School of Social Sciences and Psychology/Challenging Racism Project - Challenging Racism Series

Campaigning About Palestine at English Universities in a Hostile Environment: Muslim students and staff under attack, but fighting back! Presented by James Godfrey, PhD student, University of London This paper reviews and contextualises the 'Prevent duty' (Prevent) within 'World Risk Society' and how it operates in conjunction with rising levels of racism. In particular Islamophobia and anti-Palestinianism and a deliberate conflation between antisemitism and anti-Zionism that creates a 'hostile environment' for certain racialised people at universities. Using semi-structured interviews, I have obtained original data from university students, staff, members of Palestine solidarity organisations, Islamic Societies, representative and advocacy organisations. My research reveals the categorisation taking place on campuses and confirms previous reports that Prevent is causing many harms, including acting as a ‘chilling effect’ in this case in relation to the topic of Palestine on campuses in England. Hearteningly, while freedom of speech regarding Palestine is under attack, students and staff are resisting in a variety of ways and continuing to campaign and research Palestine. This paper aims to amplify and connect these people, their voices and experiences, so that lessons can be learned at other universities, as well as in other jurisdictions, including Australian ones, where such an outsourced pre-emptive duty does not yet exist. James Godfrey is a PhD researcher in Law at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is investigating the 'Prevent' requirement to report perceived radicalisation and its impacts on freedom of speech regarding Israeli Occupied Palestine within universities. He has a strong commitment to campaigning for social justice, locally and internationally, in particular focusing on justice for the Palestinian people. He is a spokesperson for the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. His work experience includes significant periods of time as a trade union organiser, a teacher and a researcher in Sydney and in London.