SEE: http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/421/800.html#.UMi0QLtAu4w.facebook
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Sydney University peace centre rebuffs Israeli civics teacher
http://antisemitism.org.il/article/76542/sydney-university-peace-centre-rebuffs-israeli-civics-teacher
![Jake Lynch]()
Jake Lynch
![פרופסור דן אבנון]( "פרופסור דן אבנון")
Australia / 12-12-2012
Sydney University peace centre rebuffs Israeli civics teacher
Jake LynchThe Sydney University’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, which has thrown its support behind controversial Palestinian leaders, has cited its boycott of Israel for refusing to help an Israeli civics teacher who has designed programs for both Jewish and Arab children.
Hebrew University of Jerusalem academic Dan Avnon is credited with developing and implementing the only state program in civics written for joint Jewish-Arab high schools.
He approached the head of the Sydney University centre, Jake Lynch, for assistance with studying civics education in Australia under a fellowship agreement between the two institutions.
But Associate Professor Lynch rebuffed the request, citing the centre’s support for the anti-Israeli Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
The centre helped establish the Sydney Peace Foundation, which awards the Sydney Peace Prize. Past recipients include the controversial Palestinian activist Hanan Ashrawi.
The centre’s website says it “promotes interdisciplinary research and teaching on the causes of conflict and the conditions that affect conflict resolution and peace”.
Professor Avnon contacted Associate Professor Lynch, expressing interest in spending time at the centre and meeting him.
Associate Professor Lynch emailed in reply: “Your research sounds interesting and worthwhile. However, we are supporters of the campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, and that includes the call for an academic boycott of Israeli universities.”
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EX ANNE's BLOG re legal action ag boycotteers!
Unfortunately, Moti Cristal didn’t challenge this, because it’s highly likely that the withdrawal of his invitation broke UK equality (including anti-discrimination) legislation. This is one reason why the UK Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) has never sought to activate its various boycott resolutions passed at Annual Conference. Not only has the union received letters threatening legal action should they do so (from the redoubtable Anthony Julius), but their own lawyers have warned them that this was the situation.
UCU has dropped the European Union Monitoring Commission on Racism’s draft definition on antisemitism from its principles (as has the UK Green Party), on the basis (I suppose) that their national Executive knows better than any victim of alleged antisemitism whether this has happened or not. Just try and imagine them doing this for racism and see whether this sounds likely (or, as the Jewish actress Maureen Lipman noted in a brief discussion on the BBC’s morning Today programme, “It’s always the Jews, isn’t it?”).
Actually, there’s a case in an Employment Tribunal at the moment, led, again, by Anthony Julius – and he doesn’t take on obviously losing cases – whereby a Jewish member of UCU, Ronnie Fraser, is challenging UCU on the basis of the dropping of the EUMC definition, saying it has made his working life intolerable. The decision isn’t expected much before the end of the year.
Mona Baker, regrettably, actually owns the Journal which boycotted the two Israeli academics, so there was nothing the University of Manchester could do directly, though I understand that some sanctions were imposed (at least, I hope so).
Coming back to Moti Cristal for a moment, at the last General Election here in the UK, the Labour Candidate in my constituency was the Assistant General Secretary of Unison, which had recently passed a boycott motion (on guess who?) and, although I’m a consistent Labour voter (and this is marginal Labour/Liberal-Democrat seat), I’m not ashamed to admit that I didn’t vote for her. Labour voting is not the only political principle I have, support for academic (and other) freedom, as well as Zionism, is another. BTW, she lost. And I (twice) didn’t vote for Ken Livingstone either.
I just wonder what the law in Australia is. It’s possible that, strictly speaking, the U. of Sydney’s actions were unlawful. Why doesn’t someone contact the Australian Jewish Board of Deputies (or whatever it’s called there) and make them aware of the situation?
- Brian, thanks for reminding us of the legal action taken by Anthony Julius. It ought to be standard practice amongst Jewish organizations to instigate legal proceedings against the boycotters. It doesn’t seem as if anything else will work. The lawyers and activists involved need to be well organized and coordinated so that they can defend a visiting Israeli like Moti Cristal even if the Israelis themselves don’t realize there is anything they can do to counter the boycott.Kol hakavod to you for standing by your principles on voting day, even if they run counter to your normal voting patterns. It must be hard to break a long-standing habit and political position. I admire you for having the courage of your convictions. Would that everyone would do the same!
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LATEST FROM ANNE RE OZ BDS.18 April 2013
LATEST FROM ANNE RE OZ BDS.
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None of the actions mentioned in this post will be much of a surprise to those of you who follow the antics of the BDS anti-Israel brigade, but I thought it worth listing some of the most recent events so that one should not imagine that this new kind of anti-Semitism, (and yes, anti-Zionism is equivalent to anti-Semitism) has dissipated into the ether.
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My family, life in Israel, pro-Israel activism, Middle East news and politics, and monitoring the media on the web
Latest anti-Israel BDS antics
None of the actions mentioned in this post will be much of a surprise to those of you who follow the antics of the BDS anti-Israel brigade, but I thought it worth listing some of the most recent events so that one should not imagine that this new kind of anti-Semitism, (and yes, anti-Zionism is equivalent to anti-Semitism) has dissipated into the ether.One of the most egregious acts occurred just last week and was widely under-reported (if that is not a contradiction in terms). It only came to light when the main protagonist, Yaniv D’Or, an Israeli opera singer, posted what happened on his Facebook page. The Algemeiner picks up his story and quotes from Facebook:
“During a performance in Johannesburg a group or (sic) protestors stormed the Lyric Theatre and shouted some strong pro palestinians slogans as I was singing the wonderful melody of Eli Eli which is written by Hannah Senesh at the time of the holocaust.“They hated me for the wrong reasons. I am a proud Israeli and British citizen and very much supporting freedom for Palestine…“I continued singing as if nothing happened in hope it was a one off incident. I was so wrong. After the break without any particular reason another protestor (female) stormed the stage as I was singing and started shouting again pro palestinian slogans, this time also exploding stinky bombs on stage.”D’Or proceeded to lead the woman off stage, where security personnel took over.
The hatred of these protestors is beyond belief. Do they think they are going to win over any sympathisers with their ridiculous antics? In fact they aren’t interested in winning over hearts and minds. Their only intention is to wreck and destroy anything to do with Israel and anything that might show Israel in a positive light.
An absolutely disgusting example of utter anti-Israel and antisemitic actions, although not strictly in the BDS category, can be seen in France (h/t Reality) where a Paris suburb plans to honour the Palestinian terrorist who killed Israeli MK Rechavam Zeevi:
JTA – A French town is scheduled to host a ceremony on Wednesday honoring several Palestinian terrorists.Among the terrorists are Allam Kaabi and Salah Hamouri, who are are scheduled to appear at the Bourse de Travail building, which belongs to the municipality of St. Denis, a suburb of the French capital.Kaabi, of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), planned and carried out the 2001 assassination of Israel’s tourism minister, Rehavam Ze’evi. Hamouri, also of the PFLP, was arrested for plotting to assassinate Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Hamouri was one of the 1,027 prisoners exchanged in 2011 for Gilad Shalit, a citizen of France and Israel. He is scheduled to appear at the Sait-Denis event.The event is organized by the “national collective for just and viable peace between Palestinians and Israelis,” a group known by its French acronym CNPJDPI. Also present will be a representative of Amnesty International, Martine Brizemur, according to a statement by the organization. The men scheduled to speak are described as “recently released prisoners” in the statement.
It is no surprise that Amnesty International feels able to attend such a scandalous event. Amnesty’s notoriety with regards to its biased attitude towards Israel is well known andamply documented. But shame on Paris that it is permitting such a revolting “honour” to be given its name. So much for “Liberté, égalité et fraternité”.
Lest one think the USA is immune to Israel-hatred of this sort, a particularly nasty BDS event took place at Brooklyn College in New York.
First, college president Karen Gould distinguished herself for what amounted to an anti-anti-BDS position, like that of the anti-anti-communists of the late Cold War era–those who didn’t necessarily support communism, but who considered anti-communists to be the far greater threat to world peace and American national interests. In her two statements on the affair, she strongly (almost glowingly) defended the Political Science Department whose formal vote triggered the crisis. Unlike Mayor Mike Bloomberg and CUNY chancellor Matthew Goldstein, she couldn’t bring herself to condemn BDS. In her first statement on the event, she implied, without saying so outright, that BDS could be considered as among the “issues of importance to our world.”[...]Second, the Political Science Department distinguished itself for its hypocrisy–wrapping itself in claims of “academic freedom” while refusing to explain to students or to the public whose tax dollars help fund its members’ salaries and why it voted to formally affiliate itself with the event. [...] And the sole department member to publicly offer a rationale for the departmental vote offered criteria (speakers who “are heterodox and that challenge the dominant assumptions of society”) that would seem to justify departmental sponsorship of a David Duke campus appearance.Finally, the event provided a reminder–if one were needed–that few segments of American society are more hostile to Israel than a typical college campus.
