We are writing to alert you to what we believe can be described without exaggeration as a serious threat to civil and political liberties on campus.
You will have seen the recent emails from Michael Spence about the “misconduct” proceedings the university has initiated against both an academic staff member of the university and against students.
This follows the protest at the March 11 appearance on campus by Richard Kemp, the former British Army colonel who now advocates for the Israel Defence Forces, including for its conduct during last year’s war in Gaza, and who was brought to Australia by the United Israel Appeal lobby group.
Following allegations of anti-Semitism against our colleague Jake Lynch, Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, the university launched a “fact-finding investigation”. The National Tertiary Education Union has revealed that that investigation has concluded that the accusations are entirely without foundation.
Incredibly, in our opinion, the university has nevertheless now made formal allegations against one academic, five students and several non-student protesters. As a result, all are subject to a disciplinary process.
Thanks to The Australian, it is now on the public record that the academic staff member in question is Jake.
The allegations are serious: they could see Jake sacked, and the students and others suspended from their studies or banned from campus. Given the nature of the March 11 events, this is a massively disproportionate, unjustifiable and unprecedented response.
The position of an academic at this university is under threat because the university administration appears to find his political views inconvenient. The fact that allegations have been made constitutes, we believe, an attack on prerogatives that are essential to the proper functioning of a university: academics’ freedom to pursue principled arguments, regardless of their political popularity, and the general right of staff and students to protest and to dissent.
Any allegations of wrongdoing against either Jake or the students can, in our opinion, only be baseless. As the NTEU has recently communicated to its members, “the allegations [against Jake] are without substance and solely designed to placate external parties that have pressured the Vice-Chancellor.”
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that they constitute a politically-motivated attempt to frustrate Palestine activism on campus. We are deeply concerned at the implications this has for civil liberties and political freedoms at the university, and for the nature of our institution as a place where dissent and difference of political views can be unapologetically expressed by staff and students.
We believe, in short, that a threat is being made to the university’s raison d’être. This is unacceptable; as staff of the university, we cannot allow it to go unchallenged. The university’s disproportionate reaction to the Kemp protest aligns with the response of the conservative press, which has been engaged in a longstanding campaign against Jake and other Palestine activists.
Once its fact-finding investigation had concluded, management had the opportunity to decide not to take things any further. The decision it made instead – to escalate its punitive action against Palestine advocates by levelling formal allegations – is something we take extremely seriously. Political dissent and activist protest are and always have been at the origins of progressive change. Academics’ views must be given political expression in the real world if they are not to remain inert. It is profoundly disturbing that an academic at our university is facing dismissal for his commitment to human rights in Palestine.
Students around the world, for their part, routinely interrupt political talks at universities. As places which should be dedicated to fostering a healthy democratic culture and empowering young people to take the initiative as political actors, universities must always err on the side of extreme indulgence towards these kinds of action.
Clamping down on them, as our university is doing, is tantamount to stifling the political impulses on which active democracy depends. In doing this the university management reproduces and legitimates, on campus, the increasingly repressive and criminalizing response by states to democratic expressions of dissent.
Our concern is shared by prominent figures including Desmond Tutu, Julian Burnside AO QC, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk (Emeritus Professor of International Law at Princeton; former UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories), the journalistsJohn Pilger and Mary Kostakidis, Melissa Parke MP, and Senator Lee Rhiannon.
All of these and over 1600 other distinguished international scholars, politicians and human-rights activists have signed an open letter to Michael Spence calling on him not to take action against any of the March 11 participants.
As the signatories tell Dr Spence, “For the University of Sydney under your leadership to take action against anyone, whether students or staff, for their actions on March 11 would seriously discredit your own commitment to the fight against racial prejudice, and the commitment of your institution.”
In light of the serious threat to civil liberty and political freedom on campus, a group of staff and students have decided to call a university-wide meeting next week in order to defend civil liberties at our university. We will circulate details once they are finalized.
To prepare for that event we will be holding an organising meeting this Wednesday, April 22 at 1pm at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, just over the Parramatta Rd footbridge in Arundel St.
We warmly invite you to attend both the organising meeting this Wednesday and the university-wide meeting next week. The intention of the university-wide meeting is to take a strong stand in favour of civil liberties on campus, and, in doing so, to defend the preciousness of dissent, and the critical role that universities should have in fostering it.
The unwarranted disciplinary proceedings in which the university is engaged can only have the effect of intimidating human rights promoters on campus. They must end now.
Stuart Rees AM, Emeritus Professor, Founder, Sydney Peace Foundation
Nick Riemer, English and Linguistics
David Brophy, History
Like the article? Subscribe to Green Left now! You can also like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.