Academics sign letter of support after ‘vile’ abuse of Israeli professor

Tom Watson, Margaret Hodge, Michael Grade, Prof Andrew Roberts and hundreds of academics are among more than 1,600 signatories of an open letter condemning a “targeted harassment campaign” against an Israeli professor at a London university.

- Rachael Healy

Prof Michael Ben-Gad, who teaches economics at City St George’s, University of London, has been labelled a “terrorist” by student protest group City Action For Palestine, due to his time serving in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in the 1980s.

The letter, an edited version of which is published on our letters page, highlights that Israel has conscription laws for Jewish citizens, and states that protesters have made “libellous claims” about Ben-Gad.