Dear friends,
as you may be aware, the Federal Coalition has announced that should they win the upcoming Federal election in September, they will seek to cut any funding to any individual or organisation that supports BDS. The Coalition has made it clear that this was including cutting ALL funding to individuals and organisations not only for BDS related activities but for any research, educational or other purposes.
This is an unvanished attack on free speech and academic freedom and must be rejected outright. Please find below my latest article on the Federal Coalition attacks. Please feel free to share with your social media networks.
In solidarity, Kim
**
Socialist Alternative Magazine: 28 May, 2013
Kim Bullimore
The federal opposition has announced
that it will support sweeping attacks on academic freedom and the free speech
of any individual or organisation supporting the pro-Palestinian boycott,
divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
According to the 25 May Weekend
Australian, a “Coalition government would block all federal funds to
individuals and institutions who speak out in favour of the Boycott, Divestment
and Sanctions campaign against Israel”. Julie Bishop, the opposition deputy
leader and foreign affairs spokesperson, who has previously labelled the BDS
campaign “anti-Semitic”, told the newspaper: “The Coalition will institute a
policy across government that ensures no grants of taxpayers’ funds are provided
to individuals or organisations which actively support the BDS campaign”. Funds
would be cut not only for BDS-related activities, but also for any research,
educational or other purpose.
The BDS campaign was initiated in
2005 by 171 Palestinian organisations and is inspired by the struggle of South
Africans against apartheid. It is conducted in the framework of international
solidarity and resistance to injustice and oppression and calls for non-violent
punitive measures to be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to
recognise the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and fully
complies with international law. Far from being “anti-Semitic”, it opposes all
racism, including Islamophobia and anti-Semitism.
In 2011, when similar charges were
made against Australian BDS campaigners, the Palestinian BDS National Committee
issued a statement saying such claims were “a cynical attempt to smear BDS
activism in Australia”. It noted that politicians in Australia and elsewhere
were “going to great lengths to curtail freedom of expression and shield the
state of Israel from any criticism”, but the real problem lay “with staunch
supporters of Israel who refuse to admit that universally recognised standards
of international law and social justice apply as much to Israel as they do to
any other state”.
Not unique
The attempt to paint pro-BDS
campaigners as anti-Semitic isn’t unique to Australia. In March, pro-Israel
pressure groups in the UK suffered a major defeat when they attempted to
repress Palestine solidarity activism, accusing the University and College
Union of anti-Semitism. On 22 March, the UK Employment Tribunal dismissed a
case brought by Academic Friends of Israel director Ronnie Fraser, who claimed
that BDS was anti-Semitic and he had suffered anti-Semitic harassment as a
result of the union’s pro-BDS policy. The tribunal dismissed Fraser’s complaint
as “without substance” and “devoid of merit”, saying it was troubled by the
claim’s “worrying disregard for pluralism, tolerance and freedom of
expression”. Similarly, on 15 December 2011, a French court dismissed charges
brought against 12 BDS activists for supposedly “inciting discrimination and
racial hatred towards a group or nation”. The ruling reinforced a July French
court ruling acquitting another BDS activist of similar charges.
In the wake of Israel’s Knesset
(parliament) passing a law in July 2011 making it an offence to call for a
boycott against Israel or its illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank,
Amnesty International noted that such laws have “a chilling effect on freedom
of expression”. Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the
Middle East and North Africa, called the anti-BDS law “a blatant attempt to
stifle peaceful dissent and campaigning by attacking the right to freedom of
speech”.
Bipartisan support for Israel
The Coalition’s attack on academic
freedom comes after weeks of non-stop reports, editorials and op-eds in the
Australian that have explicitly sought to equate support for BDS with
anti-Semitism. While the Australian, Labor and the Coalition have been
making reckless and unfounded accusations against BDS, they’ve had little to
say about Israel’s ongoing occupation and human rights abuses against the
Palestinians.
