FUCU costs settled out of court

Now here's a thing.  It appears that UCU has settled its costs dispute with Ronnie Fraser's lawyers, Mishcon de Reya, out of court.

The last I had read of this case was on the Israel advocacy site, Engage, where David Hirsh said that

The hearing for costs will take place next Wednesday, the first day of Channukah.  Nobody is expecting a miracle.

The first day of Channukah was 17 December 2014 but I didn't see anything about the hearing then or since until I did a bit of googling just now.  I found just one source for the out of court settlement of the costs issue and that was the Jewish Chronicle dated, 24 December, or Christmas Eve or even the last day of Channukah.  Maybe Hirsh was confused, I don't know.  Anyway, here's the JC:

A union which won an employment tribunal brought by a Jewish academic who claimed he had been harassed has agreed an out-of-court settlement in its own claim for costs.

The University College Union said it had agreed a deal with Ronnie Fraser’s lawyers Mishcon de Reya after long-running legal argument.

Mr Fraser, director of Academic Friends of Israel, lost his tribunal last year after claiming the union’s anti-Israel stance amounted to harassment.

The battle for legal costs had subsequently gone on for more than a year, with the UCU trying to recover around £600,000.

In a statement issued on Tuesday night, the union and the law firm said: “The costs application by the University and College Union against Mishcon de Reya has been settled on confidential terms to the satisfaction of the parties.

“The University and College Union has, as a result, withdrawn its application against Mr Fraser.”

Mr Fraser and his wife thanked supporters for their backing over the past three and a half years since the case began.

 I'm a bit confused here.  See this bit:

The costs application by the University and College Union against Mishcon de Reya has been settled on confidential terms to the satisfaction of the parties.

 Followed by this bit:

The University and College Union has, as a result, withdrawn its application against Mr Fraser.

 I think the original judgement hinted that Fraser was really a front for other more powerful players and if Marcus Dysch's JC report is accurate then maybe Mishcon de Reya has admitted as much.

FUCU costs hearing update: We don't need no re-Ron

Oi gevalt!  What's that they say about the wheels of justice?  It turns out the hearing today regarding the FUCU case costs hearing, wasn't the costs hearing itself.  It was the application of Ronnie Fraser to appeal against an earlier ruling that the case could be heard in 2 days.  The Fraser side wanted every piece of "evidence" re-examined to show how valid the case was.  The original case took 20 days.  And, Israel advocate, David Hirsh, says it's the UCU trying to punish Ronnie Fraser.

Anyway, the people hearing the appeal today would not grant leave to appeal or put another way, we don't need no re-Ron. H/T Gil Scott Heron

Needless to say, Dr Hirsh is not a happy bunny:

NB this was a hearing to gain leave to appeal this previous decision to allow a summary hearing of costs, it was not the appeal itself.

The Appeal Judge did not give leave to appeal.   He refused to overrule the lower Judge’s determination that a fair hearing for costs can be carried out in two days.

In a verbal judgment, he seemed explicitly to close ranks with the lower Employment Tribunal Judges.  He went out of his way gratuitously to praise the Snelson Judgment, saying that it was “very well written”.  He quoted, apparently approvingly, the most trenchant and absurd paragraphs of the Snelson judgment, the ones which led to the recusal.  He praised the chair of the new tribunal Judge Wade’s decision that a fair hearing for costs can be carried out in one day of reading and one day of argument, with no new evidence, no witnesses, relying mainly on the Snelson judgment which itself went far beyond its remit in the determination of facts and offered opinion about the bad faith, underhand intentions and wastefulness of the whole action.

The hearing for costs will take place next Wednesday, the first day of Channukah.  Nobody is expecting a miracle.

So I presume the appeal won't happen now so it's full steam ahead to the costs hearing itself.

FUCU case to be revisited by Tribunal today

I just saw the following tweet from the Israel advocacy site, Engage:

UCU continues its campaign to punish Ronnie Fraser for challenging its antisemitism – David Hirsh: UCU is in c... http://t.co/BtYY3wDs6d
— Engage (@engageonline) December 8, 2014

Following the link to the article on the site itself I find that:

UCU is in court again today looking to make Ronnie Fraser pay hundreds of thousands of pounds for daring to challenge its antisemitism.