Four Jewish students protesting the Brooklyn BDS meeting were kicked out. However thecollege is now investigating the entire incident itself and found itself culpable for the fiasco. At least that is a start, although there is no guarantee there won’t be such events in the future:
The major finding of the report: “It is clear that there was no justification for the removal of the four students.” An initial college statement that “official reports” indicated that the students had engaged in disruptive behavior was not accurate. And while there’s no reason to believe that the students were removed because they’re Jewish, “a more plausible inference can be drawn that the removal of the four students was motivated by their political viewpoint.”
To conclude today’s sorry tale of woe we cross over to Ireland (via Engage) where theTeachers’ Union of Ireland has voted to boycott all academic collaboration with Israel:
A motion, calling for all members of the union to end work with Israeli counterparts, was passed unanimously at the TUI annual conference in Galway on Thursday.The union called on the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to increase its campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against “the apartheid state of Israel until it lifts its illegal siege of Gaza and its illegal occupation of the West Bank”.[...]The motion doesn’t bother to maintain the fiction of the “institutional boycott”. This is a boycott of scholars and students on the basis of their nationality. This is a boycott of a significant proportion of the world’s Jewish academics and students for reasons which are nothing to do with anything that those academics have said or done. Nobody but Israelis are to be boycotted.
Rob Harris at Eirael expands on the hypocrisy of the TUI boycott:
Whether or not one thinks Israel is violating the rights of Arab-Palestinians, the singling out of this small nation above all others must surely seem an oddity to all but those who obsessively hate Israel.Numerous Irish academic institutions have strong links with regimes that possess dubious human rights records. Moreover, one would think this issue would be a source of even mild concern to those supposedly interested in human rights because these links have grown ever stronger,such as with Russia, and particularly China, the developments of which have been well publicised. Consequently, the obsession over a few rather tenuous academic links with Israel is outlandish, to say the least.As musician and academic Ciarán Ó Raghallaigh noted, perhaps with a hint of sarcasm in a letter to the Irish TimesThere seems to have been no discussion of the extensive academic ties that Trinity College, Dublin Institute of Technology and University College, Dublin all have with Russia and China, despite the former country’s illegal occupation of parts of the sovereign state of Georgia… This is all the more surprising given that it was the Dublin Colleges Branch of the TUI that sponsored the anti-Israel motion.Neither were any corresponding demands placed by members of the TUI onto the opposing Arab-Palestinian side. It should be recalled that the Arab-Palestinian education system & academia has been used to incite extreme hatred and violence throughout the Palestinian populace for decades, thereby dealing a death-blow to any chance of a peace process, thanks to a permanently radicalised populace. It would seem that even an education system using children in endeavours to exterminate another state, going as far as to institute militaristic camps is not worthy of censure!
Read the entire article. It is excellently researched and sourced and well worth the read.
Rob’s article concludes thus:
The BDS movement seeks to isolate Israel economically, academically and culturally, in a quest to bring a remarkable nation to its knees. Whether or not such an action is deemed offensive from a moral perspective, simply from a position of self-interest, boycotting Israel’s education and academia is likely to make Ireland the worse off if it takes hold and spreads to other Irish academic unions in the long run.
If we change the word “Irish” for “international” or world community, we can understand the danger of BDS not for Israel, but for the well-being of the world.
But the haters of Israel don’t care about the well-being of the Palestinians or the world in general. All they care about is destroying Israel, whether by physical means, economically or spiritually. We must combat this new antisemitism with all the means at our disposal.
This entry was posted in Academia, Boycotts and BDS and tagged academics, Amnesty International, anti-Israel, anti-semitism, anti-Zionism, BDS, Brooklyn College, France, Galway, Ireland, Naqba, Palestinians, Paris, South Africa,teachers, terrorists, TUI, Yaniv D'Or. Bookmark the permalink.
4 Responses to Latest anti-Israel BDS antics
Rob Harris says:
Nice post Anne and thanks for the positive assessment!![:)]()
“The hatred of these protestors is beyond belief. Do they think they are going to win over any sympathisers with their ridiculous antics? In fact they aren’t interested in winning over hearts and minds. Their only intention is to wreck and destroy anything to do with Israel and anything that might show Israel in a positive light.”I think many pro-Palestinians adopt a tactic of bullying and intimidation with those freely disinterested in persuasion. They intimidate artists, the venue owners/staff, and/or the promoters. Even those attending performances are often harassed. That sort of behaviour is certainly all too apparent with BDS events around the world, not least in Ireland with the IPSC. any pro-Palestinians. It causes people to become reluctant to travel to Israel or perhaps out of it, makes businesses/promoters etc. reluctant to accept bookings because the grief is too great, and people afraid to attend an enjoyable evening faced with demented hoards of protestors screaming about blood on their hands etc. It is literally an assault on basic freedom of movement.The same can happen with those expressing sympathy for Israel, even if they have no political clout e.g. Kim Kardashian being subjected to oceans of abuse when she just tweeted a simple message of support for Israel during Pillar of Cloud. Its an assault on freedom of speech too.anneinpt says:
Hi Rob, you’re welcome! Your article really is very good and deserves a much wider audience.I’m not sure I agree about BDS discouraging people from travelling to Israel. From comments and remarks by relatively neutral and disinterested people who have had altercations with the BDS crowd, I gather that these people get very antagonised by the BDS brigade. they resent anyone telling them where to go and with whom they can associate and the BDS effort often tends to backfire.Of course that’s not to say it never happens that BDS discourages people but I think we shouldn’t give them any “credit” beyond the minor damage that they cause.And obviously we need to continue to combat BDS in all its variations both for the good of Israel and its supporters, and simply for the sake of truth. For that, I thank you for your excellent blog and your wonderful work in supporting Israel.
Rob Harris says:
Hi Anne, sorry I posted the above comments very late last night so due to tiredness two things I said might be taken up other than I meant:“I’m not sure I agree about BDS discouraging people from travelling to Israel. From comments and remarks by relatively neutral and disinterested people who have had altercations with the BDS crowd, I gather that these people get very antagonised by the BDS brigade. they resent anyone telling them where to go and with whom they can associate and the BDS effort often tends to backfire.”What I meant to say was that performers travelling to Israel is discouraged by BDS as the remark was made with regard to Yaniv D’Or’s performance. There’shttp://frontpagemag.com/2010/robert-harris/the-music-industry-meets-the-anti-israel-movement-part-i/ widespread intimidation I believe. It can be overt as in the way Paul McCartney was treated but often it is less overt but still obvious.Re. Kardashian, and the assault on freedom of speech, that clearly is the case with BDS spotting people performing, academics visiting countries etc., but I was referring more to a point prevalent pro-pal abusiveness (Internet and other forms) is also an effort to simply silence through bullying.roxymuzak says:
Fair play to Rob on a fine article. It’s very embarrassing to be Irish and to read of the carry on of our “teachers”. The frightening thing about it is that these people are in a position to manipulate the minds of young children. I notice that the baboons from the IPSC are at the forefront of this repellent move. Are Irish teachers going to allow themselves be led by the nose by people who I’m convinced are inspired by one of the oldest and most irrational hatreds of them all. Shame on them if they are.
Rob Harris says:
roxymuzak says:Add your comment
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Professor Julian Disney Director Soc Justice et al at UNSW
Julian Disney
Professor, Director - Social Justice Project
AO, LLB Adel, Hon LLD UNSW
Contact details
E-mail: jdisney@unsw.edu.auPhone:
9385 1275
Room:
370
Building:
Law Building
Brief overview:
If using this overview to introduce an address by Julian Disney, please choose only a few relevant items from this overview rather than using it in full.
Julian Disney is a part-time Professor and Director of the Social Justice Project at the University of New South Wales. He has previously been Professor of Public Law at the Australian National University and Director of its Centre for International and Public Law. He is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).
Julian Disney is Chair of the Australian Press Council, which is the national standards council for print and online media. He is also National Co-Chair of Anti-Poverty Week and Chair of the Board of the Energy and Water Ombudsman in New South Wales (EWON). He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia and of the Asialink Advisory Council.
