A lecturer has been chastised by Brighton University officials for using university equipment to promote anti-Israel discourse.

Tom Hickey used the university’s communication system to distribute a student and staff email entitled: “Palestine: the dispossession of a people.”

A university administrator called him in to discuss the email.

Mr Hickey said: “We have mutually agreed with the university that, in the case of political issues that raise strong passions, there is both the need for some sensitivity in the presentation of arguments…but that this cannot be allowed to foreclose proper debate [about] apartheid in South Africa in the past or its close equivalent in Israel and the occupied territories today.”

Mr Hickey, a member of the national executive of the University and Colleges Union, used the email system to promote four meetings “hosted by the UCU, University of Brighton".

However, Brighton University has denied support of Mr Hickey’s initiative.

“The views that [Mr Hickey] has expressed on behalf of the UCU are not the views of the University of Brighton,” a spokesperson said.

“The university has fundamental disagreements with UCU on this matter.”