The Australian Jewish News: The editor-in-chief of… The Age… has defended a series of cartoons published over the last week, one of which the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) labelled as “virulent hate-speech”, that have outraged the Melbourne Jewish community. A cartoon by Michael Leunig last Wednesday adapted German pastor Martin Niemoeller’s famous “First they came for…
Showing all posts tagged Australia
What you aren’t reading from voice of reason at Sydney University over Palestine
Another day and yet more selective exclusion by Murdoch’s Australian newspaper. Dr Jake Lynch, head of Peace and Conflict Studies at Sydney University, submitted the following letter to the paper… after days of irrational attack: Your reporting of the BDS issue is in danger of descending into absurdity. It is clear to any reasonable observer that…
2SER Radio on Israel/Palestine and Australian UN vote
I was interviewed on Friday: Relations between Australia and Israel remain tense after the Foreign Minister Bob Carr called in Israel’s ambassador on Tuesday, to convey strong concern over plans to expand settlements on Palestinian land. Carr told the ambassador that building new settlements threatens the viability of a two-state solution. Israel announced the plan…
An Israeli supports academic boycott in name of backing Palestinian self-determination
In response to the avalanche of faux outrage over Sydney University’s Jake Lynch and his important stance against Israeli university complicity in occupation, I received the following letter: Dr Michael Spence, Vice-Chancellor and Principal, University of Sydney Dear Professor Spence, … I am an Israeli citizen, and an alumnus of the Hebrew University’s math and…
Teaching Murdoch’s The Australian about ethics and morality over Palestine part 65322
This week Rupert Murdoch’s Australian newspaper has been running countless page one stories about Dr Jake Lynch, the head of Sydney University’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, for abiding by BDS and refusing to assist an Israeli academic associated with an Israeli university. Here’s the background. Today the obsession continues with heaps more coverage.…
Tale of principled Sydney University academic on Palestine and BDS
The following story appeared in Rupert Murdoch’s Australian newspaper yesterday on its front page: The Sydney University’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, which has thrown its support behind controversial Palestinian leaders, has cited its boycott of Israel for refusing to help an Israeli civics teacher who has designed programs for both Jewish and Arab…
3CR interview on Palestine/Israel and international justice
I was interviewed this week by 3CR’s Different, Like Us radio program about the recent UN vote on Palestine and the possibility of taking Israel to the International Criminal Court:
My Q&A with Federal Senators about Australia’s future in Afghanistan
On 4 December I went to Canberra to give testimony at the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee on Australia’s overseas development programs in Afghanistan (here’s my opening statement with links). The following transcript is the Hansard record of my statement and questions from the Senators… (they were Greens MP Lee Rhiannon, Liberal MP Helen…
My evidence at the Senate committee on Australia’s overseas development programs in Afghanistan
On 4 December I gave testimony in Parliament House in Canberra at a Senate committee on Australia’s role and responsibilities in Afghanistan after the vast bulk of Western forces leave in 2014. I submitted a short statement to the committee back in September and was then invited to travel to Canberra for a more thorough…
Baby steps towards neutering the fundamentalist Zionist lobby in Australia
Interesting piece in the Australian Financial Review that outlines the decreasing power of the Israel lobby to bully its way into the corridors of power. As importantly, its belief in apartheid in the West Bank shows that they speak for nobody but the Israeli government. They will never be independent players and should be ignored…