{"id":2364,"date":"2015-05-26T23:37:11","date_gmt":"2015-05-26T13:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sydneystaff4bds.org\/?p=2364"},"modified":"2015-05-26T23:47:12","modified_gmt":"2015-05-26T13:47:12","slug":"sydney-universitys-decision-not-to-dismiss-jake-lynch-highlights-baselessness-of-the-israel-lobbys-campaign-against-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sydneystaff4bds.org\/?p=2364","title":{"rendered":"Sydney University’s decision not to dismiss Jake Lynch highlights baselessness of the Israel lobby’s campaign against him"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2015-05-14<\/a><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s announcement<\/a> by Sydney University management that it will not be dismissing Jake Lynch highlights the vexatious and baseless nature of the Israel lobby\u2019s campaign against him, Sydney Staff for BDS (SSBDS) said.<\/p>\n

SSBDS welcomes management\u2019s decision to end the disciplinary process against Lynch. It brings to an end a politically motivated two-month investigation, initiated in response to pressure on the university from pro-Israel forces.<\/p>\n

The Israel lobby has long sought the scalps of pro-Palestine academics such as Lynch. \u201cPeter Wertheim, Alex Ryvchin, Dean Sherr and other spokespeople for pro-Israel organisations cynically saw an opportunity to attack one of their ideological opponents,\u201d said David Brophy from SSBDS. \u201cThe fact that the University of Sydney has rejected their allegations is a blow against Zionists\u2019 intimidation of Palestine activism in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

This case must be set in the context of a worldwide upturn in the use of accusations of anti-Semitism to intimidate and silence pro-Palestine voices on campus. In the first four months of 2015, Palestine Solidarity Legal Support<\/a> recorded 60 instances at US universities where criticism of Israel was met with accusations of anti-Semitism. This unscrupulous tactic of conflating criticism of the Israeli State with anti-Semitism has done great damage to the need to identify and combat genuine racial discrimination, including anti-Semitism, in society.<\/p>\n

Claims that Palestine activists at Sydney are anti-Jewish have been the go-to argument of Lynch\u2019s critics. After Sydney University responded to the allegations of anti-Semitism by launching an investigation, The Australasian Union of Jewish Students leapt into action by emailing its members a set of misrepresentations and fabrications, among them that Lynch \u201cshouted in the faces of Jewish students\u201d and that he \u201chas a history of supporting harassment and discrimination against Jewish students.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition it launched a petition<\/a> for Lynch\u2019s sacking, arguing that \u201canti-Semitic behaviour, harassment, and intimidation have no place in Australian society and they certainly have no place at the University of Sydney.\u201d Even after the charge of anti-Semitism was found to be groundless, AUJS\u2019s Julian Kowal maintained<\/a> that Lynch had compromised the university as a “safe space for Jewish students”, for which he should be dismissed.<\/p>\n

In this light, Dean Sherr\u2019s recent claim<\/a> that AUJS\u2019 campaign against Lynch does not rest on a complaint of anti-Semitism stands exposed as a scandalous bid to rewrite the factual record.<\/p>\n

Peter Wertheim has stated<\/a> that \u201cthe charge of antisemitism is not levelled lightly,\u201d but the barrage of irresponsible op-eds smearing as Lynch as anti-Semitic suggests otherwise. Under the headline \u201cAntisemitism on Campus<\/a>: Has Sydney University’s Jake Lynch Finally Gone Too Far?\u201d, Glen Falkenstein included Lynch\u2019s actions in a discussion of \u201canti-Zionism\u201d, \u201cwhich through its manifestations and rhetoric clearly can serve as a mask for blatant antisemitism.\u201d In The Australian<\/em>, Peter Baldwin continued along the same lines<\/a>, saying: \u201cMy sense is that increasingly anti-Zionism is a mask for occulted anti-Semitism.\u201d In recent weeks such insinuations have continued to flow freely from the pens of Lynch\u2019s critics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Israel lobby’s resort to these plainly baseless accusations highlights their lack of any real arguments against Palestine justice activists,\u201d said David Brophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese lobby organisations are dedicated to preventing a free and informed debate on the question of Israel\/Palestine from occurring in Australian society. Sydney University should strive to ensure that such a debate can take place on campus by resisting these vexatious attacks. The institution\u2019s commitment to academic freedom, which has been reiterated<\/a> a number of times with reference to Lynch, requires that it do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe welcome the end of the proceedings against Lynch,\u201d added Nick Riemer from SSBDS. \u201cThe University should be congratulating Jake for promoting the cause of a just peace in the Middle East, not threatening him with the sack for it. It\u2019s now time for the University to drop all its charges against the student protesters too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The University of Sydney’s rejection of the baseless allegations against Jake Lynch is a blow to Zionists\u2019 intimidation of Palestine activism in Australia. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16,19,13,10,4,14,18],"class_list":["post-2364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bds","tag-david-brophy","tag-israel-lobby","tag-jake-lynch","tag-nick-riemer","tag-palestine","tag-sydney-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sydneystaff4bds.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sydneystaff4bds.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sydneystaff4bds.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sydneystaff4bds.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sydneystaff4bds.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2364"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sydneystaff4bds.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2368,"href":"https:\/\/sydneystaff4bds.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2364\/revisions\/2368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sydneystaff4bds.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sydneystaff4bds.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sydneystaff4bds.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}