Anti-Zionist beliefs are “worthy of respect” and are protected under anti-discrimination laws in the UK, a tribunal ruling regarding the dismissal of a Bristol professor over his anti-Israel views.
The ruling relates to a February 2024 case regarding Bristol University Professor David Miller, who was found to have been unfairly dismissed from his tenure after he was accused of making antisemitic remarks.
The full 120-page ruling was published on Monday.
The tribunal ruled that the belief that Israel is committing apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide is “worthy of respect in a democratic society,” as seen in the newly published document.
The unanimous decision of the tribunal was that the “claimant’s anti-Zionist beliefs qualified as a philosophical belief” and therefore constituted a “protected characteristic pursuant to Section 10 Equality Act 2010.”
Miller also won his claim for unfair dismissal on 1 October, 2021.
Justice Rohan Pirani said: “Although many would vehemently and cogently disagree with [Miller]’s analysis of politics and history, others have the same or similar beliefs.”
The Judge concluded that while it was “nonetheless extraordinary and ill-judged to express himself in the way he did,” what Miller said was “accepted as lawful, was not antisemitic, did not incite violence, and did not pose any threat to any person’s health or safety.”
Regarding his unfair dismissal claim, Miller is entitled to compensation; however, the Judge ruled that it be reduced by 50%, as “the claimant’s dismissal was caused or contributed to by his own actions.”
Details of the case
Miller was a Professor of Political Sociology at Bristol from 1 September 2018 to 1 October 2021.
He claimed that from March 2019, he was targeted by people who wanted to secure his dismissal on account of his anti-Zionist views.
The tribunal outlined the anti-Israel beliefs held by Professor Miller.
He is said to believe that “Zionism is inherently racist, imperialist, and colonial” and that it is “offensive to human dignity.”
He said his anti-Zionism comes from his belief and understanding of settler-colonialism as intrinsic to Zionism.
Miller told the tribunal that he had “at all times since that date believed Zionism to be a settler-colonial and ethno-nationalist movement that seeks to assert Jewish hegemony and political control over the land of historic Palestine.”
He also believed Zionism to be a form of racism because it “necessarily calls for the displacement and disenfranchisement of non-Jews in favor of Jews, and it is therefore ideologically bound to lead to the practices of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.”
“It is because I have been prepared to say [these things] out loud, and without apology, that I have lost my job,” he said in his witness statement, which he shared on his social media on Monday.
For the avoidance of doubt here is how I outlined my beliefs in court - which are now held to be "protected" beliefs which are "worthy of respect in a democratic society". They are thus not - as the University of Bristol shockingly tried to maintain - "akin to Nazism".My… pic.twitter.com/yJoMtLUyj7
— David Miller (@Tracking_Power) October 14, 2024
One of the incidents leading to his dismissal was a lecture delivered on 18 February 2019, in which Miller theorized that Islamophobia in the United Kingdom was driven by five “pillars,” one of which was said to be the Zionist movement.
At the time, Community Security Trust received reports from two Jewish undergraduate students who were present at the lecture and felt they were being blamed for causing Islamophobia.
Following this, the University commissioned an independent review, in which they found that Miller’s “views do not express “hatred towards Jews,” and the claimant was at pains to distinguish between Zionism and Israel, on the one hand, and Jewish people, on the other.”
However, earlier on Tuesday morning, Miller posted to X/Twitter saying “Five little words: Jews are not discriminated against,” with a link to an op-ed in Al Mayadeen.
In this, Miller wrote, “Judeophobia – meaning prejudice against Jews – does not exist outside specific pockets.”
“All of the evidence I quote shows that Jews are not disadvantaged and discriminated against, in general, in the sense defined by the government.”
He also wrote that Jews are overrepresented in “elite positions in inegalitarian societies like the UK” and that this bears “significance for understanding the power of Zionism in the UK and worldwide.”