Noam Chomsky has described himself as being ¡°at a loss for words¡± about the conditions imposed on speakers at an event launching a book about his work, in a new row about antisemitism on UK campuses.

UCL Press is publishing?The Responsibility of Intellectuals?to mark the?50th anniversary of Professor Chomsky¡¯s celebrated essay of the same name. Contributors include Jackie Walker, the black Jewish activist and former vice-chair of the left-wing Momentum movement within the Labour Party, who was expelled from the party earlier this year on the grounds of antisemitism ¨C?.

The , at UCL¡¯s Institute of Advanced Studies, is planned for 29 October.?Panellists include Ms Walker and co-editor Chris Knight, senior honorary research associate in anthropology at UCL. They have received an email from UCL Press attaching UCL¡¯s code of practice on freedom of speech and guidelines setting out a number of allegedly antisemitic ¡°tropes that UCL would find unacceptable to be repeated on its campus¡±.

Responding to this, the three editors of the book?said that, while they ¡°sympathise[d] with the intention of these guidelines¡±, they also believed that they ¡°unacceptably restrict[ed] the principle of freedom of speech within a UK university¡±.

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One of the allegedly offensive ¡°tropes¡± was that ¡°Jews as a group or particular sections of the British Jewish community invent, exaggerate or ¡®weaponise¡¯ incidents of antisemitism for political or other benefit¡±. In response, Professor Chomsky, who is Jewish, said that he was ¡°frankly at a loss for words¡±.

¡°Would it be anti-Arab racism to say that some Arab group has exaggerated incidents of anti-Arab racism? If so, I¡¯m a hardened Islamophobe, because I know of such cases and have often said so,¡± he said. ¡°Such behaviour is common ¨C for other nationalist groups as well. Why are Jewish groups immune from criticism, alone in the world?¡±

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Another ¡°trope¡± that UCL did not want repeated on campus was the implication that ¡°Jews are less vulnerable to discrimination than other minority groups¡±.

Yet, as academics, Professor Knight told?ߣߣÊÓƵ,?¡°it is our responsibility to conduct research. It is at least theoretically possible that careful investigation might reveal that, in today¡¯s Britain, black people and Muslims typically suffer somewhat worse discrimination even than Jews.¡±

UCL said that the university had ¡°carried out a thorough risk assessment and implemented a number of measures around this event¡±.

¡°We have asked all speakers, including Ms Walker, to comply with our code of practice as a condition of attending the event. This requires that the views and ideas put forward do not give rise to an environment in which people will experience ¨C or could reasonably fear ¨C harassment, intimidation, verbal abuse or violence, with particular reference to the protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010, including religion and belief,¡± a spokeswoman said.

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¡°We have been clear that the expression of antisemitic tropes or positions would be considered unacceptable under this code of practice.¡±

matthew.reisz@timeshighereducation.com