Israeli professor drops UK discrimination lawsuit

An Israeli professor has called off his legal action against Manchester Health Trust and UNISON after they apologised for cancelling his lecture on account of his nationality.

Prof. Moty Cristal (pictured) stood the lawyers down, saying: “The goals I sought to achieve by bringing this action have broadly been met.”

It comes after he received a letter from the chief executive of the Manchester Health Trust apologising for any offence caused and reaffirming the organisation’s commitment to equality and diversity.

“My primary goal was to establish that I had been unfairly discriminated against,” said Cristal in a statement. “My secondary goal was to highlight the damaging and negative impact of the boycott movement against Israel.”

Cristal, who lectures on negotiation skills and lists himself as a political activist, had initially sought damages of over £26,000 from Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust, after it cancelled a 2012 workshop with him.

That decision followed pressure from the trade union UNISON, which threatened to boycott the event if Cristal’s invitation was not withdrawn.

“It is right that trade unions should be able to express their political views,” Cristal said on Wednesday. “But this does not justify state discrimination against individuals purely because they are Israeli.”

Last year Cristal’s lawyer Dinah Rose QC said: “We are aware that it is TUC policy to boycott goods which have been produced in Palestinian occupied territories but we have not been shown any policy of Unison or been told how it would be contradicted by Professor Cristal’s attendance.”