Bristol University accused of failing to heed Jewish students’ complaints
BRISTOL University has become embroiled in a row with Jewish students after it rejected their complaint about a lecturer who taught that parts of the Zionist lobby are funding Islamophobia.
The university is accused of failing to take Jewish students’ complaints seriously after it dismissed their concerns about David Miller, a sociology professor, who told undergraduates that “ultra Zionist funders are active” in bankrolling hatred of Muslims.
The lecture, which he gave this year as part of a series titled “Harms of the Powerful”, left Jewish students in his class feeling “uncomfortable and intimidated”, according to one complaint submitted to the vice-chancellor.
A slide show for one of his lectures describes how parts of the “Zionist movement” are one of the “five pillars” of Islamophobia. Later on, Prof Miller depicts a complex web of Jewish organisations, charities and philanthropists – including the Labour peer Lord Levy and the former Conservative Party chief executive Sir Mick Davies.
While there is no suggestion of antiSemitism, students said they felt that his lecture was reminiscent of “antiSemitic language, tropes and conspiracy theories”. Prof Miller has strongly denied the suggestion.
On his university profile, he describes his research interests as “concentrations of power in society and how they might be democratised and made accountable”.
He told The Sunday Telegraph: “I don’t teach conspiracy theories of any sort”, adding that it is “simply a matter of fact” that “parts of the Zionist movement are involved in funding Islamophobia”.
He said: “It is a matter of public record that Islamophobic organisations and movements are in receipt of funding from specific groups and individuals. Some of these are also prominent in the Zionist movement. My class on the ‘Harms of the Powerful’ requires that I teach about repressive and authoritarian states including the UK and Israel, but also repressive Muslim majority states like Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
“Students of all backgrounds can find some of the material challenging if it goes against their existing beliefs or knowledge-base.”
Bristol’s Jewish Society raised concerns about the lecture, but their complaint was rejected by the university on the basis that it did not contain any material that was hostile to Jews and therefore could not be considered as anti-Semitic.
Bristol is one of a number of British universities that have not adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism. The Government adopted the definition in 2016, and the following year ministers wrote to university chiefs to alert them about it and ask them to ensure it is “widely known and clearly understood”.
The Community Security Trust, a Jewish charity which combats hate crimes, said the IHRA definition “should be one of the primary resources used by universities when they consider if something is or is not anti-Semitic”.
There is no suggestion that the adoption of the definition would have made any difference to the university’s handling of the Prof Miller complaint.
A university spokesman said “no disciplinary action is currently being considered” against Prof Miller, but added that steps have been taken to ensure his lecture material is “accurate, clear and not open to misinterpretation”.
The spokesman said: “Academic freedom and freedom of expression are at the heart of our mission as an academic institution
“We also take very seriously the need to be a place where people feel safe, welcomed and respected, regardless of religion, gender, race, sexual orientation, disability or social background.”
They said the university has “no evidence to suggest that Jewish students feel unsafe” but urged anyone who does to seek support.
‘I teach about repressive states… students of all backgrounds can find some of the material challenging’