Royal College of Art accused of creating a ‘hostile environment’ for Jewish students

The Royal College of Art (RCA) has been accused by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) of creating a “hostile environment” for Jewish students.

UKLFI criticised the college for the removal of an Israeli flag from a studio, as well as for lectures seen by the group as “extremely biased against Israel”.

The RCA was also condemned for holding the event “Earth, Depth, Death: The Gaza Protocol as Machinery of Absolute Destruction” by Nadia Abu El-Haj, which examined Gaza’s “ongoing devastation and the intentions at play.”

In a statement, UKLFI wrote: “At the faculty meeting, one tutor said that the Israeli flag was a symbol of hate and genocide and that putting it up was a deliberate provocation. The faculty members proposed that Israeli flags and related objects should be banned to keep the studios ‘safe’.

“Jewish students who sought to express their views were shouted down, told to shut up and threatened. The meeting ended with the faculty members saying that they would escalate the issue to the administration to see about Israeli flags being banned.”

In response to the legal group, anthropology professor at Colombia University, Nadia Abu El-Haj, explained the context of her talk.

She told The Telegraph: “My talk was actually about why it is – despite all of the evidence we have, despite reports by major human rights organisations and a preliminary ruling by the ICJ that Israel is (plausibly) committing genocide – that we cannot even have the conversation without being accused of anti-Semitism. Their response is precisely the problem. We need to have this conversation.”

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In a statement to the the London Tab, the RCA said: “The RCA has a zero-tolerance approach to all forms of unlawful discrimination and harassment, whilst also being committed to ensuring freedom of speech and expression within the law. Although we cannot comment on individual cases, we can confirm that we treat any complaints of discrimination or harassment raised by our staff and students extremely seriously and these are fully investigated under our proper procedures. Where there is feedback about the actions of student societies, we raise this directly with the Students’ Union, which is independent of the College.

“We can also confirm we have no policy that would have a discriminatory impact on students displaying flags or other items related to their national ethnic identity.”

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