Trial scheduled over disinvited Israeli academic

An Israeli expert in conflict resolution who was dropped as a speaker by a British health trust and trade union will have his case against the two organisations heard by a court next month.

Professor Moty Cristal was disinvited from a seminar organised by Unison and the Manchester NHS Trust in May last year.

He had been due to give a master-class on conflict resolution to health-care professionals. But a week before the event he was told that his lecture had been cancelled because of the union’s policy on the Middle East conflict.

Unison backs the Trades Union Council’s boycott of Israeli goods from West Bank settlements.