One Jewish member of the branch union, who wished not to be named, told the JC the motion had made them “uncomfortable”.
“I am so exhausted with having to emotionally respond to people questioning what constitutes antisemitism,” they said.
“That members of my union would go to the trouble of putting forward a motion to reject it […] it’s quite confronting.”
They had been “genuinely pleased” when KCL was one of the first UK universities to adopt the definition in 2018. “It seemed really positive; it was a nice thing that my employers had done.”
KCL UCU had not responded to a request for comment by the time this article was published.
The member had previously left the UCU while at another institution during the time of the second Intifada, after receiving a lot of emails about Israel and BDS which they felt “didn’t feel had anything to do with my role as an academic”.
They later re-joined the UCU so they could be represented by the union during the pension strikes.
The Board of Deputies reacted by saying that it was “right that King’s College London became of the first universities to adopt the IHRA definition in 2018. That should be a matter of pride. But this regressive motion is an attack on equalities.
“Rather than moving backwards, we encourage more universities to adopt it, following the example of King’s and others.”
