The Zionist lobby’s threat to academic freedom in UK universities

The current war waged by Israel on Gaza has led to a surge of Palestinian solidarity organizing by students and staff in UK universities. Many have focused on challenging university ties with arms companies that sell arms used in Israeli occupation and war on Gaza. But there are other groups working on UK university campuses that demand attention too, that also act in support of Israeli state interests. One of these is the Pinsker Centre.

On October 31, 2023, University College London (UCL) issued a public statement condemning the local staff union, UCL UCU, for passing what it called “a series of incoherent and disturbing motions” on Israel-Palestine and accusing the union of using language “that clearly incites indiscriminate violence,” due to the call for “intifada until victory” in one of the union’s motions  – even as UCL also noted that the union had stated in their motions that they “condemn all forms of violence.” “We wholly condemn this incitement to violence,” UCL wrote: “Language such as this has no place on a university campus.”

On November 10, 2023, UCL Provost Michael Spence followed up by releasing a public letter in which he disclosed his personal actions of directing the local UCL UCU branch to withdraw their Palestine motion and “remove it from their webpages,” threatening to censor the motion if they did not do this. UCL ended up censoring the motion directly. Spence also noted approvingly the suspension of the UCL student Marxist Society for refusing to remove posters that called for a “Free Palestine” and “Intifada Until Victory.” In his letter, Spence repeatedly emphasized UCL’s concern to “support Jewish students,” and “ensure that UCL is a secure place for Jewish students and staff” – but made no mention of doing the same for Arab, Muslim or pro-Palestinian students and staff at UCL.

Partly as a consequence of this, as well as other repressive statements and actions by UK Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, university vice-chancellors and other political leaders, staff and students who support Palestinian solidarity at UCL, like at many other UK universities speak of working in a culture of fear on campus.

In the media, the Provost’s letter and action were reported as being a response to a letter sent by more than 500 UCL alumni, who condemned what they called an “appalling torrent of antisemitism that has swept” UCL and called for the investigation and disciplining of the leaders of UCL UCU and several student societies, including UCL Students for Justice in Palestine. The alumni letter complained about “the repeated calls for ‘intifada’ and ‘resistance’” and alleged “calls to incite violence” made by Palestinian solidarity staff and students at UCL.

The group that organized this alumni letter was the Pinsker Centre. What do we know about this group?

On its website, the Pinsker Centre foregrounds its commitment to promoting “free speech” on university campuses. But the Centre, which was originally known as the Pinsker Centre for Zionist Education, was founded in 2016 more specifically as a response to what Centre founders called “the threatening spectacles and the annual hysteria of Israel Apartheid Week” and dominance of “pro-Palestinian activism” in UK universities, and as a project to “transform the way in which we promote the case for Israel on campus.” 

The first public event hosted by the Pinsker Centre was a talk by Colonel Richard Kemp at UCL in 2016, that addressed “the libelous myths of Israeli war crimes” and “demolish[ed] the ‘body count morality’ which determines Israeli ‘disproportionality’ in military conflict.”

In 2017, The Lobby, an investigation by Al Jazeera of the Israel lobby’s actions in the UK, showed the founders of the Pinsker Centre revealing that “AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] provided them with funding to set up the Pinsker Centre … to promote Zionism on UK campuses.” 

Alongside their letter to UCL, the Pinsker Centre also organized in November 2023 a “joint declaration in support for Israel” signed by student Conservative Societies at universities across the UK, including the UCL Conservative Society. The Conservative Societies letter is a declaration to “stand firmly with Israel in its inherent right to defend itself” and calls on the UK government “to support Israel in its efforts to destroy Hamas’s operational ability.” The letter leaves no doubt that its statement constitutes a call for and support of Israeli state violence, acknowledging that “it is true, and deeply sad, that innocent Palestinians will die in Gaza and elsewhere as Israel takes steps to remove Hamas from power.”

This is the group who the UCL Provost is choosing to publicly engage with in the midst of what many genocide experts are calling a genocidal war by Israel on Gaza. There has been no public condemnation by UCL of the “incitement to violence” found in the language of the UCL Conservative Society and Pinsker Centre letter of support for Israel.

In the context of the silencing of Palestinian solidarity action and discussion on UK university campuses, staff unions, student organisations and groups such as BRISMES (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies) and BRICUP (British Committee for the Universities of Palestine) have been calling for the protection of academic freedom on Palestine.

In order for this call to be effective, we need also to identify and challenge those groups, such as the Pinsker Centre, that are working actively to silence Palestinian solidarity on UK campuses. “The principle of academic freedom,” as Judith Butler writes, “is designed to make sure that powers outside the university, including government and corporations, are not able to control the curriculum or intervene in extra-mural speech.”