A war is being waged against academic freedom in Britain

The accusations of anti-Semitism against David Miller aim to silence pro-Palestinian voices on university campuses.

Over the past few weeks, David Miller, a professor of political sociology at Bristol University in the United Kingdom, has been the subject of a vicious smear campaign, alleging he has made anti-Semitic comments. Individuals and groups such as the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD), the Community Security Trust (CST) and the Union of Jewish Students (UJS), are queueing up to tarnish his reputation and demand his sacking. For over a decade, Miller has done research on the increasing public attacks on the Palestine solidarity movement, as well as the surveillance and securitisation of Muslim communities as a result of the so-called “war on terror”. It is notable that the accusations of “anti-Semitism” levelled at him arise from a lecture he gave on the Zionist movement’s involvement in promoting Islamophobia, a well-known fact among scholars who study the Palestinian question. The attacks on Miller rely on calculated mischaracterisations of his arguments or political views. One familiar falsehood is the claim that he said the Labour Party under Keir Starmer is a recipient of “Zionist money”. Words matter and emotive misquoting is a key tactic being used against the professor. Miller observed that Starmer’s leadership campaign had been “in receipt of money from the Zionist movement” and specifically from Trevor Chinn, a right-wing Labour donor.