Charity accuses Leeds lecturer of ‘disseminating dangerous antisemitic views’ and calls for disciplinary action to be taken

A charity dedicated to fighting antisemitism has written to the University of Leeds to call for the dismissal  of a lecturer who is “not fit to teach” due to his history of “antisemitic” remarks.

Campaign Against Antisemtism (CAA) wrote to the university after tweets made by Leeds Uni lecturer Ray Bush surfaced last week.

Leeds JSoc were quick to slam the lecturer’s posts for  their “antisemitic” content with its President, Grace Silverstein, commenting, “It’s very worrying seeing a staff member with so much influence spread such hateful speech.”

In some of his tweets, Professor Ray Bush likens Israelis to Nazis while in others he promotes antisemitic conspiracies, Leeds JSoc claims.

In one post, the African Studies lecturer tweeted: “Does it take a Nazi to recognise a Nazi #nazi #israel #racism?”

CAA outlined the three ways in which it believes Bush has been antisemitic according to the International Definition of Antisemitism.

Note: Although the University of Leeds has not fully adopted this definition, the institution does use it when deciding on how to deal with specific incidents.

CAA accuses Bush of antisemitism as in his tweets he refers to Jewish self-determination as “a racist endeavour”,  he compares Israelis to Nazis and he promotes promotes Jewish conspiracies.

For those reasons, CAA is calling for disciplinary action to be taken against the lecturer.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “These posts are clearly in breach of the International Definition of Antisemitism. Anyone airing and disseminating dangerous antisemitic views such as those promoted by Prof. Ray Bush is not fit to be entrusted with the responsibility of teaching young people. For this reason, Prof. Bush must be held to account. Accordingly, we have written to the University of Leeds to request that it investigates and takes appropriate disciplinary action to protect Jewish students from Prof. Bush.”

A University of Leeds spokesperson said: “The University is committed to freedom of expression within the law and we promote and positively encourage free debate, while also always taking firm and decisive action against any of its members demonstrating antisemitism – or any other form of hate crime.

“Our Freedom of Expression protocol is unambiguous on this point and takes into account guidance from the Government and, among other things, the working definition of antisemitism produced by the IHRA.”

Professor Bush has been contacted for comment.

If any students are concerned about antisemitism on campus or need assistance, Campaign Against Antisemitism offer advice and can be reached 0330 822 0321, or e-mail [email protected].

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