Background

In Dr David Miller v University of Bristol [2024] ET 1400780/2022, the claimant was appointed Professor of Political Sociology at the University from 1 September 2018. In 2019 there were complaints about his conduct, including what was said to be his use of antisemitic language. The Community Security Trust charity said that a lecture he had given had been a “false, vile, anti-Semitic slur”. As part of the internal complaints procedure the University appointed an independent barrister to investigate; the overall conclusion of the resulting report, delivered on 4 December 2020, was that there was no formal case to answer in connection with any of the matters investigated.

In February 2021, Dr Miller took part in an event called “Building the Campaign for Free Speech”, at which he spoke of being publicly criticised for his views on Palestine and Israel. The University subsequently received a significant volume of correspondence calling for it to take urgent disciplinary action, and after further disciplinary proceedings, he was dismissed for gross misconduct In October 2021.

Dr Miller believed, then and now, that

“Zionism, which he defines as an ideology that asserts that a state for Jewish people ought to be established and maintained in the territory that formerly comprised the British Mandate of Palestine, is inherently racist, imperialist, and colonial. He also considers Zionism to be offensive to human dignity on that basis, and he therefore opposes it” [25]. Continue reading →