
Historian David Abulafia claimed that Priyamvada Gopal expressed an anti-Jewish slur by appearing to suggest that he had colluded with the student newspaper Varsity, in an interview attacking her.
The row began when Prof Gopal, a professor of Postcolonial Literature, said it was offensive for Prof Abulafia to describe the history professor and TV documentary presenter David Olusoga as ‘eloquent’.
She tweeted: ‘Calling writers/ scholars/intellectuals of colour “eloquent” or “articulate” – eg Abulafia on Olusoga – can quite often be a little sleight of hand dismissal.’
Prof Abulafia dismissed the criticism and suggested that it was ‘insulting or possibly libellous’ in an interview with the student newspaper.
In response, Prof Gopal wrote a series of posts on social media that appeared to suggest collusion between student journalists and Prof Abulafia, and claimed the paper had ‘serious conflicts of interest’.
The Cambridge University Jewish Society said Prof Gopal made ‘baseless and damaging accusations against two Jewish student journalists ... [and echoed] historic tropes about media control’.
Prof Abulafia told The Times: ‘I’m not trying to get Gopal sacked but she’s clearly completely out of control. In a series of tweets she claimed that the student newspaper journalist I spoke to was part of a conspiracy.
‘Both he and I are Jewish and we are all familiar with the antisemitic Jewish conspiracy trope – she even referenced guidelines designed to stop hate speech around the Holocaust.
‘She [Gopal] is a woke warrior and this dissection of language just
creates more division – now we are calling people who say something positive offensive.
‘It’s like Alice in Wonderland and we’ve gone through the looking glass where everything is upside down. I have thought about legal action – I have lots of lawyers in my family and friends so we’ll see.’
Prof Gopal, a fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, is no stranger to controversy. In June 2020, she tweeted ‘White lives don’t matter. As white lives’ and later added ‘Abolish whiteness’, in response to a banner flown over a football stadium that read ‘White lives matter Burnley.’ She was temporarily suspended from Twitter.