Update on Shurat HaDin lawfare attack on Professor Jake Lynch

Update on Shurat HaDin lawfare attack on Professor Jake Lynch
On Tuesday Oct 29th, 2 Israeli based organisations and three individuals made an application to the Australian Federal Court against Professor Jake Lynch. The case is Shurat HaDin – The Israel Law Center & Ors v Jake Lynch, NSD2235/2013.
The applicants are: Shurat HaDin, Green Freedom Limited (Israel Company Number 514 331 479), Andrew Hamilton, David Hans Lange and Jonathan Rose. 

The following media alert was released as a result of this action and prior to a press conference on Wed Oct 30th led by Professor Stuart Rees and Associate Professor Peter Slezak (Professor Jake Lynch is currently overseas on sabbatical leave).

Australian academic faces lawfare attack
The right to criticize the policies of another country is at stake

Today an Israeli based law centre, Shurat HaDin, filed a case in the Federal Court of Australia, against Professor Jake Lynch from the University of Sydney’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies. They claim that he has supported policies which are racist and discriminatory by his specific endorsement of an academic boycott of Israeli institutions and individuals within them, because of these institutions’ support of the illegal occupation of Palestine and their close connections with the Israeli armament industry.

This lawfare attack against academic freedom and freedom of speech has been condemned by over 2000 Australian and international human rights advocates from some 60 countries, who have all signed a pledge supporting BDS and offering to be co-defendants in any legal action taken against Lynch. 

Shurat HaDin has taken many similar actions internationally against groups who supported the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement. Professor Stuart Rees comments,
“It seems that this firm, Shurat HaDin works in the civil courts as a proxy for the Israeli government and security forces, seeking to shut down any criticism of the state and its ongoing human rights abuses and violations of international law.”

In August, Shurat HaDin lodged a complaint in the Human Rights Commission against Jake Lynch’s refusal to sponsor an Israeli academic from the Hebrew University because of that institution’s links to the Israeli military and the ongoing Occupation of the West Bank and blockade of Gaza.

This overseas firm now wants to silence this highly regarded academic, by taking their complaint to the Federal Court. This challenges the right to take non violent action in support international human rights law and the rights of the dispossessed Palestinians. Australians for BDS condemns racism in all forms, and specifically anti-Semitism.

“Israel’s occupation and ethnic cleansing machinery continue unabated but the moral force that used to drive that process is fast eroding and, as out of touch as the Abbott government and anti-BDS activists in Australia may be, there is an undeniable shift in the balance of moral power. .. International civil society is holding Israel to account in a way no government has ever been able to do”......Randa Abdul Fattah, Palestinian lawyer and writer resident in Sydney
Professor Jake Lynch released the following statement which was read at the press conference on Wed Oct 30th in Sydney.

“I am confident we will successfully fight off this despicable attack on freedom of expression, which is backed ultimately by the Israeli security state. The Shurat HaDin law centre has links to the Israeli National Security Council, and the Mossad, and has admitted in the past being directed by them as to which targets to pursue. That makes this attempt to subvert political debate in Australia all the more sinister.

In respect of the claims by Shurat HaDin, the boycott policy I wrote for CPACS, after a public meeting held at the University of Sydney, was carefully conceived to avoid discrimination, being confined to a request to the Vice Chancellor to revoke institutional links with two Israeli universities. And when I turned down the request by Professor Dan Avnon, to use my name on his application under one of those same schemes, I was (a) not in a position to prevent his coming to Sydney, since he had only to collect two names as host academics out of 3,000 at the University and (b) using my discretion - in effect, being asked for a favour. The law cannot require me to use my discretion in a particular way or it ceases to be discretion!”
A number of opinion pieces have been published recently outlining the issues raised by this action and we have posted links to them below. 

