Simon Plosker

Professor targeted by UK's Israel lobby cleared of bias

Adjudicator says Warwick University’s decision to stand by Nicola Pratt’s lower mark for Israeli student was “reasonable.”

Israeli propaganda group HonestReporting denies encouraging employee to smear UK professor

My recent article exposing a smear by an Israeli pressure group worker seems to have touched a nerve. Israeli masters student Smadar Bakovic claimed in the Jewish Chronicle last month that Warwick University professor Nicola Pratt had given her a lower grade for her dissertation than she deserved because of anti-Israeli bias.


But Warwick university strongly denied her story, saying that the new higher mark given was in fact for a revised version of her dissertation. A university spokesperson told me that Bakovic’s story was untrue, and has subsequently issued a press release with further details.

The Jewish Chronicle’s reporter Marcus Dysch didn’t seem to think it relevant to mention that Bakovic works for MediaCentral  — a “free or low-cost” pro-Israel fixer agency in Jerusalem.

But now her employer has defended her actions.

Exposed: UK university student claiming bias works for project of Israel pressure group

Asa Winstanley
London
30 December 2011
A worker at an Israeli media pressure group used her low dissertation mark as a post-graduate student at University of Warwick to smear a professor involved in Palestine solidarity activism this month.
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