Yesterday the ABC published as its lead opinion story my piece about the reasons why an academic boycott should be imposed on Israel. The hundreds of comments below are a fascinating if mostly despairing insight into the mindset of people who want to label any criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism. Oh well.
Today’s Rupert Murdoch’s Australian briefly extracts my article and then attempts to dismiss my claims of Israel being an apartheid state by printing what amounts to talking points given by the Israeli government and Zionist lobby. Yes, this really helps the case of Israel to endlessly repeat how well the Jewish state treats Arabs despite the overwhelming evidence proving the opposite:
Depend on Aunty to defend the right to misinform. Antony Loewenstein, ABC Online’s The Drum yesterday:
ISRAEL is not a normal country and proudly practises apartheid against Palestinians. Jake Lynch has taken one small step in publicly stating his opposition to our complicity in these crimes. His decision is an example of how principled academia should behave.
Just a few facts. Mitchell G Bard, Jewish Virtual Library:
Today, within Israel, Jews are a majority, but the Arab minority are full citizens who enjoy equal rights and are represented in all the branches of government. Arabs are represented in the Knesset, and have served in the Cabinet, high-level foreign ministry posts (e.g., Ambassador to Finland ) and on the Supreme Court. Under apartheid, black South Africans could not vote and were not citizens of the country in which they formed the overwhelming majority of the population. Laws dictated where they could live, work and travel.
And, in South Africa, the government killed blacks who protested against its policies. By contrast, Israel allows freedom of movement, assembly and speech. Some of the government’s harshest critics are Israeli Arabs who are members of the Knesset . . . It is likely that a final settlement will allow most Palestinians to become citizens of their own state.