Prof Disney has previously been Coordinator of the Sydney Welfare Rights Centre where he worked for six years assisting people who were unemployed or experiencing other forms of hardship. He has also been President of the NSW Council of Social Service (NCOSS) and the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS). He has been World President of the International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW) which represents social welfare organisations from more than 80 countries. He has also been Chair of the National Affordable Housing Summit group and the Community Tax Forum, and Convenor of the Neighbours Program to strengthen engagement between community leaders in Australia and neighbouring Asian countries.
Prof Disney has been a full-time NSW Law Reform Commissioner, Chair of the NSW Ministerial Task Force on Affordable Housing and Chair of the independent review for the Australian Parliament of the Job Seeker Compliance System. He was a member for seven years of the Australian Government's Economic Planning Advisory Council (EPAC) and has been chair or member of national advisory committees in fields such as education, employment and training, social security, public administration, literacy, housing, superannuation and immigration.
During the last three decades he has been a policy consultant to a number of social welfare and business groups, a regular speaker at national and international conferences, and a frequent media commentator. He has also been the principal author or editor of books and articles relating to aspects of the legal profession, taxation, housing, social welfare, governance, national development and international organisations.
In 1994, Julian Disney was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for services to the development of economic and social welfare policy, and to the law. In 1999, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws (LL.D) by the University of New South Wales.
Courses taught:
Areas of expertise:
Social justice, Global governance, Public investment and taxation, Housing and urban development, Social security
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Cut and paste 22/4 RE DREYFUS ET AL
CLAIRE Harvey: We now know the older bomber . . . was a fan of a radical Australian cleric who lives in Sydney called Sheik Feiz Mohammed . . . What's ASIO doing about this man?
Mark Dreyfus: I think you might also see that those videos were some years old, and Sheik Feiz Mohammed, in recent months, particularly in the latter period of last year, when there were some quite dramatic demonstrations in Sydney, condemned the use of violence and certainly, as a community leader, he's someone that's getting behind the countering violent extremism program that we have in many communities.
Some years ago? Radio Netherlands, April 21, 2010:
DUTCH anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders has received a death threat after his appearance on Australian TV. A radical Muslim preacher, Feiz Mohammed, speaking on a members-only jihadist website, described Mr Wilders as a devil and a dirty politician. The preacher called on Dutch radical Muslims to decapitate Mr Wilders because he was "humiliating Islam". Mr Mohammed said: "Seeing this evil filth from people like that dirty politician . . . In Islam, anyone that mocks Islam, anyone that laughs about Islam, degrades Islam, the punishment whether he is a Muslim or a non-Muslim, the punishment of mocking Islam is death. (. . .) If he did this, if it's been confirmed, behead him, chop his head off." Intelligence sources say Feiz Mohammed is considered on a par with US Muslim preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, who is seen as the brains behind a failed attack on a plane flying over Detroit.
Too radical for Sheik (cat meat) Hilaly? Yoni Bashan, The Sunday Telegraph, March 20, 2011:
AUTHORITIES have asked Auburn cleric Sheik Feiz Mohammed to remove from his website footage featuring the al-Qa'ida spiritual leader Anwar al-Awlaki. . . . Sheik Taj El-Din al-Hilaly (said): "If religion had something like the Australian Medical Association, or a trade authority, they would not allow him to be preaching, they wouldn't give him a licence. . . I haven't seen a change in him."
Unicorn blood? Alex Spillius, London Telegraph, Friday:
IN April 2012, Tamerlan was clearly watching radical Islamist content on the internet. His YouTube channel includes several posts by Sheik Feiz Mohammed, an Australian ex-boxer, now resident in Lebanon. One rant by Mohammed includes a denunciation of Harry Potter films as promoting "paganism, evil, magic and the drinking of unicorn blood".
Alan Jones, 2GB, last Wednesday:
I THINK what we have to remember about Boston is that it's a student city, you've got Harvard, MIT and a stack of other colleges. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a conspiracy among students, left-wing radical students in Boston . . .
Mike Carlton, The Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday:
SURELY the FBI could have saved itself a lot of time and trouble if it had rung our very own Alan Jones, the visionary broadcaster, to find out who was behind the Boston bombing. Possessing powers beyond those of mortal men, Alan knew instinctively who had done it: left-wing students. . . . It springs from those sinks of terrorist conspiracy, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which, believe it or not, are quite close to Boston. This warning, this tocsin, dare I say it must not be ignored. The pursed lips, the knowing frown, the ruddy cheeks, the matching tie and hanky set, all indicate a thinker of great purpose and wisdom. And there was more: "We're very keen to have foreign students pay the way of universities in this country without a lot of discernment about who comes in," he added.
Foreigners. Students. Lanai Scarr, News.com.au, Sunday:
THE masterminds. . . had escaped war-torn Chechnya. . . Dzhokhar, 19, was a medical student at the prestigious University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth . . . Tamerlan had studied accounting at Bunker Hill Community College.
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Cut and paste 23/ 4...re BOB ELLIS ET AL
IT seems to me likely that this was not al-Qa'ida or a lone madman . . . but more likely, much more likely, the NRA . . . No responsibility will be claimed by any group, and there will be no second attack; and no culprit ever found. This is my prediction.
Andrew O'Keefe, host of Channel 7's Deal or No Deal (and secret terror expert) tweets on Friday:
"THE common link is not Islam, it is young men."
Taking up the theme. Sydney's The Sun-Herald editorialises, Sunday:
DESPITE the cacophony of speculation and political point-scoring, nobody yet knows what drove Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a 26-year-old US citizen of Chechen descent, and his brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, to commit the atrocities of which they stand accused . . . By typecasting and marginalising cultures in the hunt for scapegoats, we risk exacerbating the very alienation that provides fertile ground for radicalisation. It should be noted that information that emerged in the hours after Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a police shootout early on Friday didn't fit into any neat profile, aside from the fact that the suspects were young adult males.
Well, this can't be the explanation. ABC Radio National's Jonathan Green tweets April 15:
TIM Blair (wrote on his blog): "Multiple bombs are the usual strategy in Islamist terrorist attacks."
Matt J tweets yesterday:
LOOKS like Tim Blair was right. So does that mean we can discuss Islam . . . again, or should we just ignore and hope it goes away?
Green tweets yesterday:
TO the extent that it prompted these actions of course but we know nothing of that as yet. the talk is empty.
Robert Elliott tweets yesterday:
LOOKS like Alan Jones and Tim Blair know far more about Islamic terrorism than you and Waleed Aly.
Green tweets yesterday:
YEAH they stand as beacons of knowing restraint for mine. (sic)
Elliott tweets yesterday:
THE problem with the ABC/Left echo chamber is that it excludes reality and conflicting views. Be more curious Jonathan.
Green tweets yesterday:
BLAIR was islamophobing as usual. we have only circumstantial evidence. none of us have a clue why this happened.
Elliott tweets yesterday:
YOU seriously believe that Islamism is not a clue to why this happened? Do Buddhist, Hindu or Christian students do this?
Green tweets yesterday:
I HAVE no idea why they did this. neither do you. and yes. obviously. read the papers
What a mature way to handle terror. Waleed Aly, The Sydney Morning Herald, last Friday:
WE'RE finally maturing in the way we handle terrorism. Gone is the triumphalist rhetoric of the "War on Terror", with its ridiculous promises of a terrorism-free world and the ultimate victory of freedom over tyranny. In its place is a far more sober, pragmatic recognition that terrorism is a perpetual irritant, and that while it is tragic and emotionally lacerating, it kills relatively few people and is not any kind of existential threat.
Mature talk. Tim Blair, The Daily Telegraph, yesterday:
SOME of us might hope for maturity from terrorists, who prefer bloodthirsty and irrational attacks on innocent targets over any kind of adult reasoning, but that's not going to happen anytime soon . . . Three people were killed in Boston due to irritants. Another 14 will endure the perpetual irritation of losing one or more limbs. By last Friday, 57 remained in hospital suffering varying degrees of emotional laceration to their faces and bodies. Hey, this new mature talk is fun.
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Letters The Oz 22/4..the resolve..
Letters The Oz 22/4..the resolve..
The editorial makes a number of good points, but it is the resolve of the common people that will ultimately dampen the zeal of those committed to senseless violence.
The populist political responses of increased invasion of privacy and restriction of human rights, combined with the self-serving growth in the security sector, have failed.
All they do is inconvenience the people whose resolve remains paramount. It is the phones and cameras of these people that are the instruments in bringing culprits to account.
Len Ashby, Forster, NSW
THE US, Australia and other Western countries have more to fear from internal terrorism than that of an external one, as we saw in Boston.
