Uni needs a lesson In tolerance
be criticised for All nations can actions. Israel their policies and the exception. should never be — Greg Barns
ADVOCATING for the rights of Palestinian people to have a homeland and ending the discrimination they endure daily is hard work.
Too often, those who criticise Israel for its policies towards Palestinians and who advocate for action against that nation are simply labelled anti-Semitic. It’s a cheap and nasty slur, and those who use it should be taken to task.
One of the latest examples of an organisation seeking to denigrate advocates for Palestinians is, of all places, Melbourne University.
One would expect Australia’s second-oldest university to cherish freedom of speech and thought. But not always, it seems, and certainly not when it comes to Palestine.
Recently, the Melbourne University Students Union, in a 10-8 vote, passed a resolution calling “on the university to participate in an academic boycott and cut ties with Israeli institutions, researchers and academics that support the Israeli oppression of Palestinians” and to “divest from corporations complicit in and profit from the Israel apartheid in line with the BDS Australia organisation guidelines”.
BDS is a movement that says the oppression of Palestinians is unlawful, and calls for sanctions and other economic punishments against Israel – not dissimilar to those actions that, in the end, crippled apartheid South Africa.
This motion was not unusual. There are millions of people in the world who support the BDS movement (I am one who has signed petitions supporting BDS) and who think the injustice Palestinians suffer is a form of apartheid.
In fact, within Israel and in international circles, the finding that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians amounts to apartheid is increasing. Last month, writing in Israeli newspaper Haaretz, human rights lawyer Michael Sfard noted a recent report by Canadian law professor Michael Lynk, a UN special rapporteur, “accusing Israel of imposing an apartheid regime on the Palestinians”.
As Sfard noted: “This document follows a pile of reports by Israeli rights groups (Yesh Din, B’Tselem) and international ones (Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International) over the past two years, each accusing Israel of perpetrating the crime that Palestinian organisations have been claiming for years is being committed. The importance of Lynk’s report is that the apartheid allegation now reaches beyond the bounds of civil society and has begun dropping anchors at international institutions.”
We can also add Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to the list of organisations linking apartheid to Israel.
So why did Melbourne University feel the need to slur its students’ union with the label “anti-Semitic”? Perhaps it doesn’t understand that to criticise Israeli policies towards the Palestinians – and in fact to object to the idea of some form of Zionist vision for a land that excludes those who are not Jewish – is legitimate.
In a letter opposing Melbourne University’s highhanded and bullying behaviour, a number of academics from around Australia took issue with the fact that the university conflates on the one hand rightly unlawful hate speech directed at Jewish people and
Jewish institutions, and on the other criticism of advocates for and policies that mean Israel continues to occupy Palestinian land and forces Palestinian people to live under oppressive laws.
The open letter noted that this “conflation also erases anti-Zionist Jews around the world who oppose Israel’s brutal military occupation and settler colonial project and is, in fact, a form of antiPalestinian racism. It is with this knowledge that we understand the motion that was passed by the UMSU not to be anti-Jewish but rather pro-human rights and prohuman dignity.”
It is ironic that Melbourne University should take such an arrogant stand against its student body at a time when there is an outpouring of support for Ukrainians as they battle a Russian invasion. Imagine if Melbourne University had condemned an anti-Russian motion from the students?
Perhaps the Melbourne University management might like to note that while it was busy condemning students who are advocating for justice, celebrated Harvard University student paper The Crimson was editorialising for the first
time in favour of the BDS movement. The editorial, published last Thursday, observed: “Dare question Israel’s policies or endorse Palestinian freedom and you will be shunned from the newsroom, past accomplishments or legitimate arguments be damned.
“What this immense opposition to student activists and journalists makes clear is the overwhelming power imbalance that defines and constricts the ongoing debate. This stark power differential extends far beyond the arena of free speech, shifting from rhetorical to lethal on the ground in Palestine, where Israeli soldiers have killed nearly 50 Palestinians, including eight children, this year alone.”
All nations can be criticised for their policies and actions. Israel should never be the exception.
This Thursday at 5.30pm at the Hobart Town Hall, I will be joining independent member for Clark, Andrew Wilkie, Randa Al-Hasan and Dr Adel Yousif in discussing the plight of Palestine.
Hobart barrister Greg Barns is a human rights lawyer who has advised state and federal Liberal governments.