Palestinian Academic Suspended by UK University Following Israeli Lobby Pressure

Palestinian activist and academic Shahd Abusalama. (Photo: via Shahd Abusalam FB Page)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

British University Sheffield Hallam has suspended a Palestinian Ph.D. student from teaching, following a smear campaign by the Israeli lobby, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. 

Shahd Abusalama, a Palestinian activist, writer and artist from Gaza, announced on her social media that she was suspended from a teaching position at her department following an intense online campaign by pro-Israel supporters who accused her of ‘antisemitism’. 

Abusalama, who moved to the UK from the besieged Gaza Strip in 2014, following a deadly Israeli war on the Strip, is an active Palestinian rights campaigner and was already targeted by Israeli lobby groups and publications in the past. 

The Electronic Intifada reported that the last wave of cyberbullying against Abusalama began in December, “when Jewish News and the Israel lobby group Campaign Against Antisemitism accused her of fostering hostility towards Jews.”

Abusalama’s story is reminiscent of what happened last year to David Miller, a professor at Bristol University. Miller was fired from his job despite the fact that he was cleared of all accusations following two independent investigations commissioned by his university.  

“The Israel lobby appears to be readying for a campaign to root out left-wing academics in the UK critical of Israel’s continuing oppression of the Palestinian people – echoing its efforts against the previous leader of Britain’s Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn,” British journalist Jonathan Cook wrote in a recent article.

“With their new war on academia – assisted by a right-wing government – they may be able to inflict as much damage on academic support for Palestinians as they did political support,” Cook wrote.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

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