Jewish community decries academic ‘appeasement’ over BDS campaign THE AUSTRALIAN JANUARY 12, 2015 12:00AM Sarah Martin Political Reporter Canberra A RENEWED academic push to boycott Israeli universities has angered the Jewish community, which has accused protesters of appeasing militant Islam. A group of National Tertiary Education Union members has launched a campaign aimed at galvanising support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement and winning endorsement for the policy at this year’s NTEU national council meeting. The supporters of anti-Israel sanctions argue that policies against Palestinian Muslims and Western intervention in the Middle East have contributed to the rise of radical Islam. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has criticised the call for a boycott of Israeli institutions, saying support for BDS appeases radical Islam and will encourage “further aggression and bloodshed”. The NTEU group claims that the momentum for anti-Israel sanctions is growing following hostilities in Gaza last year and amid an increased awareness about violence in the Middle East. An academic boycott would see university staff refusing to participate in institution-level activities with Israeli universities, such as conferences or exchange programs, in protest at support for Israel’s policies in the Palestinian territories. David Brophy, a University of Sydney academic and one of the organisers of the newly formed group, told The Australian he was hopeful the peaceful campaign would lead to a change in union policy. “Anyone confronted with the facts of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and the case for BDS would be sympathetic to the boycott call,” Dr Brophy said. He said there was no justification for violent Islamic terror attacks, but added that the treatment of Muslims in the Middle East and in Western countries was relevant to the debate. “We can condemn the armed attacks at the same time as criticising Charlie Hebdo’s record on Islamophobia, or the Australian government’s diplomatic position on Palestine,” Dr Brophy said. “We need to call attention to the wider context of the war in the Middle East and discrimination against Muslims in Europe or Australia when we are discussing this. “We need to find ways to show concretely that Muslims aren’t the only ones concerned about these things. “In that respect, BDS is one of the few bright spots on an otherwise dark horizon.” Fellow academic and former NTEU delegate Nick Riemer said the weight of public opinion was “slowly but unambiguously swinging behind BDS tactics”. The executive director of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Peter Wertheim, said the “small group of misguided academics” pursuing BDS were out of touch with reality. “It defies comprehension that supposedly intelligent people actually believe that the only democracy in the Middle East should be sacrificed to appease violent Islamism,” Mr Wertheim said. “They (pro-BDS academics) turn a blind eye to the fact that the slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent people in Syria, Iraq and Nigeria, and the recent spate of terrorism in Western countries — including Australia — is driven by a sick ideology, not by those who oppose it.”
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 01:37:09 +0000
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