UK academic body accused of trying to force Palestinian scholar into Israeli court system
A Palestinian-American academic is taking his British employer to court after it attempted to force him to sue the organisation for wrongful dismissal in Israel instead of the UK.
In 2023, the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL) Kenyon Institute in East Jerusalem fired Toufic Haddad, a leading scholar in Palestine Studies, who was employed as the institute's director, citing funding cuts from the British Academy.
Haddad believes the CBRL unfairly dismissed him because of political discrimination linked to his scholarly work and public position on Palestine, where he has opposed Israel's war on Gaza and its ongoing clampdown against Palestinian academics.
He noted that these actions came in the wake of the 7 October attacks, when trustees of the CBRL called on Haddad to "maintain a low profile and not talk to the media".
Following his dismissal, the CBRL, a UK-registered academic institute publicly funded by the British Academy and British government and based in London, attempted to block Haddad's unfair dismissal claims by insisting that an Israeli court hear his claim instead of a British one.
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Haddad's legal team is contesting the move to hear his case in Israel by providing a 50-page witness statement, backed by more than 3,000 pages of evidence, to prove that his employment is more closely connected to the UK than to Israel.
The CBRL, which has an office in Jordan, is not a registered entity in Israel or the occupied Palestinian territories from where it operates.
However, when they decided to hire Haddad, they gave him an Israeli contract despite giving British contracts to its other directors in Amman.
Unfair dismissal claim
Haddad is now attempting to take the CBRL to a British court for unfair dismissal and discrimination based on his anti-Zionist political beliefs and trying to deny jurisdiction to UK courts in favour of Israel.
He is contesting the move to try his case in Israel over concerns that Israel's legal system - which rights groups have criticised for being discriminatory towards Palestinians - will not give him a fair hearing because of his Palestinian background.
'CBRL has a professional, moral and historical duty in the context of the Israeli genocide and scholasticide unfolding in Gaza. Instead, it tried to silence me and then sacked me'
- Toufic Haddad
Since 1967, Israel has illegally occupied East Jerusalem and imposed a military occupation that is deemed illegal under international law.
Unlike Israeli citizens, Palestinians living in Jerusalem are issued permanent residency cards by the Israeli state but not full citizenship. These residency cards can be revoked at any given time by Israel, making their legal status precarious.
“CBRL has a professional, moral and historical duty in the context of the Israeli genocide and scholasticide unfolding in Gaza. Instead, it tried to silence me and then sacked me," Haddad told Middle East Eye.
"What happened to me exposes rotten interests and instincts within CBRL, British academia and its funding structures, which questions their commitment to academic freedom, labour rights, and human decency.”
The European Legal Support Centre (ELSC) and the University and Colleges Union (UCU) are supporting Haddad's case.
British institutions 'complicit'
Tasnima Uddin, a spokesperson for the ELSC, said the case "lays bare the complicity of British institutions still operating in Palestine today.
"CBRL is trying to silence a Palestine academic; it is asking a British court to hand him over to Israel's apartheid legal system, legitimising annexation and racial domination that the International Court of Justice has ruled illegal."
Sean Wallis, who serves as the London region secretary for the UCU, said Haddad's case represents a wider issue on worker's rights for academic staff employed at British research institutes and universities overseas.
"The British government says that academic freedom is essential for universities, and the British academy trumpets its defence of academic freedom," said Wallis.
"Dr Haddad was dismissed, and the research institute he was the director of was shut down because he spoke out about his area of research, which is Palestine studies.
"So it is shocking to see a British Academy-backed research institute engaging lawyers to prevent Dr Haddad exercising his right to argue his case in the UK courts."
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