Anti-BDS Water Torture at The Australian

In addition to the Australian's relentless barrage of anti-government propaganda last week, the jaded reader was subjected to a steady drip, drip, drip of BDS-bashing. (Warning - offended Jewish student coming up.):

28/8/13

Anti-Israel lobby defiant on uni rally, it screamed:

"Supporters of the anti-Israel BDS movement at Sydney University remain defiant in the face of legal action alleging they are breaching racial discrimination laws, and will protest on campus today... Professor Rees, who described the lawsuit as a threat to 'freedom of public debate and the voicing of dissent', will address the... rally today. He will be joined by NSW Greens Upper House MP David Shoebridge, who risks embarrassing federal leader Christine Milne... Asked if the rally would disrupt students in the library, a spokeswoman for SU... said students who felt intimidated... should contact university authorities." (Christian Kerr)

Peace body promotes conflict, screeched its editorialist:

"... arrogant display by the BDS... Sydney Peace Foundation director Stuart Rees and Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies director Jake Lynch would do better to start preparing for the Australian Human Rights Commission hearing they are due to face this week... We await the academics' justification for the BDS movement's absurd picketing of Max Brenner chocolate shops owned by a Jewish businessman... [I]n singling out Israel for derision, the SPF and the CPACS have said little of note about atrocities in Syria, Egypt and elsewhere..."

29/8/13

BDS academic to foot legal costs, it ranted:

"The academic at the centre of the SU BDS row will be left to cover his own legal costs as campus controversy over the anti-Israeli movement blazes... When asked yesterday about reports Jewish students felt offended and intimidated by the tenor of the BDS debate towards Israel, Professor Lynch said it was 'absolute nonsense'. 'You should see the hate mail I get as a result of taking a stand. They call me anti-Semitic,' he said... NSW Greens Legislative Council member David Shoebridge defied federal leader Christine Milne... The Australian understands that other NSW parliamentary Greens were angry at Mr Shoebridge... Alon Tal [cut to photo of gormless youth with caption: Offended; student Alon Tal], a Bachelor of Commerce and Law Student, was offended by the framing of the campaign 'As a Jew, my Zionism is inextricably linked with my Jewish identity so the fact that these people are calling for a boycott on Israel which is, essentially, calling for the destruction of Israel, it's really an affront to me,' he said. Professor Lynch claimed he had 'silks' lining up to offer pro bono legal support. 'It is a Rupert Murdoch nonsense, actually worse than nonsense, portraying that this is a movement to do with the abolition of Israel or that it is... anti-Semitic,' he said." (Christian Kerr/Rick Morton)

30/8/13

Call for Greens to come clean on Israel boycott, it droned... on and on and on and on...

Until, finally, some blessed relief in the form of a letter from Stuart Rees and Jake Lynch:

"We refer to the complaint against us to the Human Rights Commission by the Shurat HaDin law centre. There is no hearing scheduled, as your editor states (Peace body promotes conflict, 28/8). The commission is considering ending the complaint, which would put the onus back on the complainant. We are confident that no such case would succeed. In tackling wider issues, you seek to dismiss through bluster rather than argument, the view that discriminatory laws and practices, confining non-Jews to second-class status, put Israel in breach of the 1973 convention for the suppression and punishment of the crime of apartheid. This view was upheld by an international panel, commissioned by the social science research council of South Africa and published in 2009." (30/8/13)