
A sociology professor from the University of Bristol who called for “the end of Zionism,” accused Jewish students on campus of running a “campaign of censorship” on behalf of the Israeli government, and slandered them as “pawns of a racist regime engaged in ethnic cleansing” has been fired after a lengthy investigation.
The University of Bristol released a statement on Friday, saying that “a disciplinary hearing found Professor David 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.”
“We have a duty of care to all students and the wider university community, in addition to a need to apply our own codes of conduct consistently and with integrity,” the university said. “The university regards the principle of academic freedom as fundamental and would like to reiterate that we take any risk to stifle that freedom seriously. The investigation included an independent report from a leading Queen’s Counsel who considered the important issue of academic freedom of expression and found that Professor Miller’s comments did not constitute unlawful speech.”
The university’s decision to fire the controversial academic is being hailed by Jewish groups, including the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) and Bristol JSoc who said they were “delighted” at the news.
In a jointly released statement, the groups said that the Jewish community had been raising concerns for over two years about Miller.
“It has been seven months since complaints were made about Miller’s statements targeting the Jewish society, its president and UJS,” they wrote. “This announcement concludes months and years of tireless campaigns and actions by students to try and get the university and authorities to listen, and we are pleased that action has finally been taken.”
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)