Call to publicise unethical attempt by UK Lawyers for Israel to interfere with teaching at Open University

30 March 2026

Here’s the report by activists at the OU on their successful pushback against the UKLFI’s use of lawfare to erase Palestine from maps and academic discourse.

 Background: OU capitulation to pro-Israel lobby

In November 2025, UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) sent the Open University (OU) a threat of legal action against the term ‘ancient Palestine’ in a current course. The following month, the OU sent UKLFI a letter making two commitments: to add a contextual note to the current course, and to not use the term again in future course materials. Since January 2026, and over several rounds of communication, the OU Palestine Solidarity Group had sought clarification from the OU administration as to whether the commitments had in fact been made and, if so, to fully retract them on the grounds that they violate the Higher Education Freedom of Speech Act (2023). Due to what we felt to be an absence of clarity in the responses from the OU administration, a Freedom of Information request was made which revealed that the commitments to UKLFI had in fact been made. For transparency, the commitments the OU made to UKLFI can be seen as screenshots in Novara Media’s and The New Arab’s coverage of the story.

Cause for celebration

Following significant public and media outcry in the wake of our Open Letter, the OU now appears to publicly have distanced itself from its commitments to UKLFI. This is rightly perceived as constituting an important achievement. It exposes the tactics deployed by UKLFI and (hopefully) deters them from making similar political interventions across the sector in the future. UKLFI is a pro-Israel lobbying entity with the expressed aim of contributing “to creating a supportive climate of opinion in the United Kingdom towards Israel”. It seems clear that UKLFI’s motivation for interfering in the use of the term ‘ancient Palestine’ aligns with a Zionist project to erase Palestine from history in service of Israel’s unlawful territorial annexation, ethnic cleansing and genocide. UKLFI are currently under investigation for “strategic lawsuits against public participation (slapps)” […] intended to limit freedom of expression on matters of public interest”, as reported in The Guardian, with its charitable wing also under investigation.

More work remains…

While we welcome the OU’s recent affirmation of the right to academic freedom, we remain concerned by the commitments made to UKLFI and the processes through which these came about. We also remain concerned at the OU’s lack of acknowledgement that an entity lobbying in support of a foreign state successfully managed to influence OU curriculum, and that this constitutes a violation of the Higher Education Freedom of Speech Act. The Act is designed precisely to protect students and staff at all levels against such external interference, see specifically the Office for Students’ Regulatory Advice 24, Paragraph 123, iii, that the views of lobbyists are irrelevant to providers’ duty to secure free speech and BRISMES’ letter to the OU VCE. We believe that what is urgently needed now is a full and independent investigation – scoped at the governance level – into how this breach was allowed to happen. The purpose will be to occasion deep institutional learning and to review and update policy to prevent reoccurrence.

What can you do?

We remain grateful for your solidarity and support. You can help by sharing this story and associated news coverage (see below) in your networks to raise awareness and warn others of the threats posed to freedom of speech and academic freedom from actors lobbying in support of foreign states. Specifically, we would be grateful if you could:

• Share the Open Letter, calling on the OU to commission an inquiry into how this incident could happen.
• Share the ancient Palestine story on social media, links to various media coverage below.
• Should you wish to do so, you are welcome to subscribe to the mailing list of the Open University Palestine Solidarity Group. It is possible to unsubscribe at any time.

Media coverage and public letters

We append a full list of media coverage and public letters to date.