University of Bristol Professor wants to return after sacking over Israel views

Professor David Miller is ‘looking forward’ to returning as a political sociology professor after being sacked for anti-Zionist views and comments made about Israel in 2021.

In 2024, Miller won the appeal to his dismissal, and on Tuesday the university’s challenge to the ruling at an Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) was lost.

The professor said he was “very pleased the EAT has dismissed the case put forward by the University of Bristol”. He added: “It’s a remarkable and welcome vindication of my long fight to defend myself and all those who hold and express anti-Zionist beliefs”.

A university spokesperson previously said they were ‘disappointed’ with the EAT’s decision.

In 2019, Miller attracted criticism for his use of a ‘false, vile….. antisemitic slur’ and was further criticised by the Bristol Jewish Society for comments made against Zionism at a Campaign for Free Speech Event in 2021.

He had called some Jewish student groups “political lobby groups”, and later described Jewish students at British universities as “political pawns by a violent, racist foreign regime involved in ethnic cleansing”.

Comments made about Zionism in an email to a student journalist led to a disciplinary process and Miller’s subsequent dismissal.

Miller claimed unfair dismissal, breach of contract and discrimination or victimisation on the grounds of religious belief.

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The university told the EAT that his anti-Zionist beliefs were political and therefore not protected under the Equality Act.

In his ruling on Tuesday, Lord Fairley said he saw “no good reason why the beliefs relied upon by the claimant in this case should be excluded from protection simply because they related to an issue of social importance which might, broadly, also be categorised as ‘political'”.

Miller added: “This judgment has now firmly established that anti-Zionist views are a belief protected under the Equality Act 2010.”