David Miller wins landmark case as UK tribunal confirms anti-Zionism as protected belief

Anti-Zionism is now a protected philosophical belief in the UK after Bristol University professor, Dr David Miller, won a landmark judgement on Tuesday, upholding a 2024 ruling that he was unfairly dismissed for his anti-Zionist beliefs critical of Israel. 

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) found that anti-Zionism constitutes a protected belief under the Equality Act 2010 and dismissed the University of Bristol’s appeal. It concluded that Miller was discriminated against because of his beliefs.

Miller’s victory solidifies the legal precedent his case first set over two years ago in 2024. 

Miller worked as a lecturer in political sociology specialising in Islamophobia and propaganda. His work also analysed state and corporate lobbying, setting up Spinwatch, a UK lobbying watchdog that investigates and tracks corporate and state lobbying particularly in relation to Israel. 

He was dismissed from The University of Bristol on 1 October 2021 after a two-year-long campaign to oust the professor. The campaign began after a 2019 lecture where Miller explained how the Zionist movement fosters Islamophobia, leading to demands for the university to censor him.

Critics of the professor claimed that his comments targeted Jewish students specifically rather than Israeli policy. The tribunal found that his beliefs about Zionism had a “material impact” on his dismissal. 

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, posted on X in response to the ruling: “Law, when true to itself, doesn’t protect comfortable opinions but the right to dissent from power”.  

Defining Zionism as a colonial ideology isn't prejudice: it's thought, hence constitutionally protected -says a Court (Bristol v. Miller, 2026 - EAT 84).

Law, when true to itself, doesn't protect comfortable opinions but the right to dissent from power. https://t.co/OvwWtk7AJy

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) August 4, 2026

Miller appealed his dismissal, without success. His claim then went to the EAT in 2023. 

The tribunal heard evidence that led them to conclude Miller’s beliefs were protected under the Equality Act 2010. His dismissal was deemed wrongful, discriminatory and unfair.   

The University of Bristol appealed this decision on nine grounds, which were dismissed by the EAT in its new ruling.

It emphasised the importance of protecting freedom of speech and rejected the university’s argument that Miller’s beliefs were merely opinions. Miller has a long history of comments on Israel and Zionism, deemed by some as antisemitic. However, the Tribunal found that “it is coherent to describe as “racist” an ideology that promotes the establishment of a state for only one race of people in a territory that contains a large number of people of a different race".

Zionism, it said, “could also coherently be described as colonial and imperialistic".

The former British diplomat, Craig Murray, took to X saying that the finding “will affect so many employment cases, notably in the NHS”.