Bishop, writing for the Australian
Jewish News on 24 January, all but ignored Israel’s occupation and
apartheid policies. Rather than calling for Israel to cease its illegal
settlement building and blockade of Gaza, Bishop placed blame for the failed
“peace” negotiations on the Palestinians.
Federal Coalition leader Tony Abbot
has similarly failed to hold Israel accountable. Last December, Abbott attended
the Australia-Israel-UK Leadership Dialogue forum in London, along with
Israel’s deputy PM and other Israeli government officials. In a speech read by
Senator George Brandis on behalf of Abbott at the forum dinner, Abbott praised
Israel as a “bastion of Western civilisation in a part of the world where human
rights, including the value of respectful dissent, are not well appreciated”.
But Israel isn’t a bastion of human rights.
According to the Israeli human
rights group Adalah, more than 30 Israeli laws discriminate against Israel’s
non-Jewish citizens. In June 2011, Adalah noted “a further escalation in the
legislation and enactment of discriminatory and anti-democratic laws by the
Israeli Knesset between January and April 2011”, including laws that “threaten
the rights and harm the legitimate interests of Arab citizens of Israel on the
basis of their national belonging”. Adalah stated: “The laws concern a broad
range of rights including land rights, citizenship rights, the right to
political participation, the rights to freedom of expression and association
and the rights to a fair trial and freedom from torture and ill-treatment”.
Bipartisan support for Israel,
however, is a hallmark of Australian parliamentary politics. Labor prime
ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard have given Israel unequivocal support.
Just days before the 2007 federal election, Rudd announced his undying support
for Israel at an event organised by the Australian Israel Cultural Exchange,
saying “Israel is in my DNA”.
In 2009, when Israel began its
three-week assault on Gaza, resulting in the death of more than 1400
Palestinians, including more than 300 children, Gillard defended the bombing.
Who is attacking free speech and
academic freedom?
Many of Israel’s advocates who’ve
sought to paint the Palestinian BDS campaign as anti-Semitic and an attack on
academic freedom are now supporting the Coalition’s sweeping attack on free
speech and academic freedom.
Colin Rubenstein, the executive
director of the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, is quoted in the
25 May Australian welcoming the Coalition policy. Rubenstein, who had
previously signed on to a 2011 pro-Zionist statement denouncing BDS as
“antithetical to principles of academic freedom and discourag[ing] freedom of
speech” is apparently happy to support suppression of academic and democratic
rights in the service of Israel.
The accusation that BDS is an attack
on free speech or academic freedom is of course false. The campaign focuses on
institutions, not individuals, and doesn’t prevent any student or academic from
carrying out research, authoring papers or participating in conferences simply
because they are Jewish or Israeli. In Australia, pro-BDS groups have hosted a
range of Israeli and Jewish academics and activists, including the renowned
Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, who was the keynote speaker at the 2012 Australian
BDS conference.
However, the double standard of
Rubenstein and other pro-Israel advocates comes as no surprise. Rarely do
pro-Israel advocates who denounce BDS acknowledge the right of Palestinians to
academic freedom. Under Israel’s occupation, Palestinian education is severely
restricted. During the 1987-1993 intifada, Israel closed most
Palestinian universities, schools and kindergartens, making it illegal for
Palestinians to get an education.
During the first intifada, Birzeit
University was closed by Israeli military order 15 times, the longest closure
lasting four and a half years. Today, Palestinians are regularly prevented from
getting an education by Israel’s occupation – campuses often being raided by
the Israeli military and teachers and students regularly arrested, tortured and
killed. It is still exceedingly common for Palestinian teachers to conduct
classes at checkpoints because they and their students can’t get to their
educational institutions because of the apartheid wall and checkpoints.
Attempts to cut federal funding to
individuals or organisations that support BDS should be rejected by anyone who
supports free speech and academic freedom. Bipartisan attacks and dishonest
reporting by the Australian will not deter BDS campaigners. We will continue
to campaign against Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies and demand human
rights, justice and freedom for the Palestinian people.
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