The original tribunal, led by Judge Snelson, found that nothing that ever happened in the UCU was antisemitic and that Fraser was raising the issue of antisemitism in bad faith in order to get an underhand advantage in the Israel/Palestine debate.

The Tribunal didn't actually say that "nothing that ever happened in the UCU was antisemitic" or even "that Fraser was raising the issue of antisemitism in bad faith in order to get an underhand advantage in the Israel/Palestine debate" though, to be sure, there were hints of that throughout the judgement (pdf).

Take a look at the report on the original judgement at the Times Higher Education site:

Mr Fraser, the child of refugees who fled Nazi Germany, is viewed as a “sincere witness”, but the tribunal notes his “political experience” and are not impressed by his claim that the tone of several debates at the UCU’s annual congress “violated his dignity”, thereby constituting harassment......

Scorn is also invoked for Mr Julius’s decision to pursue certain points, with complaints variously dismissed as “palpably groundless”, “obviously hopeless” and “devoid of any merit”.

 It doesn't quite tally with the claim made by Engage's Dr David Hirsh.

Anyway, let's remind ourselves of where we're at with this costs claim.  UCU entered a claim for costs on the grounds that Ronnie Fraser's action was frivolous and vexatious.  Fraser's people argued that the original tribunal members had already indicated where they stood on the question of costs and the original tribunal recused (absented) themselves as their judgement, whilst not taking a position on liability for costs could have been understood that way by others.

So here we have another tribunal to rule on whether UCU or Ronnie Fraser should pick up the tab for what was for the zionist movement a disastrously ill-advised action.

ZFUK invites rape advocate to address meeting in the UK

I just got this email from Tony Greenstein:

The Zionist Federation & Sussex Friends of Israel Have Invited Professor Mordechai Kedar to Speak at Ralli House, Brighton at 7.00 p.m. Monday 8^th December 2014" http://www.sussexjewishrepresentativecouncil.org/an-evening-with-mordechai-kedar/

THERE WILL BE A PICKET FROM 6 pm ORGANISED BY PALESTINE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN

Mordechai Kedar is a Professor at Tel Aviv’s Bar Ilan orthodox religious university.  The statement by Kedar that the mothers or sisters of ‘terrorists’ should be raped breaks new ground, even for the religious Orthodox.  Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper reported on 22^nd July 2014 that 'Professor' Kedar called for the sisters or mothers of 'terrorists' to be raped as a deterrent.  Leaving aside the fact that 2,000 Gazan civilians, including over 500 children, were murdered by Israeli  bombing during the summer.  The idea that someone’s sister or mother should be raped as a deterrent or punishment is so abhorrent that it defies comprehension.

But this has not stopped the Zionist Federation  locally and nationally inviting Kedar as a speaker to meetings, including one at Ralli House, Hove tomorrow at 7 pm.  http://www.zionist.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/An-Evening-with-Mordechai-Kedar-ZF-copy.jpg   Palestine Solidarity Campaign is picketting this meeting from 6 pm onwards and invites you to join us in a picket against this misogynist and racist.  Kedar’s views on immigration are also no different from that of the EDL/BNP.  He was quoted in Israel’s widest circulation newspaper, Yediot Aharanot as saying that Islam is taking over Europe. News - Expert: Islam taking over, Europe soon to be unrecognizable

This Nazi style pronouncement is just one of the barbarous and misogynist announcements of the settler and religious right in Israel today.  It follows the pouring of petrol inside the mouth of a boy aged 16 because 3 settler teens were kidnapped and killed, as if one in any way justified the other.  It comes as a reign of terror is being instituted by settlers, with the support of the Israeli army, across the West Bank. Israeli Arabs are also now being killed regularly by the Police on demonstrations, whereas Jewish demonstrators are never met with live bullets.

At uch short notice it will be interesting to see how many Palestine Solidarity supporters join the picket.