More Hounding of Jake Lynch 1

Murdoch's Australian is positively salivating over the latest legal manoeuvre by the Mossad-backed lawfare outfit, Shurat HaDin, against Associate Professor Jake Lynch, director of Sydney University's Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies (CPACS), over his courageous stand in defence of Palestinian rights.

Unreported in the Fairfax press or Guardian Australia, Shurat HaDin's pursuit of Professor Lynch is now getting front page treatment in The Australian. The latest spike in its ongoing 'coverage' of the issue began in earnest on October 30 with the kind of drive-by editorial especially reserved by the paper for anyone who refuses to bend the knee and kiss the Israeli ring.

Exploiting last Saturday night's random attack on a group of Jews at Bondi Beach by youths of Islander background (whose knowledge of, or interest in, Middle Eastern affairs would be less than zero), The Australian's  editorialist, hyping the attack as an example of "the vile spectre of anti-Semitism," had no doubt who was to blame:

"It is not altogether surprising given the attitude of the Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies at Sydney University. Last year, the centre shunned a Hebrew University of Jerusalem academic who developed a civics course to unite Arab and Jewish students. Centre director Jake Lynch backed the oppressive boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign. The existence of Israel is accepted in international law and by the UN but some Australian humanities academics think otherwise. In supporting the Palestinian cause, the Left must not allow anti-Semitism to become an article of faith among young people and risk reigniting hatreds that festered across Europe for centuries before 6 million Jews perished in the Holocaust." (Dangerous anti-Semitism has no place in Australia: In backing Palestinians, the Left must not demonise Israel)

That outrageous libel was matched by the bizarre front page piece by Ean Higgins and Jared Owens about which I've already posted, To Jewish leaders, incidents prove you can never stop. (See my 30/10/13 post Only in 'The Australian', No. 16,972.) Accompanied by a photograph of a "Holocaust survivor," and opening with a reference to the Bondi Beach attack, it veered from one unrelated matter to another before finally reaching its intended target, Professor Lynch.

The very next day, October 31, again on the front page, we had the headline Anti-Israeli BDS campaign facing court test. The byline? Ean Higgins, naturally. It began:

"The emotive controversy over whether the BDS campaign against Israel is racist and discriminatory will be tested in the Federal Court after an Israeli organisation launched a landmark legal suit."

After outlining something of the history of the case, Higgins went on, on page 2 now, to detail the substance of Shurat HaDin's complaint:

"Shurat HaDin's case will argue that Professor Lynch's support for BDS amounts to racial discrimination against Israelis and Jews, in breach of the Racial Discrimination Act and international conventions including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the application filed with the court, Shurat HaDin claims that Professor Lynch's 'inherent purpose in participating [in] and publicly supporting the BDS movement is to do acts involving adverse distinction, exclusion, restriction and adverse preference based on the Jewish race, descent, national and ethnic origin of goods, services, persons and organisations," which, the godawful legalese notwithstanding, sounds more like a description of Israel's treatment of Palestine's indigenous Arab population.

"Shurat HaDin," Higgins continued, " is not seeking financial restitution... but court orders requiring [Professor Lynch] to apologise for his BDS campaign and desist from it. Professor Lynch rejected Shurat HaDin's claims, and said he would vigorously fight the court action. 'The campaign for an academic boycott of institutional links with Israeli universities is a non-violent campaign for peace with justice in respect of militarism and lawlessness,' Professor Lynch, who is in Britain, told The Australian. 'I am confident we will prove, in court if necessary, that it does not amount to any form of discrimination or racism'."

Higgins then introduced the subject of Shurat HaDin's links with Israeli intelligence, quoting its Australian lawyer, Andrew Hamilton, as saying that "receiving tip-offs from Mossad... was part of the normal practice of lawyers seeking information and evidence to bolster their cases."

How fascinating. Whereas Australia's new foreign minister is adamant that "we don't comment on intelligence matters," Mossad is apparently more than happy to talk to any old Tom, Dick and Andrew!

Higgins then had Jerusalem's Hebrew University, which is seeking ties with Sydney University opposed by Professor Lynch, confirming that, yes, "it ran two programs for serving and future Israeli soldiers," but claiming that these were also "attended by students who were not connected to the military," a complete nonsense, of course, in a society where all Jewish Israelis, save the ultra-orthodox, are required to serve in the army.

He then quoted another Hebrew University spokesman as saying that the entire Hebrew University campus is "is all on Israeli territory." In fact, it is situated on Mt Scopus, an Israeli enclave in the Jordanian-ruled West Bank from 1948-1967.

Now exactly why the Palestinians should be expected to view Mt Scopus, which is east of the so-called Green Line, as Israeli territory when Israel refuses to recognise the Palestinian claim to hundreds of Palestinian towns and villages west of the Green Line is one of life's little mysteries.

But then, even if we ignore the above elephant in the room and concede that Mt Scopus campus is all on Israeli territory, we still have to face the fact that all its access roads run through occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem.

But there's more! There always is in The Australian. There's also the letters page to insult our intelligence, this time with such gems as:

"There is no other tool than anti-Semitism for criticising Israel and the Jewish people.";

"... anti-Semitism deniers such as Jake Lynch," and his "platoon of supporters happily preferring uggboots to jackboots.";

"... a rising tide of anti-Israel sentiment that is expressing itself as anti-Semitism..."

Continued next post...