Open University reverses UKLFI-influenced 'ancient Palestine' ban
The Open University (OU) has appeared to reverse a commitment it made to pro-Israel lobby group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) to stop using the term "ancient Palestine", Novara Media reported.
According to the report, on 30 November 2025, UKLFI wrote to the OU complaining that the term "ancient Palestine" could create a "hostile or offensive learning environment for Jewish and Israeli students".
UKLFI claimed the OU could be breaching the Equality Act. An OU humanities module referred to the Virgin Mary as having been born in "ancient Palestine" and featured a map labelled "Map of Ancient Palestine".
UKLFI said the term Palestine was not applied to the region until "more than a century after Mary's lifetime", when the Roman Emperor Hadrian renamed it "Syria Palaestina".
On 18 December, the university's head of the faculty of arts and social sciences, Adrienne Scullion, replied to UKLFI saying she understood the term "ancient Palestine" had become "problematic in a way that, perhaps, it was not when the materials were written in 2018".
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Scullion said: "We will not use the term again in future learning materials, and we will explain and contextualise its use in existing materials for current learners."
UKLFI claimed victory on its website.
Last week, the Index of Repression, compiled by the European Legal Support Centre in collaboration with Forensic Architecture, described UKLFI as an “initiating” or “escalating” actor against acts of Palestinian solidarity.
After UKLFI publicised the OU's response, more than 600 academics and public figures signed an open letter earlier this year demanding an "urgent public retraction" of "commitments" the OU made to UKLFI.
The letter said: "There is a significant risk that these commitments could be interpreted as inconsistent with the OU’s statutory duties under the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 (HEFSA)."
It continued: "The commitments expose staff to harassment, set harmful precedents for further attacks on academic freedom, and make the OU complicit in the spread of disinformation and a politically motivated attempt to erase Palestine from history."
The letter was signed by Israeli historians Ilan Pappe and Avi Shlaim, as well as Palestinian historians Rashid Khalidi and Nur Masalha. It was endorsed by the OU's University and College Union branch.
But the OU now appears to have rowed back on its commitment not to "use the term again in future learning materials".
Novara Media reported on Tuesday that an OU spokesperson said academics "are free to use the term ‘ancient Palestine’ where scholarly appropriate in teaching and learning materials", and that there is no requirement for academics to use a contextual note on the term "ancient Palestine" unless they think it is academically appropriate.
The spokesperson added that the university's commitment to UKLFI referred only to one unit of work, which was "scheduled for replacement".
However, an unnamed staff member told Novara that there was a "clear contradiction" between the statement and previous commitments made to UKLFI.
The staff member said the OU's statement does "not constitute a reasonable interpretation of the letter from 18 December".
British Museum scandal
This comes shortly after a controversy over the British Museum removing the term Palestine from exhibits on ancient Egypt and the Phoenicians, which UKLFI said was in response to a complaint it had made.
A British Museum spokesperson denied that the move came in response to the UKLFI complaint.
In response to that scandal, academics told Middle East Eye that “ancient Palestine” is a historically accurate term for the region in antiquity.
“I use the term 'ancient Palestine' frequently in my own research and will continue to do so,” said Marchella Ward, a lecturer in classical studies at the Open University.
She added that claims the term is late-coming or illegitimate are a “lie” aimed at “the erasure of Palestinians and in support of Israel’s ongoing genocide against them”.
The OU is just one of a slew of public institutions to be targeted by UKLFI.
Last month, it was reported that Encyclopaedia Britannica had amended several entries to Britannica Kids relating to Palestine, including the removal of the term from maps of the region, following pressure from UKLFI.
In February 2023, London's Chelsea and Westminster Hospital removed an artwork designed by schoolchildren in Gaza. UKLFI director Caroline Turner said the move came in response to "patients' complaints".
However, a freedom of information request forced the hospital to admit that the only complaint submitted was by UKLFI.
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