University fires professor that called Jewish students 'political pawns' of Israel
The professor made the anti-Semitic comments during a lecture earlier this year.
The university announced his termination in an October 1 statement.
A British university recently fired a professor after the individual stated that Jewish students are “political pawns” of Israel.
David Miller, who was a professor of political psychology at the University of Bristol, made the comments during a lecture in February and also said that Zionism should be ended as an “ideology.”
”End Zionism as an ideology, as a functioning ideology of the world,” Miller said during the lecture hosted by Labour Campaign for Free Speech, according to the Jewish Telegraph Agency. ”There is a real question of abuse here — of Jewish students on British campuses being used as political pawns by a violent, racist, foreign regime engaged in ethnic cleansing.”
A statement on October 1 said that the professor is “no longer employed” by the University of Bristol.
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The university further stated that Miller was terminated after a disciplinary hearing.
”After careful deliberation, a disciplinary hearing found Professor Miller did not meet the standards of behaviour we expect from our staff and the University has concluded that Professor Miller’s employment should be terminated with immediate effect,” the statement reads.
In February, the Bristol Jewish Society said that Miller’s comments are a “direct attack” on the organization.”
“For a member of staff to abuse his position and launch a personal attack on our JSoc President is unjustifiable. Professor Miller’s words led to our President being targeted for abuse online,” the group said, according to the Jewish Chronicle.
The comments drew heavy criticism from academics across the world, who wrote in an open letter that Miller’s comments about Jewish students are “false, outrageous, and breaks all academic norms regarding the acceptable treatment of students.”
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”We believe that extreme statements such as those of Prof. Miller recounted above are counterproductive to any good cause, and in particular, counterproductive to the cause of the Palestinians, whose interests will not be served by convincing Muslim and Arab students in Britain that Jewish students are their enemy, or by convincing Jews in Britain and elsewhere that Western academic or political opinion is implacably hostile to them,” the letter states.
A separate open letter defends Miller, stating that he is an “eminent scholar” and is “ known internationally for exposing the role that powerful actors and well-resourced, co-ordinated networks play in manipulating and stage-managing public debates, including on racism.”
”As public intellectuals and academics, we feel duty-bound to express our solidarity with Professor Miller and to oppose such efforts to crush academic freedom,” the second letter states.
Campus Reform reached out to the University of Bristol for comment but did not receive a response.
