Royal Holloway faces legal action over suspension of pro-Israel student
Non-Jewish Zionist student's clash with Palestinian student ends with his removal by Royal Holloway University
An ill-tempered spat at a university freshers’ fair in London has ended up in the High Court of Justice, as one of the students involved has sued the Royal Holloway and Bedford New College over his suspension and loss of tuition.
Brodie Mitchell, 19, is a non-Jewish but fiercely pro-Zionist student, working for an undergraduate degree in politics and international relations at Royal Holloway, which is part of the University of London. He is in his second year, and is also involved in the campus Conservative Association and the Free Speech Union.
According to his witness statement presented before Mr Justice Mansfield at the High Court on Thursday, Mr Mitchell had had a number of previous campus clashes with students from the Friends of Palestine.
He said: “Towards the end of Freshers’ Fair on Tuesday 23 September, Ms [Huda] El-Jamal smirked and pointed at me saying something like ‘here’s the wannabe Jew….’, which was followed by a comment about me not wearing a kippah. I began filming the interaction as I realised I didn’t have any witnesses and said ‘You’re wearing a tea towel on your head”, referring to her Yasser Arafat inspired keffiyeh, which I considered at the time to be a fitting off-the-cuff retort to her pre-emptive racist and antisemitic attack on me and reference to her jibe about my lack of a kippah”.
Mr Mitchell said that he later accepted that his response was “poorly expressed and inappropriate” and that “it was only about politics, not about race or religion”. Essentially, his barrister Francis Hoar told the court, he was saying that “she started it and that her remark was just as bad”.
But the day after this run-in, Royal Holloway told Mr Mitchell that he had been suspended from the university “for alleged conduct that could be considered hate speech and for filming of individuals without their consent”.
Not only was he suspended but he was (temporarily) evicted from his university accommodation. Mr Mitchell was then notified that he was to appear before a Royal Holloway “major misconduct panel”, to face charges of breaching the university regulations on a variety of alleged offences. They included “violent, indecent, disorderly, threatening, aggressive or offensive behaviour or language, however expressed, whilst on University property or engaged in any University activity; behaviour, action or inaction which, even if self-directed, could reasonably be seen to cause distress to other students or members of staff or could reasonably be seen to cause other students or members of staff to fear for their safety or wellbeing”.
He was subjected to a Campus Exclusion Restriction Order. Ms El-Jamal did not take part in these proceedings and Mr Mitchell could not persuade Royal Holloway to hear an appeal. Accordingly, and funded by the Free Speech Union, he has taken a number of legal steps, which were outlined in court by his barrister, Mr Hoar. The university was represented by Gemma White, KC.
The student, who has a part-time job to fund his way through university, now says that as a result of the suspension and consequent disciplinary proceedings, he has lost seven weeks of tuition — 68 teaching hours — and has worked on at least one occasion until 4.30 am in order to finish writing an essay on time. He has applied to the court for an interim mandatory injunction against Royal Holloway to require it to extend his essay deadlines, and to provide tuition privately to enable him to catch up with his peers.
Mr Hoar, Mr Mitchell’s barrister, painted a bleak picture of the student’s future if the university were not ordered to comply with these requested conditions: the university was “intransigent”, he said, and “only at court, when prompted by a judge, will the university buckle.”
He alleged that Royal Holloway had “stolen a march on Mr Mitchell’s ability to complete his year,” adding that further time was being lost by the student each time he had to come to court for the various legal proceedings. A full trial has been provisionally scheduled for early next year.
Mr Mitchell’s suspension could mean him having to re-take his year, or explain to prospective employers why his degree had taken longer to complete than other undergraduates.
Ms White, on behalf of Royal Holloway, questioned the request for private tuition, asking how much it might cost and what control the university would have over its quality. She told the court: “If he feels he needs additional tuition, he should arrange it for himself.”
She raised the issue of Mr Mitchell’s finances, saying the university’s solicitors had asked how the student, who received a bursary in his first and second year of studies, was funding the litigation.
In a post-court statement to Jewish News, Elliot Hammer, of the solicitors Branch Austin McCormick, said: “We are very pleased to represent Brodie [Mitchell] in this important freedom of speech case, supported by the Free Speech Union”.
Judge Mansfield is due to give his ruling on the application for an interim injunction on Monday 8 December.
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