Your support and pledge to be a co-defendant in this case represents a strong stand against this unfounded and spurious lawfare attack by Shurat HaDin. It is unlikely that this organisation will desire to co-join any other defendants, but your ongoing support is crucial as Australians for BDS fights this foreign organisations’ attempts to gag free speech and academic freedom in Australia.
Please encourage others to sign onto the pledge and leave their comments on the site.

 And if you are an academic, please encourage your colleagues to sign on with their title eg. Prof, Dr., as we will be contacting all academics shortly to sign a statement of support for Professor Jake Lynch.
Thank you for your support. We will keep you posted as this case develops.
Queries: australians4bds@gmail.com
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Antony Loewenstein To support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement is not antisemitic
Prof Stuart Rees Op Ed in New Matilda – Two Thousand Defendants for Human Rights rights "> https://newmatilda.com/2013/10/28/two-thousand-defendants-human-rights
Randa Abdel-Fattah – Who's afraid of BDS? Israel's assault on academic freedom – Opinion – ABC Religion & Ethics...
Randa Abdel-Fattah – Who's afraid of BDS? Israel's assault on academic freedom – Opinion – ABC Religion & Ethics...
Dr Peter Slezak - Is It Anti-Semitic To Protest Injustice? https://newmatilda.com/2013/11/05/it-anti-semitic-protest-injustice
Samah Sabawi – Israel and the erosion of democracy : An Australian Story http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/10/israel-erosion-democracy-an-australian-story-2013101511625981682.html



This message was sent by Australians for BDS using the Change.org system. You received this email because you signed a petition started by Australians for BDS on Change.org: "Defend free speech and human rights and support the BDS." Change.org does not endorse contents of this message.

Sri Lanka still unsafe for many

Published: 3 November 2013
By: Paul Dobbyn

Cause for concern: Peter Arndt (front) in Vavuniya in Sri Lanka's north with local clergy and Justice and Peace Workers. Beside Mr Arndt in traditional attire is the mother of a Tamil man whom she said died in detention.

BRISBANE archdiocese's social justice advocate Peter Arndt has heard many claims about the infringement of Tamils' rights in Sri Lanka since the bloody ending to that country's civil war in 2008.

Recently the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission executive officer was able to observe the situation at first hand when he attended a networking meeting of the Asia Pacific Forum of Justice and Peace Workers in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
What Mr Arndt saw and heard on his September 3-9 visit disturbed him.

The experience convinced him Sri Lanka was not yet safe enough for the return of Tamil asylum seekers from Australia.

Mr Arndt called on the Australian Government to follow the Canadian Government's lead and boycott this year's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka next month.

Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Australia Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe has taken issue with many of Mr Arndt's comments.

He challenged Mr Arndt and others who criticised his country's government "to consider the progress that Sri Lanka has made after 30 years of war, and compare it with the post-conflict situation in other jurisdictions".

Admiral Samarasinghe said now was not the time for the Commonwealth to isolate Sri Lanka.

"What Sri Lanka needs right now is the support of all members of the Commonwealth," he said.

"It is encouraging that Australia's lead in taking a pragmatic and constructive approach by engaging constructively with Sri Lanka at the upcoming Commonwealth summit.

"Attempting to isolate the country at this critical juncture will only reverse post-conflict gains.

"It will also undermine domestic efforts at reconciliation between ordinary Sri Lankans who are looking forwards to a future of security, freedom and prosperity, now that the long dark era of terror is over."

Mr Arndt was unconvinced and said he had gained first-hand experience of the sufferings of Tamils in Sri Lanka's north on his visit.

"I wish (Australian Prime Minister) Mr (Tony) Abbott and others could have met with the women I met whose husbands and sons have been detained, tortured and, in some cases, killed over the last four years," he said.

"I wish he could have heard the pain in their voices and seen their tears.

"The systematic way in which Tamil men are being arrested and detained indefinitely looks suspiciously like ethnic cleansing to me."

Mr Arndt said presentations on the human rights situation by Sinhalese and Tamil activists in Colombo and the north were validated with face-to-face encounters with families of those tortured and/or disappeared.

