The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC), Australia’s leading organisation fighting anti-Semitism and hatred in all its forms, has voiced its dismay at the forthcoming Edward Said Memorial Lecture to be delivered at Adelaide University by anti-Israel proponent Professor John Dugard. The keynote address is titled “Palestine: Is Israel Above the Law?” and is co-sponsored by the pro-BDS Australian Friends of Palestine Association together with the university’s School of Social Sciences.
ADC Chairman, Dr Dvir Abramovich, issued the following statement:
“By co-sponsoring this event with an organisation that supports the hateful BDS movement, so fundamentally inconsistent with the values championed by universities, the publicly funded School of Social Sciences creates the impression that they support the campaign against Israel and that they endorse the views expressed by Mr Dugard. When an academic institution gives the bully pulpit to a speaker that has never attempted to hide his skewed anti-Israel views, calling the Goldstone Report a “ historical milestone”, and justifying and absolving Palestinian terrorists of responsibility by comparing their actions to the Europeans who resisted the Nazi occupation, it confers legitimacy and credibility on that speaker that is unwarranted. I remind the university that Mr Dugard has never mentioned the Israelis murdered and maimed by Palestinian terrorists, that he has accused the IDF of intentionally targeting civilians and has peddled the falsehood that Israel has committed worse crimes than the racist apartheid South African regime. We urge Adelaide University to avoid lending its good name and offering its seal of approval to such a one-sided event and to a divisive organisation by rescinding its partnership with the lecture and from the effort to delegitimize Israel promoted by AFPA.”
The Anti-Defamation Commission, founded in 1979, is Australia’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through educational programs that combat bigotry, prejudice and all forms of hatred.
For further information please contact Dr Dvir Abramovich on (03) 9272 5677.