Board of Deputies President calls on Bristol University to suspend academic who called Jewish students ‘pawns of a racist regime’

Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl has written to Bristol University Vice Chancellor Hugh Brady calling on him to suspend a professor who is facing allegations over his conduct towards Jewish students, while the investigation is ongoing.

The letter concerns the behaviour of Professor David Miller who is under investigation for alleging that Jewish students were “pawns of a racist regime engaged in ethnic cleansing”. Last week, the Union of Jewish Students and the Jewish Society at the University discovered that despite the ongoing investigation into Professor Miller’s conduct, he had been listed by the University as teaching two courses for the coming academic year.

Marie wrote that failure to suspend the Professor while the investigation was ongoing “will cause the UK Jewish community to assume that either the University is not taking the behaviour exhibited by Mr Miller seriously, or, perhaps even worse, that this entire investigation is a sham”.

Marie also said: “Either inadvertently or deliberately, the University appears to be suggesting it believes that by pretending no problem exists, the anger and disquiet surrounding this issue will disappear. I feel the need to emphasise that this is not going to happen.”

She added that there was “reputational risk to the university if the current policy of under-engagement is not changed”.

She has requested a meeting with Professor Brady to discuss the disciplinary process.

You can read the letter here.