"We met with families of those who continue to be arbitrarily detained, and with those displaced through the military taking over their villages," he said.

Admiral Samarasinghe said Sri Lanka had embarked on its own comprehensive domestic reconciliation and accountability process - the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Committee.

"Extensive efforts made by the Government to restore normalcy in the former theatre of conflict demonstrates that the Government has addressed a number of challenges in a brief period of four years, including some requiring a longer period of gestation," he said.

"These efforts were not only about 'bricks and mortar' but a comprehensive process which included resettlement of the displaced, rehabilitation of ex-combatants, provision of vocational training, launching and implementation of the trilingual policy and improvements in health and education sectors, to name a few."

Mr Arndt and others among the 35 JPWs visited Mannar district which includes Vavuniya and Mahdu where some of the heavy fighting occurred.

He said the after-effects of a civil war - lasting three decades and finishing in May 2009 with as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians being killed in a final battle between rebel forces and Government troops in the country's north - were still being felt.

In Mahdu, Mr Arndt and other JPWs met with Bishop Reyappu Joseph of Mannar and a number of Tamil and Sinhalese priests ministering to the Tamil community where they were briefed on concerns.

They also visited the 400-year-old Shrine of Our Lady of Mahdu which draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims for August 15, the Feast Day of the Assumption and large numbers for Our Lady's birthday on September 8.

Mr Arndt's visit to Vavuniya allowed him to meet with the wives, mothers and other family members of 12 Tamil men detained in the past four years.

"The men are detained either locally or in Galle to the south," he said.

"In all our visits, we were able to observe there is little improvement, little livelihood opportunities and much fear, mourning and grieving for loved ones killed during the civil war.

"Healing is more difficult as the civil war killings are not officially acknowledged and no memorials and monuments are allowed by the Government.

"The encounters also gave a face to the oft-reported alleged militarisation, Sinhalisation and the blatant disregard of the Government for basic human rights in Sri Lanka, especially in the north."

Mr Arndt said justice and peace workers during the conference were aided by inputs on the Second Vatican Council and the Church and human rights by Fr Sheldon Reid Fernando.

At the end of the gathering, participants committed to focus on two major issues as regional priorities: Militarisation and Migration, and Human Trafficking.

As a collective action, the JPWs agreed to send a letter to the president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Sri Lanka Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith to share their experiences and reflections with the bishops after the meeting.

"We also came away with a commitment to communicate and share findings and reflections with the Churches and peoples in each of our countries," Mr Arndt said.

"For me, it was a chance to see first hand the accuracy of reports I had been receiving from many sources for some years."

MEMO: ASYLUM SEEKERS NOW ‘ILLEGAL’

MEMO: ASYLUM SEEKERS NOW ‘ILLEGAL’


By Monica Attard

October 21, 2013



What to do when a government decides to shut off the information tap, starving journalists of the facts they require – especially when those facts lead to government decisions that have an impact on the collective morality of the nation?

Maybe the new government’s modus operandi is why we report on the woes of that gift that keeps giving – the ALP, even in the absence of real evidence that venting about a former leader and the party’s factional system will contribute to the search for meaning.

Maybe it’s why some journalists are filling their column inches with puff pieces, a recent and surprising one about Tony Abbott, the heroic fireman, as large tracts of New South Wales burned like tinder.

Journalists are of course still digging and foraging – doing their job – to report on the business of government and governing. But the government is quietly changing the rules of the game.

Consider the stark difference between the information available and coverage of asylum seekers since September 7.

Before the election, the boats were arriving daily. We knew about the others that were were sinking and the people who were dying. We weren’t spared the details. Then the Abbott government announced that grim daily roll call was finished.



