Royal College of Art accused of allowing Jewish students to be intimidated in 'hostile environment'

There are claims that a tutor in a photography department meeting had said the Israeli flag was a symbol of hate and genocide and that putting it on display was a deliberate provocation.

Israeli and Jewish students said that when they tried to express their views they were "shouted down, told to shut up and threatened."

Lawyers from UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) have written to Professor Christoph Lindner, the president and vice-chancellor of RCA, calling for an end to what they say is "discrimination, harassment and hostile atmosphere for Jewish, Israeli and Zionist students."

Chief Executive of UKLFI Jonathan Turner said RCA must stop the discrimination and bullying of their Jewish and Israeli students.

Speaking to The Telegraph he said: "Hostility of other students is no excuse, especially when that hostility has been promoted by extremely biased anti-Israel lectures, which have very little, if any, connection with the RCA’s objects.

"Freedom of expression should be protected at universities – and it is unless it supports Israel, in which case it is increasingly suppressed."

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He added: "For visual arts students, images are particularly important. So at the Royal College of Art, emblems of Palestine are sacrosanct, while flags of Israel are torn down and Jewish students are told to shut up."

UKLFI told the university that it would be discriminatory for them to ban Israeli flags or other symbols relating to the national or ethnic identity of Jews.

Jewish students also complained of a staff member who made personal comments about one of them.

The UKLFI letter read: "[The faculty member] insisted that the student explain his ethnicity and how he qualified as an Israeli. [The faculty member] said that it was questionable whether the student’s mother was Jewish and that it did not qualify him to be an Israeli."

It has also been claimed that the course Forensic Architecture - which examines the architectural history of Gaza and the broader region - included "anti-Israel propaganda."

In addition, a number of students have complained about lectures in which Israel was accused of committing genocide in Gaza. UKLFI said these lectures promoted a hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli students.

The RCA said it was dealing with the flag incident through internal procedures, and that they were aware of their obligations under discrimination and equality laws.

They added that added that they were "a diverse, multi-faith and multi-cultural community" which was "committed to supporting all staff and students with connections to Israel, Palestine, Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, and other areas impacted by the current conflict,” and urged students and staff members to report incidents of misconduct.