We hear Australian intelligence and security services are concerned about the number of Australians fighting in Syria.
What can we expect when they return home battle hardened, experienced in street warfare and indoctrinated in violent jihad?
Could what happened in Boston happen in an Australian city? Let's hope our security services have enough intelligence on those people who might be contemplating a plot. We can't let our guard down.
Robert Pallister, Punchbowl, NSW
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RE Dreyfus.. letters 23/4
RE Dreyfus.. letters 23/4
Why does he feel obliged to defend the radical Australian Islamist, Sheik Feiz Mohammed, over his part in possibly influencing the Boston Marathon bombers? Dreyfus's comments were gratuitous and inappropriate in the circumstances.
It seems bizarre that the first law officer would offer a character reference for someone whose public statements reveal he holds extremist views and regards Western society with contempt.
This follows the episode in June 2011 when then federal attorney-general Robert McClelland gave an address on terrorist-related prosecutions without mentioning they all involved Muslims.
Instead, he emphasised that 37 of the 38 people then prosecuted were Australian citizens and 21 of the 38 were Australian-born, implying they were a product of the Australian population as a whole, and not part of a readily identifiable group.
The Attorney-General should not be involved in such apologetics and this behaviour suggests that inappropriate influence is being exercised over our first law officer in this vital area of his responsibilities.
Merv Bendle, Mount Louisa, Qld
THE catching of the two Boston bombers has revealed one may have been influenced by a radical imam in Australia. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says Sheik Feiz Mohammed's web videos are out of date and that the sheik is now supporting the counter-terrorism program "we have in many communities across Australia". We await confirmation by the sheik.
Many Australians would be also interested to learn details of these unpublicised programs and the extent to which they condemn the advocacy of extremist activity by Islamists.
Des Moore, South Yarra, Vic
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Campus rally to protest Max Brenner opening
Students opposed to Israel's treatment of Palestinians have vowed to mount a campaign to persuade university authorities to reverse their decision to allow the Israeli-owned chain to set up the shop, which is expected to open in June.
Max Brenner is a brand of the food and beverage Strauss group, which has been a supporter of the Israeli armed forces, including "adopting" a platoon in the army's Golani brigade.
In recent years, BDS protests against Max Brenner shops have turned violent, with one in Melbourne ending in 19 arrests.
Students will protest at tomorrow's rally under the banner of Students for Justice in Palestine, with posters around campus promoting it with the line "Max Brenner publicly supports the displacement torture and genocide of Palestinians" and "Apartheid by the Bald Man", the latter being a play on the Max Brenner slogan "Chocolate by the Bald Man."
The organisers have also established a dedicated Facebook page, which has seen some robust exchanges between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli commentators.
The rally's organiser, computer science student Damian Ridgwell, said he expected a big turnout, with speakers to include Palestinian students and a "Jewish anti-zionist" female student. "The aim is to raise awareness of the campaign for Palestinians to obtain liberation and justice," he said.
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Vic Alhadeff said protesting against a Max Brenner outlet "is as immoral and counterproductive a tactic as is BDS in general".
"It does nothing whatsoever to advance a Palestinian state and is merely a spiteful measure aimed at denigrating Israel," he said.
"As for the appalling racist invective on Facebook which has accompanied this issue, the less said the better." Mr Ridgwell said some Facebook posts did not reflect the views of the organisers.
A UNSW spokeswoman said the lease for the shop on campus "is signed and won't be revoked".
"Based on survey results we expect the store to be very popular with students and staff on campus. Individuals can elect not to patronise the outlet," she said.
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Julia Gillard denounces activists as anti-Israel protest turns anti-Semitic
Julia Gillard denounces activists as anti-Israel protest turns anti-Semitic
- The Australian
- April 30, 2013
BDS action at UNSW has turned ugly, with anti-Semitic and Holocaust-denying material appearing on a Facebook page opposing the opening of a Max Brenner chocolate shop on campus. Postings on a Facebook page promoting today's protest have attacked "Jews and Jew lovers" and said the figure of six million Jews murdered by Nazi Germany was an exaggeration.
"Tell us again how there was no hidden Zionist agenda with the Holocaust and the eventual creation of the state of Israel," one reads.
The Prime Minister said yesterday through a spokeswoman that the government had always been firm in its opposition of the BDS movement, which equates Israel with apartheid-era South Africa.
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"This campaign does not serve the cause of peace and diplomacy for agreement on a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine," she said.
"I welcome the strong ties our universities have with Israeli researchers and academic institutions, and I hope those ties will deepen in the years ahead."
The University of Sydney Student Representative Council this month called for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, including severing the university's ties with the world-renowned Technion in Haifa.
The Prime Minister's comments come a week after she became the first Australian politician to sign the London Declaration on Combating Anti-Semitism.
"In the face of anti-Semitism, there can be no bystanders," she wrote. "As citizens, as leaders and as nations, we must act."
The gesture has been seen as bridge-building after a row with the Jewish community last year over Australia's abstention from a UN vote giving Palestine non-member observer state status.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry chief Peter Wertheim welcomed Ms Gillard's remarks yesterday.
"The BDS campaign against Israel over the last few years has been a spectacular failure," he said.
"It has been forcefully repudiated by every political party represented in the federal parliament and in every state and territory parliament."
Some Greens, including NSW senator Lee Rhiannon, have backed the movement in the past. Support for BDS is credited with dashing the Greens' hopes of winning the seat of Marrickville in the 2011 NSW election.
The group Students for Justice in Palestine has called for a boycott of the University of NSW Max Brenner outlet, due to open in June.
BDS activists claim the chain is owned by the Israeli Strauss Group of food and confectionery manufacturers, which produces some rations for the nation's defence forces and accuse it of complicity in "Israeli war crimes". However, the local management insists it is wholly Australian owned and operated.
Australian Union of Jewish Students spokesman Andrew Goldberg said: "The boycott Max Brenner movement has turned into a hotbed of blatant anti-Semitism. Classical anti-Semitic comments have been made, clearly irrelevant to discussion about Max Brenner. The organisers have effectively endorsed these comments by dismissing legitimate concerns about anti-Semitism as 'trying to shut down debate about Israel'."
Mr Goldberg called on university officials to "ensure that those with an anti-Semitic agenda will not be allowed to spread their hateful and discriminatory agenda on campus".
The Australian was unable to contact the Facebook site's operators. However, one prolific poster apologised "to any of the Jewish people on this page who were upset and offended by comments".
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The ugly face of student activism
They accuse UNSW, and presumably staff and students who voted for Max Brenner, of supporting "Israeli war crimes" and "apartheid".
Beyond this baseless calumny against Israel, local Max Brenner shops are wholly Australian owned and operated.
Yet if that was the extent of SJP's response, it would hardly rate a mention.But what began as student activism, has ended up in a social media campaign of anti-Jewish vilification, to the point where many Jewish students on campus feel unsafe.
The Facebook page RALLY! Say no to Max Brenner at UNSW was set up by SJP via the Boycott Max Brenner at UNSW Facebook group. It has hosted dozens of comments that cover the gamut of anti-Jewish stereotypes, claiming that Jews are cursed by God, are money-hungry, control the media, and are dirty and evil.
Other posts deny the Holocaust and simultaneously, with textbook cognitive dissonance, blame the Holocaust on the Jews.
The racist postings include a reference to "evil greedy money-loving nature of Jews", and the claim that "Only news (that) Jews are happy with goes through via media". Another post reverts to classical religious bigotry: "Of course I have a problem with Jews. You are not the cursed people and were not Banished from the holy land for nothing lol." Non-Jews who defend Jews come in for opprobrium with the comment: "Tip rats = Jew lovers."
An especially vicious post rails against "the dirtiest most evil people on earth using the holocaust to their advantage as leverage to establish the state of israel. it was all planned."
The UNSW Student Representative Council Ethnic Affairs Officer, Charlotte Lewis, was so shocked she posted: "Reading over these comments has left me gobsmacked at the outrageous anti-Semitic slanders mentioned on this event. If I see one more antisemitic comment, I'm taking this to the University."
In a later post, Lewis stated: "I am the Ethno-Cultural Officer, meaning I need to look out for any hate speech towards any ethnic group. I have witnessed many accusations that the Holocaust didn't exist, and that Jews are money-hungry pigs. Due to this, several Jewish students actually feel unsafe to step foot into the University, meaning I actually DO need to solve this problem."
Lewis informed the page owners that the UNSW Chancellery had been made aware of the page, and its anti-Jewish content, but the university administration appears not to have taken action.
