Anti-Zionism is now a protected belief in the UK

In a victory for free speech, David Miller recently won his Employment Appeal Tribunal. This confirms that anti-Zionism qualifies as a protected philosophical belief under UK equality law. It means that your employer can’t just fire you for criticising Israel and/or arguing that Zionism is a dangerous, extremist ideology.

Miller was sacked by Bristol University in October 2021 for his anti-Zionist beliefs. He was a Professor of Political Sociology at Bristol who made comments that included describing Zionism as a racist, violent, imperialist ideology. He argued that it “has no place in any society” because it’s premised on ethnic cleansing. He referred to Zionism as the “enemy”.

The university argued the anti-Zionist comments failed to meet its standards of behaviour. Of course it did. Everyone who criticises Israel too loud gets sacked. Normally, the people who get sacked just timidly accept this. Miller made a stand. He won his original unfair dismissal case, but the Zionists weren’t gonna let this slide so they appealed. No one who makes a stand against Zionists gets an easy ride.

Bristol University might have lost the appeal, but the point is the process is the punishment. Miller has gone through years of torment over this. And just because he won, doesn’t mean Zionists will stop coming after him or other anti-Zionists. They’ll just find a different approach. Still, let’s just enjoy this moment for what it is.

Miller argued that establishing a state for Jewish people in the territory of the former British Mandate of Palestine is inherently racist, imperialist and colonial, and therefore ought to be opposed.

The tribunal found that Miller’s anti-Zionist beliefs are genuinely held; amount to a belief rather than an opinion; are concerned with a substantial aspect of human life; have attained a level of cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance; are worthy of respect; are not incompatible with human dignity; and not conflict with the fundamental rights of others.

It accepted that Miller holds no antipathy towards Jews, does not oppose Jewish self-determination or a predominantly Jewish state, and does not support violence against Zionists. It accepted that Miller simply took issue with Jewish domination over a land with a substantial non-Jewish population. It accepted that it’s coherent to describe such an ideology as “racist”.

Other similar cases include victories for a belief in climate change urgency and support for Scottish independence. The law says your employer can’t just fire you because you care deeply about a controversial subject.

Zionists can’t claim that you’re discriminating against them because you find their ideology repulsive. Just like we can’t claim that they’re discriminating against us because they find anti-Zionism repulsive. It works both ways. Just watch their heads explode when you explain that to them.

Jewish organisations have argued that even when anti-Zionist comments are not antisemitic, Jews might feel like they are. Therefore, this could “chill” Jewish student life on campus. In other words, they think we should treat anti-Zionism as though it’s anti-Semitism, even though it’s clearly not. The irony here is that their argument conflates Jews and Zionism, which is anti-Semitic.

Miller’s victory is important, but there are some concerns here. If the tribunal had decided that anti-Zionism was an opinion rather than a belief, does that mean Bristol University would have been free to sack Miller? Does it mean employers can sack you for opinions that don’t reach the belief threshold?

What about the violence point? What if someone argued that Palestinians have a right to defend themselves against genocide? I believe that any country carrying out a genocide should be dealt with through military force by the UN. Would saying that about Israel be a sackable offence? If so, why is it not a sackable offence to support violence against Iran?

To be clear, I don’t want to see violence against anyone, Zionist or not. I think we can stop Israel simply by cutting off its arms supply. However, I don’t think anyone should be fired for suggesting a military option. During a genocide, that’s a reasonable suggestion.

Now let’s get onto the point about a Jewish state in Palestine. What if Miller was opposed to the establishment of a Jewish state anywhere else? Would that be a sackable offence? If a Jewish state was established in somewhere like Cyprus or Argentina, that would be a disaster.

I don’t believe in ethnostates full stop. Doesn’t matter what their religion is. People should live freely and democratically in their own countries. Not start new ones. If they’re not afforded rights or freedoms in their country, they should fight for them or seek asylum elsewhere.

Zionists think they can steal other people’s land and deny freedoms to anyone who opposes them. They murder Palestinians simply for peacefully protesting. For example, during the right of return marches. Why the hell shouldn’t we be allowed to criticise them? Because it hurts their feelings?

People who criticise Israel or Zionism don’t just get sacked. Often they get demonetised, or banned from social media, or find themselves victims of lawfare or harassment, or find their family members become targets, or find they’re denied access to the US or Europe.

You can’t even get citizenship in Germany if you’re anti-Zionist. Government entities aren’t allowed to boycott Israel in 38 US states. Zionists went after the families of Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur in a doxxing campaign. UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese was put under US sanctions so she couldn’t access her own money. Same happened to members of the ICC and their family members.

Just think how crazy that is. They went after the family members of judges in the world’s most powerful court. Suddenly, it’s not so shocking that we’ve had a four-year battle in the UK, just to decide if we can criticise these people without getting sacked.

In a free society you can criticise any country or ideology. You can criticise capitalism, communism, socialism, imperialism, or any other -ism. You can argue that whatever ideology you dislike has no place in society. You can say that an ideology is racist or dangerous. People can and do say that all the time and they never get sacked… unless they do it about Zionism.

By the same token you can criticise, the US, Europe, Russia, China or whatever place you think is causing massive problems for the world. But every journalist knows they mustn’t speak too harshly of Israel, even when it’s committing genocide. The fact that it’s so difficult to criticise Israel compared to any other country proves Miller was right. Zionism is the problem.

---

Thank you for reading. All of my content will always be freely available, but if you wish to support my work, you can do so at Ko-fi or Patreon. Likes, shares and comments also help massively.