Disgraced Bristol University professor David Miller claimed this week that British Jews are “inserted at a much higher level economically” than Muslims, which is why there is so much support for Israel in the British government.
The former academic, who was sacked by Bristol University in 2021, was speaking on Iran's state-owned Press TV while on his first visit to the capital, Tehran, where he accepted an award for his show on the same network.
Addressing university students in Tehran, Miller blamed the US and Israeli governments for stoking the protests that erupted across Iran following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, killed by the authorities for wearing her hijab “improperly”.
During a studio interview with Press TV, Miller was asked if a “Muslim lobby” or a “Palestinian lobby” would “make the kind of waves that the Israeli lobby makes, whether we’re talking about the US or the UK?”
He replied: “What gives the Zionist lobby that extra power is the way in which Jews in the society are inserted at a much higher level economically.”
PressTV’s David Miller says the British public is overwhelmingly sympathetic towards the Palestinians but due to the government’s policies, it is impossible, to tell the truth about Palestine and not suffer some kind of ill effect.@Tracking_Power pic.twitter.com/YaqxZbSkgQ
— Highlights (@highlightsnews1) March 13, 2023
He went on to say that Muslims are not part of the “British establishment” because they are “the most economically disadvantaged” and “suffer the most racism”.
The interviewer said that “no one is saying that it’s not true”, and asked if there is “a price to pay for the truth, and even making a sentence like that?”
Miller responded: “It’s a very high price. It’s impossible to tell the truth about Palestine in the UK in public debate and not suffer some kind of ill-effects.”
Miller accepted a “special award for best programme about Palestine” at the Sobh Media Festival for his work on the Press TV show Palestine Declassified alongside former Labour MP Chris Williamson.
The festival, attended by “top governmental officials and media activists”, exists to “honour and appreciate” the staff of the IRIB World Service, also known as Voice of Islamic Republic of Iran.
Miller’s award was for “the best idea or programme that supports the Palestinian resistance and honours the efforts of its people in the fight against the occupation”, according to the festival’s website.
Delighted to receive an award in Tehran fir best programme on Palestine at the IRIB Sobh Media Festival, on behalf of all colleagues who put together Palestine Declassified!
— David Miller (@Tracking_Power) March 13, 2023
Now can be called a ‘prize winning’ show. pic.twitter.com/JLd6o7qhXV
Palestine Declassified airs weekly on the Press TV website, but is not broadcast in the UK after the network was banned by Ofcom in 2012, and the show’s YouTube channel was taken down.
Miller addressed students at the IRIB University in Tehran, which specialises in broadcasting, where he claimed that British intelligence services were involved in “the massacre of captives in order to present evidence of chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian government”.
Last October, Miller received scathing criticism on a left-wing forum for insisting that Mahsa Amini was not murdered, and for claiming that what was happening in Iran was “an armed insurrection from the outside which is being directed by the US and by Israel through their proxies”.
David Miller: Western spy agencies, media outlets behind unrests, subversions
— Highlights (@highlightsnews1) March 14, 2023
Saman Kojouri reports from Tehran.@Tracking_Power @Pdeclassified pic.twitter.com/GLcWLJ3OBH
He also declared: “Do you think that Palestine can be liberated without the Islamic Republic of Iran? Of course it can’t. It’s absurd – an absurd position.”
This remark sparked an incredulous response from Iranian scholar Yassamine Mather, chair of Hands Off the People of Iran (Hopi).
“This idea that Palestine can only be liberated by a country that has no respect for anyone in its own borders is a joke,” she countered. “It’s unbelievable to say something like that.”