The present National Anti Racism campaign slogan, "Racism, it stops with me", seems to have fallen on deaf ears among the administrators at UNSW, which has one of the most culturally diverse campuses in Australia.
It has been left to other UNSW students who share Lewis's disgust to establish their own Facebook page Defend Max Brenner at UNSW, featuring screenshots of the anti-Jewish posts on the RALLY page to highlight the racism it has spawned. These students posted their own comments on the RALLY page, protesting its anti-Semitism and demanding an end to the anti-Jewish vitriol. For the most part, their demands went unheeded. Some anti-Jewish posts were deleted, but were replaced by others.
SJP has yet to ask itself why it provides a sympathetic home for naked Jew-hatred. SJP organisers wax indignant at the merest suggestion they are complicit in fomenting anti-Semitism. Instead, they accuse anyone who points out the raw racism they attract of trying to "censor" them with the intimidating charge of anti-Semitism. It is difficult but necessary for them to understand their own role in attracting and hosting content which expresses racism against Jews. It is easy, but false, simply to assume any claimed offence is merely feigned for political or other advantage.
Peter Wertheim is executive director and Julie Nathan research officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the national peak body of the Australian Jewish community.
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Salami tactics
Yes, Prime Minister - Nuclear deterrent - YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX_d_vMKswEJan 5, 2008 - Uploaded by odmarolsenThe chief scientific advisor discusses neuclear weapons withPrime Minister Jim Hacker.- More videos for salami tactics yes prime minister »
Salami tactics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salami_tacticsThe term "salami tactics" was used in the British political satire, Yes Prime Minister in Series 1, Episode 1, "The Grand Design". In this episode, the prime ...The Yes (Prime) Minister Files - YPM series 1 episodes 1-4
www.yes-minister.com/ypmseas1a.htmSite about the BBC comedy series Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister. ... But because of the Russians using salami tactics, he will probably never push the ...
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Op-Ed: BDS, Anti-Semitism's New Face
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/9913#.UX72wbX-F50
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Anti-Semites around the world have found a new and more subtle form of attack: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaigns.
The Ramallah-based Palestinian BDS National Committee, an umbrella organization for dozens of Palestinian organizations supported by the Palestinian Authority, is a global movement. Behind anti-Israel actions by churches, unions and student groups, it is aided by the Muslim Brotherhood, with branches in 70 countries, and hundreds of campus and civic/social organizations and anti-Israel NGOs.
Wielding clichés like "apartheid," "war crimes," "stealing Palestinian land," "oppressing Palestinians," and "end the occupation," these groups seek to delegitimize and isolate Israel as part of their program to destroy Israel.
No need for swastikas and terrorism; Arab and Muslim countries and organizations have developed a sophisticated propaganda campaign, joined by Christians, atheists, socialists and anarchists dedicated to Israel's demise. Bedecked with ethics, law and justice, they insist that Israel withdraw to the 1949 Armistice lines, or 1947 UN proposed boundaries, leaving it vulnerable to terrorists. Their weapons are non-violent resistance that appeals to a sense of idealism and fair play, civil and human rights.
Backed by European governments, the UN, and Arab and Muslim organizations and countries, a host of NGOs condemn Israel as a pariah state, unworthy of existence. Their hate-campaign is currently focused on the Conference on Racism, to be held at the UN in New York City this summer.
If this were just a handful of Islamist fanatics, one might dismiss them; but they have lined up diplomatic and organizational support from many non-Muslims. That's why the campaign to delegitimize Israel is so unique and dangerous.
Anti-Israel campaigns overlap with anti-Jewish sentiments, bringing together diverse groups that are otherwise ideologically, philosophically and theologically incompatible. Hatred of Israel seems to be the single overriding issue that unites fascists and communists, anarchists and fundamentalists, religious leaders and atheists, rich and poor.
Challenging Israel's identity as a nominally Jewish state - a form of de-legitimization - seems to be an acceptable way of denying Israel's right to exist. Objecting to the right of Jews to live in areas acquired in 1967, likewise, ignores Israel's legal and historical claims, the proven consequences of withdrawal, and the dangers posed by creating another Arab Palestinian state.
Claiming the moral high ground
Paradoxically, a "two-state" plan, instead of reducing resistance to Israel, increases it. The prospect of a Palestinian state and sovereignty only raises expectations that it will replace Israeli sovereignty, and bring Israel's downfall.
By arguing against what they claim are Israel's "racist policies," its "illegal occupation of Arab lands," its "colonialism," anti-Israel groups claim moral high ground.
Decrying "the occupation as a moral disaster" for Israel, therefore, identifies Jews as "occupiers," immoral, backed by a state-sponsored immorality, a legal and historical fraud that sharpens the sword of de-legitimization and justifies BDS campaigns.
When the Gaza Strip is considered "a vast prison," for example, then attacking those who made that prison is justified.
If a Jewish, democratic state is inherently discriminatory and "racist," those who oppose it can be honored as "freedom fighters." If Israel "steals Arab lands," those who struggle to regain what is rightfully theirs are reasonable and justified. If Israeli settlements are "illegal," that crime should be punished. This ugly representation of Israel is an intentional, one-dimensional portrait of evil.
The goal of BDS campaigns is not only to remove Jewish/Israeli presence from Judea and Samaria, the Golan and eastern Jerusalem, but total Israeli surrender. Moreover, anti-Israel BDS campaigns can be used on many issues simultaneously, ad infinitum.
This explains the misconception that Palestinian leaders "never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity." It's not a mistake; it's policy - never recognize Israel's right to exist; never negotiate the refugee issue; never compromise on Jerusalem. The problem, therefore, is not territorial, but existential.
Ironically, BDS campaigns and unilateral Palestinian moves towards UN recognition and statehood sweep away illusions and clarify the real issues: Secure and recognized borders, and ending the conflict.
The convergence of BDS hate-campaigns, de-legitimization efforts, anti-settlement activities, anti-Semitism and a virulently anti-Israel media are not only dangerous to Israel; they are shameful examples of bigotry and intolerance.
Op-Ed: BDS, Anti-Semitism's New Face
Published: Sunday, January 16, 2011 2:28 PM
No need for swastikas and terrorism; Arab and Muslim countries and organizations have developed a sophisticated propaganda campaign.
Moshe Dann
Moshe Dann is a writer and journalist with a Ph.d in history, who lives in Jerusalem.Anti-Semites around the world have found a new and more subtle form of attack: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaigns.
The Ramallah-based Palestinian BDS National Committee, an umbrella organization for dozens of Palestinian organizations supported by the Palestinian Authority, is a global movement. Behind anti-Israel actions by churches, unions and student groups, it is aided by the Muslim Brotherhood, with branches in 70 countries, and hundreds of campus and civic/social organizations and anti-Israel NGOs.
Wielding clichés like "apartheid," "war crimes," "stealing Palestinian land," "oppressing Palestinians," and "end the occupation," these groups seek to delegitimize and isolate Israel as part of their program to destroy Israel.
No need for swastikas and terrorism; Arab and Muslim countries and organizations have developed a sophisticated propaganda campaign, joined by Christians, atheists, socialists and anarchists dedicated to Israel's demise. Bedecked with ethics, law and justice, they insist that Israel withdraw to the 1949 Armistice lines, or 1947 UN proposed boundaries, leaving it vulnerable to terrorists. Their weapons are non-violent resistance that appeals to a sense of idealism and fair play, civil and human rights.
Backed by European governments, the UN, and Arab and Muslim organizations and countries, a host of NGOs condemn Israel as a pariah state, unworthy of existence. Their hate-campaign is currently focused on the Conference on Racism, to be held at the UN in New York City this summer.
If this were just a handful of Islamist fanatics, one might dismiss them; but they have lined up diplomatic and organizational support from many non-Muslims. That's why the campaign to delegitimize Israel is so unique and dangerous.
Anti-Israel campaigns overlap with anti-Jewish sentiments, bringing together diverse groups that are otherwise ideologically, philosophically and theologically incompatible. Hatred of Israel seems to be the single overriding issue that unites fascists and communists, anarchists and fundamentalists, religious leaders and atheists, rich and poor.
Challenging Israel's identity as a nominally Jewish state - a form of de-legitimization - seems to be an acceptable way of denying Israel's right to exist. Objecting to the right of Jews to live in areas acquired in 1967, likewise, ignores Israel's legal and historical claims, the proven consequences of withdrawal, and the dangers posed by creating another Arab Palestinian state.
