Why I'm not surprised at David Miller's latest outburst - The Jewish Chronicle

This week has seen another outrageous antisemitic outburst by David Miller. Am I surprised? No.

For regular JC readers, reading an opinion piece in opposition to Miller’s antisemitism must feel familiar.

Yet, this series of tweets saw the assertion of a theory which not only shows Miller’s true colours, but also vindicates the years of brave Jewish students whose formative time at university and beyond were spent ridding campus of this age-old hatred.

Miller's theory begins with the assertion that non-Jewish people must resist being ‘cowed by racial supremacists... into political subservience’, with a call to learn about Zionism to resist the ‘racial supremacists’.

Only once Zionism is contrived to mean, as Dave Rich explains, ‘Jewish power’, then the raw antisemitism of this narrative becomes clear.

Between March 2021 and March 2022, antisemitic hate crimes accounted for 23 per cent of all religious hate crimes in the UK, despite the British Jewish community comprising less than 1 per cent of the total population.

So how does ‘Jewish power’ work if Jewish people are continually disproportionately victims of hate crimes?

Well of course, according to Miller, ‘Zionist propagandists’ utilise false claims of antisemitism to protect their power.

Yet it is the next claim which reveals Miller’s true colours. Miller continues to claim to be a sociologist examining power and lobby networks, including the ‘Zionist movement’.

But in this week’s outburst, Miller’s interchangeable use of ‘Zionists’ and ‘Jews’ when discussing discrimination makes his views clear to all.

In fact, in one of his tweets, he forgot to mention 'Zionists' at all! He claimed in that tweet that ‘Jews are not discriminated against’, that Jewish people ‘are over-represented', and therefore, that Jewish people ‘discriminate’ against marginalised groups.

Academia is bound by the rules of rationality. Yet this conspiratorial antisemitism is fanciful at best.

Previously, Miller’s antisemitism had to be deciphered, with explanations noting that his version of anti-Zionism merely acts as a facade for deep-rooted antisemitism.

However, this week’s outburst requires no uncovering. Rather the truth has been laid bare for all to see.

This truth must surely be hitting home for the hundreds of academics who defended the indefensible.

More than 200 academics signed an open letter in support of Miller. Do those academics still support him after this latest outburst? This truth must surely be hitting home for those who shamelessly donate to Miller’s crowdfunding campaign.

And this truth must surely be hitting home for universities across the UK and Ireland, who have continually dismissed Jewish student concerns.

While this naked antisemitism is alarming, it must be caveated with a message of hope and optimism.

It is nearly two years since Bristol’s Jewish students and UJS bravely guaranteed their own future by standing up against this antisemitic hatred on campus.

And having spent the last two months working with Jewish students and student leaders as president of UJS, I have never felt more hope and optimism for the great future we are building together.

When our community is united against our detractors, our future will never be in doubt.

Edward Isaacs is president of Union of Jewish Students

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David Miller