The legal right to seek safety and protection
Letters, The Age October 21, 2013
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has instructed departmental and detention centre staff to publicly refer to asylum seekers as ‘illegal’ arrivals and ‘detainees’, rather than clients (The Sunday Age, 20/10).
Could he please direct us to the Australian or international law that describes a person seeking refuge in another country because of fear of death, serious injury or persecution as an ‘illegal’? My understanding is that no such law exists.
I am tired of hearing our leaders demonise human beings made in the image of God for their partisan political ends. Mr Morrison, show us evidence that these people are doing something illegal.
Reverend Paul Arnott, Ringwood East

A bully's Orwellian language
Throughout history, tyrants have justified their actions by introducing language that dehumanises those they wish to bully or use for their own political purposes.
Yes, it is good to stop people from drowning but I am not convinced this is the true reason for the minister's action. The word ‘illegal’ is meant to influence the electorate, not desperate people seeking safety. We must insist that Morrison stop trying to manipulate us with his dishonest words.
And isn't it ‘illegal’ for a politician to mislead the public, or have we become so accustomed to this that we say nothing? War is now called peace, freedom called slavery, and ignorance called strength.
Rosie McKenry, Castlemaine

Instilling fear in the community
Minister Scott Morrison's directive is designed to shape the way one views the world, and is reinforced each time such language is used.
While the directive may be officially imposed within bureaucratic language, even though it is not illegal for people to seek asylum, the community does not have to be conned. One can easily see this directive as a ‘dog whistle’, inviting asylum seekers to be seen as ‘the other’. We cannot let linguistic tricks continue to damage Australia's international standing.
Julia Anaf, Norwood, SA

Why we must fight this change
This kind of nonsense belongs in Alice in Wonderland. ‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.’ Contrast this to the national day of mourning declared in Italy when a large number of asylum seekers were tragically drowned. Calling refugees ‘illegal’ is central to the government's program to demonise refugees. Labor, the Greens and the community must protest vociferously at this change.
Cath Morrison, North Carlton
Read more http://www.theage.com.au/comment/the-age-letters/the-legal-right-to-seek-safety-and-protection-20131020-2vut9.html#ixzz2iIhYHWCE

The Peace Poets Write From Kabul

Luke Nephew Countercurrents October 14, 2013
The flight from Dubai to Kabul:
It’s a flight full of Afghan people and soldiers. And me. And surely a handful of other curious characters. The tension is palpable in the waiting area by the gate. Eye contact between the warring parties is avoided let alone any dialogue. I think about the time when we were in the Bahrain airport where all men and woman sit in different waiting areas and I took out the guitar and played Akon’s ‘Ain’t nobody wanna see us together but it don’t matter no, because we gonna fight, yah we gonna fight, fight for our right to love.’ Against all odds that went over great, this particular moment however just didn’t feel like it was asking for a song. But then as the bus brought us across the runway to board the plane, an American soldier helped an Afghan family carry their bags up the stairs and store them above their seats. The other people watched with quiet suspicion. That’s what it is I think, as I sit myself down in the middle seat between two Afghan men, it’s a deep dark sense of distrust. Distrust dangerous ground to build anything on, let alone a country, much less nine military bases or a prison like the one at Bagram Air Force Base outside Kabul where people are kept without charges for months or years. Very dangerous ground. The plane shutters itself awake and rolls out onto the runway. The lights go off. The babies seem to all break the silence in unison. Some of us don’t have the option of distrust they cry. Their wailing for food or sleep or to be held sounds so beautiful to me in the harsh air of the old plane. ‘Where are we going?’ they seem to be asking……
There was someone there waiting for me. They just weren’t sure who I was. I stood there for a few minutes and then I noticed three guys wearing matching blue scarfs. Ahh yes, the color of the Afghan Peace Volunteers. I met eyes with one of the young men. He raised his eyebrows, took a step forward and said, ‘Luke?’ Yes. My peoples. It turned out they saw the website and something in the communication at some point made them think that out of the five Peace Poets, there we’re expecting the big dark skinned one with locks. So when I rolled through the parking lot, not even my bright Bolivian guitar case was enough of a reason for them to assume I might be the peace poet. But, eye contact and instincts are lifesavers. So Dr. Hakim, an amazing peace activist and medical doctor who lives and works with the community of Afghan youth, flashed his brilliant smile and it was big hugs all around. Abdulhai and Raz Mohammed were the youth from the community who had made the early morning trip to the airport with Hakim to pick me up. Good to be together, we hop in a cab and into the streets of Kabul…….