Claiming the moral high ground
Paradoxically, a "two-state" plan, instead of reducing resistance to Israel, increases it. The prospect of a Palestinian state and sovereignty only raises expectations that it will replace Israeli sovereignty, and bring Israel's downfall.
By arguing against what they claim are Israel's "racist policies," its "illegal occupation of Arab lands," its "colonialism," anti-Israel groups claim moral high ground.
Decrying "the occupation as a moral disaster" for Israel, therefore, identifies Jews as "occupiers," immoral, backed by a state-sponsored immorality, a legal and historical fraud that sharpens the sword of de-legitimization and justifies BDS campaigns.
When the Gaza Strip is considered "a vast prison," for example, then attacking those who made that prison is justified.
If a Jewish, democratic state is inherently discriminatory and "racist," those who oppose it can be honored as "freedom fighters." If Israel "steals Arab lands," those who struggle to regain what is rightfully theirs are reasonable and justified. If Israeli settlements are "illegal," that crime should be punished. This ugly representation of Israel is an intentional, one-dimensional portrait of evil.
The goal of BDS campaigns is not only to remove Jewish/Israeli presence from Judea and Samaria, the Golan and eastern Jerusalem, but total Israeli surrender. Moreover, anti-Israel BDS campaigns can be used on many issues simultaneously, ad infinitum.
This explains the misconception that Palestinian leaders "never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity." It's not a mistake; it's policy - never recognize Israel's right to exist; never negotiate the refugee issue; never compromise on Jerusalem. The problem, therefore, is not territorial, but existential.
Ironically, BDS campaigns and unilateral Palestinian moves towards UN recognition and statehood sweep away illusions and clarify the real issues: Secure and recognized borders, and ending the conflict.
The convergence of BDS hate-campaigns, de-legitimization efforts, anti-settlement activities, anti-Semitism and a virulently anti-Israel media are not only dangerous to Israel; they are shameful examples of bigotry and intolerance.
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Myths & Facts Online: The Refugees: JVLibrary
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Myths & Facts Online:The RefugeesBy Mitchell G. BardINDEX OF MYTHS:- “One million Palestinians were expelled by Israel from 1947–49.” - “Palestinians were the only people who became refugees as a result of the Arab--Israeli conflict.” - “The Jews had no intention of living peacefully with their Arab neighbors.” - “The Jews created the refugee problem by expelling the Palestinians.” - “The Arab invasion had little impact on the Palestinian Arabs.” - “Arab leaders never encouraged the Palestinians to flee.” - “The Palestinian Arabs had to flee to avoid being massacred like the peaceful villagers in Deir Yassin.” - “Israel refused to allow Palestinians to return to their homes so Jews could steal their property.” - “UN resolutions call for Israel to repatriate all Palestinian refugees.” - “Palestinians who wanted to return to their homes posed no danger to Israeli security.” - “The Palestinian refugees were ignored by an uncaring world.” - “The Arab states have provided most of the funds for helping the Palestinian refugees.” - “The Arab states have always welcomed the Palestinians.” - “Millions of Palestinians are confined by Israel to refugee camps.” - “The Palestinians are the only refugee population barred from returning to their homes.” - “Israel expelled more Palestinians in 1967.” - “All Palestinian refugees must be given the option to return to their homes.” Return to Myths & Facts: Table of ContentsMYTH“One million Palestinians were expelled by Israel from 1947–49.” top
“Palestinians were the only people who became refugees as a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict.” top
“The Jews had no intention of living peacefully with their Arab neighbors.” top
“The Jews created the refugee problem by expelling the Palestinians.” top
“The Arab invasion had little impact on the Palestinian Arabs.” top
“Arab leaders never encouraged the Palestinians to flee.” top
The Arab National Committee in Jerusalem, following the March 8, 1948, instructions of the Arab Higher Committee, ordered women, children and the elderly in various parts of Jerusalem to leave their homes: “Any opposition to this order . . . is an obstacle to the holy war . . . and will hamper the operations of the fighters in these districts.” The Arab Higher Committee also ordered the evacuation of “several dozen villages, as well as the removal of dependents from dozens more” in April-July 1948. “The invading Arab armies also occasionally ordered whole villages to depart, so as not to be in their way.” 32
“The Palestinian Arabs had to flee to avoid being massacred like the peaceful villagers in Deir Yassin.” top
“Israel refused to allow Palestinians to return to their homes so Jews could steal their property.” top
When the Arab states are ready to conclude a peace treaty with Israel this question will come up for constructive solution as part of the general settlement, and with due regard to our counter-claims in respect of the destruction of Jewish life and property, the long-term interest of the Jewish and Arab populations, the stability of the State of Israel and the durability of the basis of peace between it and its neighbors, the actual position and fate of the Jewish communities in the Arab countries, the responsibilities of the Arab governments for their war of aggression and their liability for reparation, will all be relevant in the question whether, to what extent, and under what conditions, the former Arab residents of the territory of Israel should be allowed to return. 60The Israeli government was not indifferent to the plight of the refugees; an ordinance was passed creating a Custodian of Abandoned Property “to prevent unlawful occupation of empty houses and business premises, to administer ownerless property, and also to secure tilling of deserted fields, and save the crops. . . .” 61 “UN resolutions call for Israel to repatriate all Palestinian refugees.” top
“Palestinians who wanted to return to their homes posed no danger to Israeli security.” top
“The Palestinian refugees were ignored by an uncaring world.” top
“The Arab states have provided most of the funds for helping the Palestinian refugees.” top
“The Arab states have always welcomed the Palestinians.” top
“Millions of Palestinians are confined by Israel to refugee camps.” top
“The Palestinians are the only refugee population barred from returning to their homes.” top
“Israel expelled more Palestinians in 1967.” top
“All Palestinian refugees must be given the option to return to their homes.” top
Notes top 1 Arieh Avneri, The Claim of Dispossesion, (NJ: Transaction Books, 1984), p. 272; Benjamin Kedar, The Changing Land Between the Jordan and the Sea, (Israel: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi Press, 1999), p. 206; Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews, (NY: Harper & Row, 1987), p. 529. Efraim Karsh analyzed rural and urban population statistics and concluded the total number of refugees was 583,000–609,000. Karsh, “How Many Palestinian Refugees Were There?” Israel Affairs, (April 2011). 2 Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine, Submitted to the Secretary-General for Transmission to the Members of the United Nations, General Assembly Official Records: Third Session, Supplement No. 11 (A/648), Paris, 1948, p. 47 and Supplement No. 11A (A/689 and A/689/Add.1, p. 5; and “Conclusions from Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine,” (September 16, 1948), U.N. doc. A/648 (part 1, p. 29; part 2, p. 23; part 3, p. 11), (September 18, 1948). 3 “Ad Hoc Committee on Palestine – 30th Meeting,” United Nations Press Release GA/PAL/84, (November 24, 1947). 4 Avneri, p. 276. 5 Jerusalem Post, (December 4, 2003). 6 David Ben-Gurion, Rebirth and Destiny of Israel, (NY: Philosophical Library, 1954), p. 220. 7 Atalia Ben Meir, “The Palestinian Refugee Issue and the Demographic Aspect,” Israel and A Palestinian State: Zero Sum Game?, (ACPR Publishers: 2001), p. 215. 8 Joseph Schechtman, The Refugee in the World, (NY: A.S. Barnes and Co., 1963), p. 184. 9 I.F. Stone, This is Israel, (NY: Boni and Gaer, 1948), p. 27. 10 Shmuel Katz, Battleground: Fact and Fantasy in Palestine, (Taylor Publications Ltd: 2002), p. 10. 11 Ibid. 12 Avneri, p. 270 13 London Daily Mail, (August 12, 1948) cited in Shmuel Katz, Battleground: Fact and Fantasy in Palestine, (Taylor Publications Ltd: 2002), p. 13. 