Civil Discourse and Academic Freedom

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. State Department is launching a study of Saudi textbooks to determine their reach and whether they promote intolerance. The department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights will commission experts to examine textbooks for bigoted depictions of…

LONDON – A British academic has initiated legal proceedings against his own trade union, accusing them of anti-Semitism and harassment of its Jewish members after its decision to not recognize an internationally-accepted definition of anti-Semitism. Ronnie Fraser, a doctorate student…

Four Scottish academics have quit the University and College Union in protest against its decision to reject the European Union’s working definition of antisemitism. Ephraim Borowski, the former president of the UCU-predecessor, the Glasgow Association of University Teachers, was joined…

A British academic has announced that he is taking legal action against the Universities and Colleges Union after it made the “indecent” decision to distance itself from the European Union’s working definition of antisemitism. Lawyers acting for Ronnie Fraser, the…

The lawyer who represented Diana, Princess of Wales in her divorce is to take on an association of university lecturers in a dispute over anti-Semitism on campuses. Anthony Julius is representing a freelance maths lecturer who claims the University and…

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles believes the University and College Union’s rejection of the widely-accepted definition of antisemitism sends a “chilling message” to Jewish academics and students. Writing exclusively for the JC, Mr Pickles says UCU now believes that Jews are…

A leading campaigner against academic boycotts of Israel has criticised the general secretary of the Universities and College Union for “pretending not to understand” the term institutional racism. David Hirsh, who runs the Engage website, made the comments after Sally…