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David Miller (Photo via supportmiller.org)

Britain’s pro-Israel lobby gained another victory last week after a prolonged campaign of intimidation finally pushed a major UK university into firing one of its lecturers. Bristol University dismissed David Miller, a political sociology professor, even though an official investigation had concluded that accusations of antisemitism against him were unfounded. Research by Miller, a leading scholar on propaganda, had charted networks of influence in the UK in relation to Islamophobia that included the very pro-Israel lobby groups that worked to get him fired.

UK based Pro-Palestinian activists group "Palestine Action" seized control of the Leicester based factory of Elbit subsidiary UAV Tactical Systems on Wednesday, May 19, 2021. Activists say that "the occupation is aiming to be as disruptive as possible; these activists are determined to prevent Elbit from resuming its business of bloodshed." (Photo by Vudi Xhymshiti)

Activists in the United Kingdom have been occupying a drone factory in Leicester for the last six days. The Elbit Systems factory produces weapons that have been used by Israel to attack Gaza. “We’re taking direct action because the UK is complicit in the colonization and ongoing occupation of Palestine,” an activist with the group Palestine Action explained.

Protest banner in London, 2018. (Photo: Jewish Voice For Labour (UK) via The Palestine Poster Project Archives)

There are liberals and those on the right who think it’s okay to fight antisemitism by encouraging Islamophobia and certainly anti-Palestinianism. You don’t fight racism with racism. We need to decolonize our understanding of antisemitism as a matter of urgency. And that means ditching the IHRA definition of antisemitism.