14 New York Times, (April 23, 1948). 15 Howard Sachar, A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time, (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), p. 332; Avneri, p. 270. 16 Secret memo dated April 26, 1948, from the Superintendent of Police, regarding the general situation in Haifa, cited in Shmuel Katz, Battleground: Fact and Fantasy in Palestine, (Taylor Publications Ltd: 2002), p. 13. 17 Golda Meir, My Life, (NY: Dell, 1975), pp. 267–8. 18 New York Times, (April 23, 1948). 19 London Times, (April 24, 1948). 20 Schechtman, p. 190. 21 Foreign Relations of the U.S. 1948, Vol. V, (DC: GPO, 1976), p. 838. 22 Tom Segev, 1949: The First Israelis, (NY: The Free Press, 1986), pp. 27–8. 23 Yigal Allon in Sefer ha-Palmach, quoted in Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, O Jerusalem!, (NY: Simon and Schuster, 1972), p. 337; Yigal Allon, My Fathers House, (NY: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc, 1976), p. 192. 24 Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, (MA: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 423–5. 25 Morris, p. 592. 26 Middle East Journal, (October 1949). 27 Terence Prittie, “Middle East Refugees,” cited in Michael Curtis, et al, The Palestinians, (NJ: Transaction Books, 1975), p. 52. 28 New York Times, (March 4, 1949). 29 The Guardian, (February 21, 2002). 30 “International: On the Eve?,” Time Magazine, (May 3, 1948). 31 Morris, p. 590. 32 Middle East Studies, (January 1986); See also, Morris, pp. 263, 590–2. 33 The Memoirs of Haled al Azm, (Beirut, 1973), Part 1, pp. 386–7. 34 Myron Kaufman, The Coming Destruction of Israel, (NY: The American Library Inc., 1970), pp. 26–7. 35 Edward Atiyah, The Arabs, (London: Penguin Books, 1955), p. 183. 36 Morris, p. 591. 37 Yehoshofat Harkabi, Arab Attitudes to Israel, (Jerusalem: Israel Universities Press, 1972), p. 364. 38 King Abdallah, My Memoirs Completed, (London: Longman Group, Ltd., 1978), p. xvi 39 Al-Ayyam, (May 16, 2006), quoted in Itamar Marcus and Barbara Cook, “The Evolving Palestinian Narrative: Arabs Caused the Refugee Problem,” Palestinian Media Watch, (May 20, 2008). 40 Palestinian Authority TV, (July 7, 2009), quoted in Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin, (July 23, 2009). 41 Al-Hayat al-Jadida, (December 13, 2006), quoted in Itamar Marcus and Barbara Cook, “The Evolving Palestinian Narrative: Arabs Caused the Refugee Problem,” Palestinian Media Watch, (May 20, 2008). 42 Al-Ayyam, (May 13, 2008), quoted in Itamar Marcus and Barbara Cook, “The Evolving Palestinian Narrative: Arabs Caused the Refugee Problem,” Palestinian Media Watch, (May 20, 2008). 43 Falastin a-Thaura, (March 1976). 44 Walid Khalidi, Palestine Reborn, (I.B. Tauris: 1992), p. 289. 45 Dan Kurzman, Genesis 1948, (OH: New American Library Inc., 1970), p. 141. 46 Menachem Begin, The Revolt, (NY: Nash Publishing, 1977), pp. xx–xxi, 162–3. 47 See, for example, Amos Perlmutter, The Life and Times of Menachem Begin, (NY: Doubleday, 1987), p. 214; J. Bowyer Bell, Terror Out of Zion, (NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1977), pp. 292–6; Kurzman, p. 142. 48 Uri Milstein, History of Israel’s War of Independence, Vol IV, (Lanham: University Press of America, 1999), p. 262. 49 Milstein, p. 262. 50 Dana Adams Schmidt, “200 Arabs Killed, Stronghold Taken,” New York Times, (April 10, 1948). 51 Kurzman, p. 148. 52 Sharif Kanaana and Nihad Zitawi, “Deir Yassin,” Monograph No. 4, Destroyed Palestinian Villages Documentation Project, (Bir Zeit: Documentation Center of Bir Zeit University, 1987), p. 55 53 Sharif Kanaana, “Reinterpreting Deir Yassin,” Bir Zeir University, (April 1998). 54 Milstein, p. 267. 55 Rami Nashashibi, “Dayr Yasin,” Bir Zeit University, (June 1996). 56 Yehoshua Gorodenchik testimony at Jabotinsky Archives. 57 Milstein, p. 276. 58 “Israel and the Arabs: The 50 Year Conflict,” BBC Television Series, (1998). 59 “Interview with Abd al-Rahman Azzam Pasha,” Akhbar al-Yom (Egypt), (October 11, 1947); translated by R. Green. 60 Sachar, p. 335. 61 Schechtman, p. 268. 62 Prittie in Curtis, pp. 66–7. 63 New York Times, (July 17, 1949). 64 Jerusalem Post, (January 26, 1989). 65 Telegraph (Beirut), (August 6, 1948), quoted in Schechtman, pp. 210–11. 66 Moshe Sharett,”Israels Position and Problems,” Middle Eastern Affairs, (May 1952), p. 136. 67 Al Said (Lebanon), (April 6, 1950), cited in Prittie in Curtis, p. 69. 68 Al-Misri, (October 11, 1949), cited in Nathan Feinberg, The Arab-Israeli Conflict in International Law, (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1970), p. 109. 69 Beirut al Massa, (July 15, 1957), cited in Katz, p. 21. 70 Benjamin Franklin, Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin, Vol 1, (M’Carty & Davis: 1834), p. 463. 71 Melissa Radler, “UN Marks Partition Plan Anniversary with anti-Israel Fest,” Jerusalem Post, (December 4, 2003). 72 UNRWA, (as of December 30, 2010). 73 UNRWA; “Biennial Programme Budget 2010-2011 of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,” UN General Assembly, (September 17, 2009). 74 Schechtman, p. 220. 75 “Speech to Parliament – April 24, 1950,” Abdallah, pp. 16–7; Aaron Miller, The Arab States and the Palestine Question, (DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1986), p. 29. 76 Khaled Abu Toamed, “Amman Revoking Palestinians Citizenship,” Jerusalem Post, (July 20, 2009). 77 Leibler, p. 48. 78 Alexander H. Joffe and Asaf Romirowsky, “A Tale of Two Galloways: Notes on the Early History of UNRWA and Zionist Historiography,” Middle Eastern Studies, (September 2010). 79 Jerusalem Report, (June 27, 1991). 80 UNRWA 81 Musa Alami, “The Lesson of Palestine,” Middle East Journal, (October 1949), p. 386. 82 Sol Stern, “Mr. Abbas, Tear Down This Wall!” Jewish Ideas Daily, (September 28, 2010). 83 UNRWA 84 Arlene Kushner, “the UN’s Palestinian Refugee Problem,” Azure, (Autumn 2005). 85 Jerusalem Report, (July 6, 1998). 86 Katz, p. 21. 87 Editorial, Des Moines Register, (January 16, 1952). 88 Jerusalem Report, (March 26, 2001). 89 UNRWA Annual Reports, (July 1, 1966–June 30, 1967), pp. 11–19; (July 1, 1967–June 30, 1968), pp. 4–10; (July 1, 1968–June 30, 1969), p. 6; (July 1, 1971–June 30, 1972), p. 3. 90 Maurice Roumani, The Case of the Jews from Arab Countries: A Neglected Issue, (Tel Aviv: World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries, 1977), p. 34. 91 Associated Press, (October 23, 2001). 92 “Meeting Minutes: President Abbas Meeting with the Negotiations Support Unit,” (March 24, 2009). 93 Amos Oz, “Israel Partly at Fault,” Ynetnews,(March 29, 2007). |  |
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great letters Anti-Semitic views have no place in a civilised society
The campaign that started as a protest against opening a chocolate shop on campus because it might have some indirect link to Israel, has morphed into a campaign of hatred inconsistent with Australian values.
This is the campus which has as its Chancellor the architect of the federal government's education reforms, David Gonski. I have yet to hear him make a statement on this matter.
Where is the moral leadership at the University of NSW? We learn that some Jewish students now feel insecure. History teaches us that the sort of expressions used in hate campaigns can soon become physical actions. What action does the university propose to take to deal with this disgraceful problem?
David Adler, St Ives, NSW
FOR University of NSW Students for Justice in Palestine to complain that the charge of anti-Semitism on their Facebook page is an attempt to censor them is risible and an attempt to defend the indefensible. Those who care at all about racism and intolerance wish to stop such blatant anti-Semitic and racist slurs seeing the light of day.
I applaud those who have made the effort to oppose this dangerous slippery slope to possible violence.
George Foster, Abbotsford, NSW
SEX segregation at Melbourne University, Jew bashing and Holocaust denial at the University of NSW - it seems our centres of higher learning are becoming hotbeds of Islamism. What's next - uni courses in jihad? Geert Wilders did try to warn us.
Terry Coupland, Toowoomba, Qld
IT is shocking that some students are demanding a boycott of allegedly Israeli products in their university and that anti-Semitic rhetoric is raising its ugly head.
As an academic, I find the idea of students - and some academics - demanding a boycott of Israeli products in universities sickening. Are those calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel demanding similar bans against non-Jewish governments such as Iran, China, Burma, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe? If not, why not?