Remembering 12 years of war,
The streets of Kabul beg in the dust,
Distrust and revenge a city, a country, a people condemned
After 12 years of war, some estimate 78% of Afghans have psychological disorders, the taxi driver says its more, says we Afghans can’t think right anymore, he shows us scars on his knees from the day he almost died, he sighs, ‘so many stories of pain…
But who are we to say we’re sane? When we remain entrenched after 12 years of war? I dare you to come here and still say you want more?
Another day, another year, then leaving 9 military bases here,
America has smashed the windows of people’s sanity,
People are demanding we leave, nobody wants to hear Obama make a pretty speech
In Kabul I’ve see anger rise like armies
in young men’s eyes that say you have harmed me and my family for the last time,
I wanna know what will be the last crime committed in the name of freedom,
more marines relieving themselves on corpses of murdered kids,
12 years of blood that did not have to get spilled,
12 years of mothers gone mad from mourning, what have we become?
Afghanistan is a nation of American made guns and American made widows,
Hearts crumbling like bombed out windowsills
Wondering where they’ll find the will to teach their son not to kill
When inflicting death is the lesson they’ve best learned from us,
12 years of dust on boots and the truth being covered in mud,
But what will we do now…
Are we hoping a nation of 30 million will forgive and forget, would you let it go if an occupying army broke into your house killed your father and didn’t even say sorry, or admit it was a mistake, how many more years will it take Americans to wake up and say I will not live in debt while my government pays millions of dollars a day to make people hate me for my passport, want to cut my life short for my birth country’s flag, 12 years of war and not enough body bags to hold the soldiers, not enough words to say the funeral masses, not enough mass graves to hold the lives that 12 years of wartime has taken,
and when I ask a young Afghan woman named Zuhal, why she wants an end to the occupation,
She says, ‘12 years of war is too many, it’s time for the soldiers to go home to their families. They must miss them.’
Read more http://www.countercurrents.org/nephew141013.htm

Mary and Mohammad Very moving. A must see film

Compass, ABC TV October 13, 2013
Summary
The story of an unlikely friendship between a young Afghan asylum seeker and a 71 year old Australian pensioner.
Mary is a Christian who lives in a poor rural municipality outside Hobart in Tasmania. When the government opens a new detention centre nearby Mary is bitterly opposed to the arrival of its mostly Muslim detainees. But when her local knitting club is asked to make winter beanies for the asylum seekers, she embarks on a journey of friendship that finds her questioning long-held beliefs and prejudices.
Watch film http://www.abc.net.au/compass/s3853159.htm

CATHOLIC BISHOPS URGE POPE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE RIGHTS OF CATHOLICS TO HAVE A VOICE IN THE DECISION MAKING OF THEIR CHURCH

Bishops Robinson, Morris and Power recently joined with 100 church organisations backed by over four million Catholics around the world calling on Pope Francis to give priests, religious, and laity a major role in church decision making in matters such as dealing with sexual abuse, on the eve of his meeting with an eight member council of cardinals to discuss church governance.

Representatives of reform groups throughout the world submitted a letter tracing the current crisis in the church, including sex abuse and fiscal corruption in the Vatican and outlining the destructive effects of clericalism and an all-male celibate governing body on the church has been submitted to Pope Francis and the eight Cardinals, including Cardinal Pell, that are meeting in Rome now.

The three bishops are lending their support to this movement. Other supporters include Catholics for Renewal in Australia, US based groups: Call to Action, Voice of the Faithful, American Catholic Council, and the We Are Church movement worldwide. The latter has a membership of several million Catholics in nearly 50 countries.

