Australia ‘s Jewish Council warns against labeling pro-Palestine demos ‘anti-Semitic’
The Jewish Council in Australia warns against “deceitfully” accusing pro-Palestine protests and encampments of “anti-Semitism” as students in the county have joined the global movement against Israel’s savagery in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The council vehemently rejected the claims that encampment protests — inspired by the protests at Columbia University in the United States — are a threat to Jewish students and staff.
“Attempting to silence or censor these protests by deceitfully accusing them of anti-Semitism is a dangerous overreach that if acted upon, risks stifling free speech on campuses.”
Elizabeth Strakosch, executive officer of the Jewish Council of Australia, said that the country “should be proud of the students “who are speaking out against this unfolding genocide.”
“The right to peaceful protest is a fundamental democratic freedom that universities should uphold and defend.”
Students and faculty members set up protest encampments on at least a dozen college campuses across the United States to demand the leadership of their universities cut financial ties with Israel.
Israel has killed nearly 34,500 people in Gaza since early October.
Similar protest encampments have sparked at the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne, where students called on their universities scrap deals with weapons companies, Israeli universities and the US Department of Defense, which provides an estimated 68% of Israel's weapons.
Sarah Schwartz, another executive officer of the Jewish Council of Australia, said that there is “nothing anti-Semitic about strong criticism of Israel, or calls for freedom and justice for Palestinians.”
“Slandering these protests is a cynical attempt to distract from the atrocities Israel is currently committing.”
“It is offensive both to Palestinians and their allies, including Jewish staff and students who are also protesting."
"We need to distinguish between genuine racism and political discomfort. These protests may make some students uncomfortable because they politically disagree, but that is not grounds to shut them down – it is a reality of life in a democracy."
Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu has recently claimed that US universities were being overrun by anti-Semitism on a scale comparable to the rise of Nazism in Germany.
In a video posted on X, Senator Bernie Sanders accused Netanyahu of “insult[ing] the intelligence of the American people” by using anti-Semitism to distract attention from the policies of his “extremist and racist" regime of the savage campaign in Gaza.
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