An Israeli professor who was dropped as a speaker by the Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust said this week that he wanted a public acknowledgment of the discrimination against him.
Professor Moty Cristal, an expert on negotiations and conflict resolution, was formally disinvited from a seminar in Manchester in May with less than a week’s notice.
Unison, the partner organisation for the seminar, told the NHS Trust that its members would not take part in anything run by the Israeli academic. He had been due to give a master class on conflict resolution in health-care.
On Wednesday, Prof Cristal flew to London to talk to lawyers about taking legal action. It now looks likely that the case against Manchester NHS Trust and Unison will be heard in a county court.
Prof Cristal told reporters: “I came here to assess the legal situation. Now I am even more convinced that I am going to pursue the action in the county court.
“It is the right thing to do to fight the delegitimisation movement. I was boycotted because I am an Israeli. As a negotiator, I will pursue the action until a decent offer is put on the table”.
He wanted two things, he said: “Public acknowledgement of the wrongdoing of discrimination against me as an Israeli — and the public assurance that this will not be repeated.”