Academics take their university to court over Israel conference

Two professors who were asked to stump up £24,000 to cover policing and security for a conference on the legitimacy of Israel are challenging SouthamptonUniversity in a test case over academic freedom.

For the second year running, the university has placed obstacles in the way of the proposed three-day gathering. In 2015, permission for the session was granted then withdrawn; this year, financial conditions have been imposed on the organisers amid fears that the conference will provoke mass protests.

Both professors work at Southampton: Oren Ben-Dor, who was born in Israel, teaches philosophy; Suleiman Sharkh, who was brought up in Gaza, lectures in engineering. The conference was entitled: International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism. It has now been postponed to spring next year.

One of the declared aims of the conference is to “educate a whole new generation of young Palestinian lawyers and legal and political scholars about new possible arguments and concepts in order to use international law better”. Last year the conference was criticised as partisan by the Jewish Board of Deputies and MPs including Eric Pickles, then the communities secretary, and Caroline Nokes, the Conservative MP for Romsey and Southampton North.

According to the two professors, the university decided this year to reduce the conference from three days to two, withdrew premises suitable for a dinner and required the organisers to pay £23,873 for security, as well as extra funding for policing if more than 600 protesters gathered at the campus.

Prof Ben-Dor told the Guardian: “There have been no threats of violence. [The costs] should not be imposed on conference organisers. The uniqueness of academic space is being compromised.