by Matt Strudwick, Daily Mail
A university is embroiled in a legal battle with a student after he was suspended for making a joke about a Pro-Palestine activist’s headscarf.
‘Non-Jewish Zionist’ Brodie Mitchell, 20, was reprimanded by Royal Holloway, University of London, for likening Huda El-Jamal’s keffiyeh scarf to a tea towel.
The second-year student made the barb after Ms El-Jamal, the president of the Friends of Palestine Society, dubbed him a ‘wannabe Jew’ during an ill-tempered ‘spat’ at the university’s Freshers’ Fair last September.
Within 24 hours, Mr Mitchell was handed a nine-week suspension while Royal Holloway conducted an investigation ‘for alleged conduct that could be considered hate speech’.
Surrey Police is investigating Mr Mitchell for the same allegations of hate speech, reports The Telegraph.
The politics and international relations undergraduate claimed he was also forced to leave his student accommodation for several days. The university, in Egham, Surrey, denies the allegation.
Mr Mitchell, a member of the campus Conservative Association, is now taking the university to court, accusing it of violating its contractual obligations to him. A three-day High Court hearing will be heard in June.
He says it will now take him longer to complete his degree, and the disciplinary action was the equivalent of a seven-week loss of teaching time.