Bill Anderson, Surrey Hills, Vic
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Julia Gillard should be congratulated for denouncing the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, anti-Israel protests that have little to do with the Palestinians and much to do with trying to delegitimise Israel.
Henry Herzog, St Kilda, Vic
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Julie Bishop sceptical about the Prime Minister's comments on BDS
Foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop said she was sceptical about the Prime Minister's comments.
She said if Ms Gillard were serious in her objections, "she should have spoken out against the actions of the union movement and the Greens, her former alliance partners" to the BDS movement.
Ms Gillard said through a spokeswoman on Monday: "This campaign does not serve the cause of peace and diplomacy for agreement on a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine."
The comments came as students at Israel's Technion, named sixth in innovation and entrepreneurship among universities worldwide in a survey by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, called on their Sydney University colleagues to reverse their support for BDS.
"The student population includes students from Israel's various minorities, and nearly a fifth are Arab students from across the country," the board of the Technion Students Association wrote to the Sydney University Student Representative Council.
"Side by side, Arab, Jewish and international students study, work and engage in extra-curricular activities."
A planned student BDS rally ended up a damp squib yesterday, with journalists, police and security guards nearly outnumbering protesters.
The University of NSW protest against a planned Max Brenner chocolate shop on campus came after anti-Semitic posts appeared on the rally's Facebook page, posts that organisers of the rally disowned.
Only about 30 protesters marched under the banner Students for Justice in Palestine.
There was no anti-Semitic rhetoric in the speeches delivered by speakers including SJP spokesman Damian Ridgwell, two Palestinian students, and National Union of Students national queer officer Cat Rose. Ms Rose said BDS was "something extraordinarily relevant" for students.
She praised her Sydney University colleagues for their support of BDS.
Another speaker, UNSW student Bec Hynek, described herself as an "anti-Zionist Jewish activist".
"I stand alongside a growing number of Jewish supporters of the BDS who don't want to support oppression of Palestinians."
About a dozen Australian Jewish and Israeli students watched on, with some heckling the speakers with remarks like "what's chocolate got to do with politics?"
Max Brenner is a brand name of the Strauss Group, an Israeli food and beverage company that supplies some rations to the army. In a statement yesterday, local management said it had no direct connection to the Strauss Group.
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Vic Alhadeff said the paltry turnout was an encouraging signal that students at UNSW :don't respond to crude theatrics and blatant politicising of what is nothing more sinister than a chocolate shop".
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Welcome from the Chancellor - D Gonski
UNSW Council
David Gonski AC, Chancellor
Welcome from the Chancellor
The Council is the University’s governing body and is responsible for acting on the University’s behalf to promote its objectives and interests. The governance of universities has come under increasing scrutiny nationally in recent years, and UNSW and its Council are committed to meeting this scrutiny by demonstrating the highest standards. In line with this commitment our aim is to make the operations of Council as open and transparent as possible consistent with the need for some of Council’s business to be protected by confidentiality. This website is one contribution to increasing understanding of Council, its role and its operations, in the University and beyond.
The Council consists of 15 members with a variety of internal and external perspectives. Some are elected by staff, students, or graduates. Others are appointed by the State Minister for Education or by the Council itself. Between them they contribute a mixture of expertise in areas including finance, commercial activities, the law, governance and management, and planning and development, drawing on experience in the community, government, and private sectors. Council is also able to draw on additional valuable specialised expertise through the appointment of external members to Council committees. Council and Council Committee members serve the University in this way on an entirely voluntary basis.
On the Council website you can find more information about the members of Council and its committees and about their functions and procedures. Also available are some of Council’s non-confidential documents, information about policies approved by Council, links to other sources of information, and some contact details. I believe this is a valuable resource for the University community and hope you find it so.
David Gonski, AC
Chancellor
Chancellor
ENQUIRIES
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OP ED THE OZ Unis tolerating intolerance
Given the right of people to go about their legal business, and shop where they please, it is questionable that the University of NSW should even tolerate protests against a chocolate shop being established on its site. But it is beyond question that it should take action against protesters using blatantly racist and anti-Semitic language as part of these protests. We expect that, quite rightly, there would be forceful action to stamp out any vilification of, say, Muslim or Asian students. Yet seemingly the targeting of Israeli-linked companies and Jewish people throws up a confected moral quandary.
The BDS movement wins support not just from jejune students eager for an anti-establishment cause but also from some academics, perhaps for the same reason. If it were not so tragic it would be a hilarious paradox that the University of Sydney's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies backs BDS, including preventing academic exchanges. It is difficult to think of an act that is more close-minded or less conciliatory than banning an exchange of ideas between people in liberal democracies. Still, this is what passes muster in some parts of the academy these days.
The blatant dishonesty of this campaign should be identified and condemned. The legitimate grievances of the Palestinian people present a worthy cause, yet to couch their campaign in hateful language about "apartheid" and "war crimes" is demonstrably inaccurate and offensive. No objective view of history could fail to recognise Israel's offers to surrender territory to the Palestinians in return for peace. The landmark Oslo Accords cemented this reality but the olive branch has never been grasped, primarily because Hamas, like Yasser Arafat's PLO before it, simply will not recognise the right of Israel to exist. A peace based on two secure states can hardly be delivered without that fundamental acceptance. When Israel evacuated its citizens and withdrew from Gaza in 2005 it wasn't peace that ensued but bloody battles between Hamas and Fatah. Israel was rewarded with indiscriminate rocket fire from Gaza into its territory, targeting its civilians. Unless Palestinians accept responsibility for their actions, there can be no serious consideration of a peaceful resolution to their rightful claims for territory, statehood and the return of refugees.
As a pluralistic democracy that provides for the security and well-being of Palestinians, Israel is not remotely comparable to apartheid South Africa. For decades Arabs have had greater democratic and human rights in Israel than in any Arab country. They make up about a sixth of Israel's population and Palestinian Muslims hold seats in the Knesset on a platform of creating a viable Palestinian state. Israel is not perfect and the Palestinian issue must be resolved. But demonising Israel and Jews is not only wrong because it is racist, it is also an incorrect and deceptive interpretation of reality. Julia Gillard is right to condemn the BDS campaign, now so marginalised it has been disowned even by the Greens. We are entitled to expect our universities to take a stronger stand both against racism and in favour of facts.
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AJN May 3 ‘Planting the seeds of hatred’
http://www.jewishnews.net.au/planting-the-seeds-of-hatred/30632
![Brenner UNSW]()
‘Planting the seeds of hatred’
COMMUNAL leaders have reacted angrily at photos of a young child brandishing a sign labelling an Israeli business owner a “murderer”, during a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) protest on Tuesday.
The boy held a sign that read “Max, Max, Murderer!” during the demonstration, which targeted a soon-to-be-opened Max Brenner chocolate store at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Randwick.
“It is remarkable that ostensibly educated and intelligent people have so little insight into what they are doing,” Executive Council of Australian Jewry executive director Peter Wertheim said when he was shown the photo.
“They are raising a young child on myths and prejudice and planting the seeds of hatred with reckless disregard for the ultimate consequences. They have learnt nothing from history.”
His comments were echoed by NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president Yair Miller. “It is deplorable to see a young child being indoctrinated with falsehoods and hatred,” Miller said.
More than 2000 people were invited to the BDS protest on Facebook, but less than 40 people showed up.
The Facebook page itself attracted a slew of anti-Semitic comments, among them one describing Jews as “evil”, “greedy” and “money-loving”.
Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s protest and in the wake of the recent vote by the University of Sydney’s Student Representative Council calling for ties to be cut with the Technion- Israel Institute of Technology, Prime Minister Julia Gillard stated that the Australian government has always been firm and clear in its opposition to the BDS campaign.
“This campaign does not serve the cause of peace and diplomacy for agreement on a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine,” Gillard said.
“I welcome the strong ties our universities have with Israeli researchers and academic institutions, and I hope those ties will deepen in the years ahead.”
Shadow minister for climate action, environment and heritage Greg Hunt, who spoke at the Australia/Israel Chamber of Commerce in Melbourne this week, said the BDS movement on campus was being led by a “group of leftist students at the University of NSW and Sydney University [who] are completely out of control”.
“Anti-Semitism is religious racism. This is unacceptable and they should acknowledge that they are motivated by collective bigotry regarding their comments on Israel and their apparent willingness to tolerate the most extreme and anti-Semitic comments on their website.”
A spokeswoman for UNSW said the university has no plans to change the agreement with Max Brenner and the store will open, as planned, by June.
JOSHUA LEVI
Protesters at UNSW (Photo: Joshua Levi)
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