The Open University drops "ancient Palestine" after a lobby-group complaint ; then rows back

On 30 November 2025, the pro-Israel legal advocacy group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) wrote to the Vice-Chancellor of the Open University complaining about the use of the term "ancient Palestine" in A111: Discovering the Arts and Humanities, an entry-level module. The materials described the Virgin Mary as having been born in ancient Palestine, referred to Aramaic as widely spoken there, and included a map labelled "Map of ancient Palestine".

UKLFI argued the terminology was historically inaccurate, on the grounds that the Roman province was not renamed Syria Palaestina until around 135 CE, following the Bar Kokhba revolt,  more than a century after Mary's lifetime. It further claimed the term could create a "hostile or offensive learning environment" for Jewish and Israeli students and potentially engage the university's duties under the Equality Act 2010. The complaint was raised by a Jewish OU student, Tommy Marchand. UKLFI director Caroline Turner told the Telegraph that historical accuracy matters particularly where terminology is used to erase Jewish history and identity.

On 18 December 2025, Professor Adrienne Scullion, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, replied on behalf of the university. She stated that the term had been drawn from existing scholarship and was not a political statement, but committed that the university "will not use the term again in future learning materials", and that existing materials would be contextualised and caveated. She accepted that the term had become problematic in a way it perhaps was not when the materials were written in 2018. UKLFI published the exchange and claimed victory; a Freedom of Information request confirmed that the undertakings on UKLFI's website reflected the commitments actually made. On 9 January 2026, the OU circulated an internal bulletin to staff noting that it had agreed to change references to "ancient Palestine", with a hyperlink to UKLFI's statement.

The response drew substantial opposition. An open letter demanding an "urgent public retraction" gathered more than 600 signatures by March 2026, including Israeli historians Ilan Pappé and Avi Shlaim, Palestinian historians Rashid Khalidi and Nur Masalha, and the Director of the Committee for Academic Freedom, Dr Edward Skidelsky; it was endorsed by the OU's UCU branch. Signatories argued that proscribing an academically recognised term under external pressure amounted to censorship, risked inconsistency with the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, exposed staff to harassment and set a precedent for further attacks on academic freedom. They also criticised the university's continued public silence, which they said had allowed disinformation about the episode to spread.

BRISMES's Committee on Academic Freedom wrote to the Vice-Chancellor separately, noting the contradiction in the university's own position:  the term was described as both "academically appropriate" and "now problematic", and questioning why the "contemporary political context" should bear on academically appropriate terminology at all. It argued that suppressing the historical nomenclature of Palestine, at a moment of mass displacement and destruction of cultural heritage, risks participating in the erasure of Palestinian historical presence. It also raised concerns that module staff may have been unduly pressured by senior management into "caveating" existing materials, citing Office for Students guidance that academic staff should not be constrained or pressured in their teaching to endorse or reject particular value judgements. BRISMES called on the OU to publicly confirm that staff may use terminology they deem academically appropriate, to clarify that caveats are at the discretion of relevant academic staff, and to review the policies under which UKLFI's letter was answered. The university's internal statement of 17 February 2026 maintained there was "no evidence of restriction on academic freedom".

In early March 2026, Novara Media reported that the OU appeared to have reversed course: a spokesperson said academics are free to use the term where scholarly appropriate, and that contextual notes are not required unless academics judge them appropriate. The university stated its commitment to UKLFI had referred only to one unit of work, itself scheduled for replacement. An unnamed staff member described a clear contradiction between this statement and the 18 December letter, saying the new position was not a reasonable reading of it.

Context: Marchella Ward, a lecturer in classical studies at the OU, has said she uses "ancient Palestine" frequently in her own research and will continue to do so, describing claims that the term is illegitimate as false and aimed at the erasure of Palestinians. The Index of Repression, compiled by the European Legal Support Centre with Forensic Architecture, has described UKLFI as an initiating or escalating actor against acts of Palestinian solidarity.