Pope Francis has inaugurated some reforms at the Vatican. He has criticised clericalism, saying that the episcopate is a ministry of service and not one of domination. He has also insisted that newly appointed bishops be “close to the people, fathers and brothers and …not have the psychology of 'Princes.’” And in his recent interview that received worldwide circulation, he said, "The Church is the people of God, pastors and people put together. The church is the totality of God's people."

But the Pope has yet to specify to what extent the laity will be included in sharing church authority.

The letter, respectful and supportive of the direction Pope Francis appears to be moving, states that full participation of all baptised Catholics in the church’s decision making it fundamental to church reform and is firmly based on the Gospel, tradition, and the vision of the Second Vatican Council.

The letter also calls for open dialogue among its members and urges Pope Francis to reinstate theologians who have been censored in previous pontificates and to cease its “unjust and unwarranted” investigation of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

“Our fondest hope is that Pope Francis will accept a delegation of our leaders at the Vatican,” said Bishop Morris, on behalf of Bishops Robinson and Power. “He has been reaching out to atheists, gays and others. He wants dialogue. We want that too.”

To view the letter that has been sent go to
http://forchristssake.info/index.php/links/

Bishop Morris and Robinson have also been in the media go to http://forchristssake.info/index.php/media/ to view the latest articles.

Please continue to promote the petition.
'Like' the For Christ's Sake Petition page on Facebook and encourage others to sign.
http://www.facebook.com/forchristssakepetition

To date we have:
116,205 signatures on line and
2,618 signed on paper (via parishes and other groups)
Giving a total of 118,823

ShahzInvited to Testify by Congress, Anti-Drone Advocate Denied US Visa

ShahzInvited to Testify by Congress, Anti-Drone Advocate Denied US Visa
Pakistani lawyer represents victims of US drone attacks abroad, but their voices will be silenced, he says, if his travel is denied
Jon Queally Common Dreams September 25, 2013


ad Akbar (right), a well-known human rights lawyer and anti-drone advocate from Pakistan, has been denied entry to the US despite an invitation from Congress to testify about the destructive impact the US drone war is having on the families of victims in Pakistan. (File)
‘Failing to grant me a visa silences the 156 civilian drone strike victims and families that I represent.’ Shahzad Akbar, lawyer and victim advocate
Shahzad Akbar, a Pakistani lawyer and legal fellow with the UK-based human rights group Reprieve, may not be given the chance to testify before Congress next week because the US has reportedly blocked his visa application, denying him entry.
According to The Guardian, Akbar—who also serves as director of the Foundation for Fundamental Rights in Pakistan—has met roadblocks at the State Department over his attempts to travel, along with three of his clients, to Washington, DC in order to give family members of those killed by US drone attacks a chance to tell their stories directly to U.S. lawmakers and the American public at large.
The Guardian reports:
Akbar's clients, Rafiq ur-Rehman, his 13-year-old son, Zubair, and his nine-year-old daughter, Nabila, are from the tribal regions of north Waziristan. The children were injured in the alleged US strike on the village of Tappi last year. Their grandmother – Rehman's mother, Mamana – was killed.
Rehman and his children have spent months making preparations to visit Washington after being invited by US representatives to testify in the ad hoc hearing on drone strikes.
According to Akbar, his clients' visas for the trip have been approved, but his has not. He believes the hold-up is political……
According to Reprieve, which has worked closely with some of the victims that are also his clients, Akbar traveled regularly to the US prior to 2011. It was only when he began representing victims of CIA drone strikes, they said, that the lawyer began having significant difficulty getting his U.S. visa processed. This current instance is the second time that the US has failed to grant Mr Akbar a visa to speak at a U.S. event……
Akbar told The Guardian that he believes it's not necessarily the State Department, but another government agency, that may be blocking his entry. ‘We brought litigation, civil litigation and civil charges, against CIA officials in Pakistan for their role in drone strikes,’ he explained. ‘I think it's pretty clear that I have been blacklisted because of that.’
Read more http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/09/25