Professor Eric Kaufmann has hit out at "spineless" Cardiff University after being deplatformed for his views on Israel.
Kaufmann hit out at the "utterly moronic" situation after being invited to a debate by the Cardiff Academic Freedom Association.
Kaufmann did not attend the debate due to personal reasons, but news of his attendance sparked protest by left-wing groups, accusing him of being a "genocide apologist".
Speaking to GB News, Kaufmann accused the university and the association of "playing games" with free speech.
Professor Eric Kaufmann has hit out after being de-platformed by
GB News / Getty
Kaufmann explained: "Cardiff Academic Freedom Association invited me along with a number of others to a a debate, and regrettably, I couldn't go be for personal reasons, nothing to do with not wanting to go.
"Basically a number of radical groups sort of organised a protest accusing me of being some kind of pro-Israel genocide apologist. It's just ridiculous even on the face of it. If they had read any of my views or statements on it, this is utterly moronic."
Hitting out at Cardiff University, Kaufmann added: "But still the problem is that the leadership at Cardiff University is really quite spineless, so what they've done is they basically refused to acknowledge the card of Academic Freedom Association as a university society, which means that this was not an internal event.
"So they kept them away from the university, which then meant that they had to be like a private association and pay all of these costs to rent university facilities would have to pay. So that's what allows them to jack up the security costs to try and prevent speakers they don't like from coming to campus."
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Cardiff University has been branded a 'spineless administration' by Kaufmann following the incident
Getty
He added: "And the way they do that is simply by not recognising for the second year in a row, the Cardiff Academic Freedom Association, made up of Cardiff academics and students, I believe, as a university entity. So they play these games so that they can pretend that they're actually not against free speech."
Highlighting the sacrifice to free speech in only hosting views they "believe are the correct ones", Kaufmann told GB News: "They know which views are the correct ones and therefore they just want to make sure that people have the wrong views are not exposing themselves to unsuspecting students.
"What this really gets to is that the dominant values are what they would call social justice. In other words, equal outcomes and emotional harm, protection for so-called historically marginalised groups comes first and because that clashes with freedom of speech, freedom of speech gets sacrificed and and that that's kind of the value system."
Kaufmann also explained the Higher Education Freedom of Speech Act of England, which enables the Cardiff Academic Freedom Association to fall outside of it, he said: "It's worth saying that in England the Higher Education Freedom of Speech Act is being implemented by Labour and by the Office for Students, which would mean that this kind of activity would be prohibited.
Professor Kaufmann told GB News that cancel culture is 'very much alive'
GB News
"But Wales falls outside the jurisdiction of the Higher Higher Education Freedom of Speech Act, so the Cardiff Academic Freedom Association has no recourse to take their university to the Ombudsman. And so that's kind of a failure of the ACT to apply to Wales, which is just too bad because in England they would be breaking the law."
Declaring that cancel culture is "very much alive" following the incident, Kaufmann concluded: "On Israel, I'm actually pretty much in the middle, but I would certainly say Israel's overreacting and committed atrocities.
"What's remarkable, though, is that they will have heard second or third-hand that I'm a bad guy, therefore they should come out in protest. And what's interesting is because the energy of the movement has shifted away to some degree from race and gender towards Israel-Palestine, this is where all the energy is.
"And so these radical movements, that's what they're going to mobilise around. They haven't read anything I've written, they're just kind of going on second, third, fourth hand reports. But it's enough in the face of a spineless administration. That's all it takes really to raise security costs to £1,600 and to shut down events. That's the game they're playing, so those who think woke is dead, cancel culture is dead. It's not, it's very much alive."
GB News has approached Cardiff University and Cardiff Academic Freedom Association for comment.
Most Read
