University embroiled in legal battle after student, 20, suspended for making a ‘tea-towel’ joke about Pro-Palestine activist’s headscarf

A university is embroiled in a legal battle with a student after he was suspended for making a joke about a Pro-Palestine activist’s headscarf. 

‘Non-Jewish Zionist’ Brodie Mitchell, 20, was reprimanded by Royal Holloway, University of London, for likening Huda El-Jamal’s keffiyeh scarf to a tea towel. 

The second-year student made the barb after Ms El-Jamal, the president of the Friends of Palestine Society, dubbed him a ‘wannabe Jew’ during an ill-tempered ‘spat’ at the university’s Freshers’ Fair last September. 

Within 24 hours, Mr Mitchell was handed a nine-week suspension while Royal Holloway conducted an investigation ‘for alleged conduct that could be considered hate speech’. 

Surrey Police is investigating Mr Mitchell for the same allegations of hate speech, reports The Telegraph.    

The politics and international relations undergraduate claimed he was also forced to leave his student accommodation for several days. The university, in Egham, Surrey, denies the allegation. 

Mr Mitchell, a member of the campus Conservative Association, is now taking the university to court, accusing it of violating its contractual obligations to him. A three-day High Court hearing will be heard in June.

He says it will now take him longer to complete his degree, and the disciplinary action was the equivalent of a seven-week loss of teaching time.

The second-year student made the barb after Ms El-Jamal (pictured), the president of the Friends of Palestine Society, dubbed him a ‘wannabe Jew’

Royal Holloway had previously suggested it would have to pay £734,000 in legal costs.

A Cost Management Order reduced this to £226,000 after Mr Mitchell’s barrister, Francis Hoar, said the university’s bill was ‘grossly disproportionate and unreasonable’. 

Mr Mitchell told a pre-trial hearing last December he reacted when Ms El-Jamal, who is of Palestinian origin, had ‘smirked and pointed at me, saying something like ‘here’s the wannabe Jew” before remarking that he was not wearing a kippah.

‘I began filming the interaction as I realised I didn’t have any witnesses and said ‘You’re wearing a tea towel over your head’, referring to her Yasser Arafat inspired keffiyeh, which I considered at the time to be a fitting off-the-cuff retort to her pre-emptive racist and antisemitic attack on me and reference to her jibe about my lack of kippah,’ Mr Mitchell said in a statement. 

He has described his comment as ‘poorly expressed and inappropriate’ in an email to the university but argued ‘it was only about politics, not about race or religion’.

Mr Mitchell says he is prepared to apologise to Ms El-Jamal, who he claims was not interviewed during the university’s probe. 

Gemma White KC, representing Royal Holloway, stated in written submissions for a November hearing: ‘The university’s overarching position is that it plainly acted reasonably, proportionately and fairly in responding to the claimant’s conduct in the way that it did.

‘The claimant’s right to free speech did not require it to treat his “tea towel” comment any less seriously than it did.’

The Free Speech Union is backing Mr Mitchell, who has since been allowed back onto campus. 

The FSU accused Royal Holloway’s handling of the case as ‘deeply unfair and a blatant example of double standards’. 

‘Royal Holloway’s conduct is, in our view, disgraceful and intolerable. The Free Speech Union is proud to stand by Brodie in fighting back against this attempt to bully him,’ it said in a statement on its Facebook page. 

The university said it fully investigated the incident and encouraged an informal resolution to the dispute.

In a comment provided to The Telegraph, Dr Nick Barratt, chief student officer at Royal Holloway, University of London, said: ‘Following a formal complaint from a student who described being targeted with a comment from another student they found discriminatory and distressing – and which was reported to the police as a hate crime – the University was obliged to follow its established conduct procedures.

Mr Mitchell (left) is pictured here at an Iranian protest outside 10 Downing Street in February 2026 

‘The student at the centre of the conduct process has not denied the behaviour that was under investigation. 

‘No formal complaint has been made against the reporting student, and no evidence has been provided to support one, but we are clear that any such allegation would also be investigated.

‘This case is about addressing conduct that was found to be harassment. For us, that means defending every student’s right to a University experience free from discrimination.

‘We respect the court process, and welcome the opportunity to demonstrate that our actions were in line with our duty to protect students from harassment and discrimination.’

The Daily Mail has approached Royal Holloway and Surrey Police for comment.