THE AUSTRALIAN
Jan 1, 2013
Derision for BDS
WE should all thank Stuart Rees of Sydney University for so openly indicating that Israeli law centre Shurat HaDin is getting under his thick skin (Letters, 31/12). He now becomes the best vindicator for my new phrase: derision is the handmaiden of contempt.
The boycott, divestment and sanctions people have been so contemptuous of history, so careless with truth, so laissez-faire with claims against democratic Israel, that plainly nothing but derision and contempt for their twisted derivations will move them. And the law: the sheer fear of losing in open court will also do it.
Geoff Seidner, St Kilda, Vic
SINCE the Syrian government stepped up its aerial bombardment of Aleppo on December 10, more than 300 people including 87 children have been killed. Yet there has been not so much as a whimper from Jake Lynch or Sydney University's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.
Is it any wonder their motives are questioned in their unequivocal support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel?
George Fishman, Vaucluse, NSW
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REES' ORIGINAL LETTER 31/12
MY unedited letter as sent to The OZ:
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31/12/13
THE boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign discriminates against all Israelis, supposedly to penalise Israel for abuse of Palestinian rights ("Lynch like 'publican denying blacks, Jews' ", 28-29/12). Not only is the claim of abuse debatable, it ignores obvious abuse by others.
Israel occupied Arab lands in response to aggression and has made repeated offers to withdraw in return for peace. At the same time, without any provocation or offer of withdrawal, China occupies Tibet, Indonesia occupies West Papua, Morocco occupies Western Sahara and Turkey occupies Cyprus, holding their populations captive and abusing their rights. Yet apparently only Israel deserves the attention of Jake Lynch and the BDS gang. They should explain.
Dov Midalia, Bondi Junction, NSW
YOU should be thanked for telling readers about the derision used by the lawyer representing the Israeli law centre Shurat HaDin in their legal action against my Sydney University colleague Jake Lynch who is supported by more than 4000 signed-up co-defendants from 60 countries.
Shurat HaDin's action is a hysterical, albeit planned, response to the increasingly successful worldwide boycott of staff from academic institutions that assist in the occupation of Palestinian lands and thereby run roughshod over international human rights laws.
Without adherence to such laws, there can be no civility, no justice for Palestinians or for their supporters within Israel.
Stuart Rees, Sydney University, NSW
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