Goldsmiths Senior Lecturer David Hirsh says being called a “far-right white supremacist” was “utterly humiliating”
David Hirsh, an expert in antisemitism and the Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he spoke candidly about his experiences of being called a “far-right white supremacist” by the University’s then-Students’ Union President.
This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.
Initially, the Students’ Union apparently refused to investigate Sara Bafo, its now-former President, following allegations of antisemitism, despite being requested to do so by the University.
She is to said to have tweeted: “D*vid H*rsch is a far right white supremacist. All you have to do is read his work and tweets and that’s all the confirmation needed.”
Ms Bafo’s tweet was said to have been written in response to a tweet from Mr Hirsh which said: “There is an antisemitic edge to official, institutional, university campaigns to ‘decolonise’ education.”
Ms Bafo later tweeted that the University “has tried to get the SU trustee board to investigate me for a tweet I made in response to a Zionist Goldsmiths academic’s explicit racist history & his delegitimisation of ‘Decolonisation’ campaigns,” adding: “This was a dirty tactic from the institution to silence me further as I was leaving.”
Shortly after, an “independent review into antisemitism at the College” was announced by the University.
Mr Hirsh revealed on the podcast that when he brought up the incident to his department’s union at Goldsmiths, little was done about it.
“There was a little bit of sympathy and warmth and support. I mean, there’s always a little bit, there are always people who are solid. It’s not unanimous by any means.” he said.
However, he added that after department representatives said that they would speak to members of the union branch, a period followed “where there was a fight going on about whether it was legitimate to say David Hirsh is a far-right white supremacist or not.”
He said: “Just the fact that there’s a fight going on between my colleagues about that is already utterly humiliating, and even more humiliating is that my department colleagues in the union lost, and the union stood firm and refused to do anything about it.
“When I’m at a union meeting now, I’m sitting there thinking, ‘The official position of this branch is that I’m a Nazi’.”
When the topic of mental health arose, he stated that “evidently, it must have” had an impact on him.
“I’ve been dealing with this stuff for twenty years now, for the main part of my adult life, and the main part of my career, and sometimes it’s really hard,” he said. “Sometimes, I get treated with great respect. Sometimes I get treated with nothing but contempt.”
Speaking on the University’s antisemitism investigation, led by senior barrister Mohinderpal Sethi KC, he said that it was “really interesting” and “a real surprise”.
“We’ll see. We’ll see what happens. We’ll see what evidence emerges. We’ll see what the report says. I hope that people who have had experiences of antisemitism at Goldsmiths make submissions,” Mr Hirsh urged.
Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.
Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.
