Sydney University academic Jake Lynch has been cleared of charges of anti-Semitism and serious misconduct after a two-month investigation by the university found that he had engaged in “unsatisfactory conduct”.
“I am greatly relieved and entirely impressed and grateful at the effective campaign to mobilise opinion among right thinking people behind my intellectual freedom and against the vexatious an insubstantial allegations that I faced,” Lynch said.
“There are other aspects of the investigation that are still under discussion, but the main finding is that I remain in my post and that the false imputation of anti-Semitism has been completely refuted.”
Lynch and 12 other people, including five students, two university contractors (believed to be security guards) and five members of the public, had faced hearings from the university regarding a protest at a lecture at the university on March 11. The lecture, by Colonel Richard Kemp, a defender of the Israeli Defence Forces, was interrupted by pro-Palestinian activists, resulting in an altercation between attendees and protesters. Lynch was filmed waving a banknote in the face of one of the attendees, an elderly woman, who he claimed poured water over him and kicked at his groin. The woman, identified as 73-year-old Diane Barkus by The Australian, doesn’t deny that she kicked at Lynch, but says she didn’t make contact.
In a statement yesterday the university said: “A number of members of the University community and the public were found to have engaged in unsatisfactory conduct, as a result of which disciplinary action, including counselling, warning and suspension of access rights to the University grounds have been imposed.”
The university could not confirm how many members of the public or other members of staff had been disciplined or had their access to the university suspended. Barkus is understood to be one of the members of the public who was asked to explain her actions to the university, but it can’t be confirmed if she has been banned from university grounds.
Dr Nick Riemer, a senior lecturer at the university and member of Sydney Staff for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions, told Crikey the result “shows the baselessness of the campaign against him (Lynch)” and is a victory for free speech on campus. “The outcome has been a real victory against attempts to stifle the expression of political views.”
“The university should be congratulating Jake for promoting the cause of a just peace in the Middle East, not threatening him with the sack for it. It’s now time for the university to drop all its charges against the student protesters, too,” he said in a statement.
The investigation into the conduct of five students is still ongoing, and with the upcoming assessment period, Riemer says the investigation “interferes with the students’ education in a real, material way, which is unacceptable”.
There was a time when Sydney University didn’t permit thugs to silence those with arguments that the thugs didn’t want to be allowed to be presented.
Nowadays the intellectual thugs seem to have much free-rein at Sydney. Vale academic integrity.
At the time the university started its investigation several people alleged that the university was hounding Lynch at the instigation of the pro Israel lobby, an allegation which is now shown to be as wrong as it seemed at the time.
As a pro-human rights intellectual, I was very relieved to see that the Zionist lynch mob were unsuccessful in getting Sydney University to sack or otherwise punish Professor Lynch over his informed and principled opposition to the ongoing Palestinian Genocide by nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run, genocidally racist, democracy-by-genocide, grossly human rights-violating, Apartheid Israel (see “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ ).
For the views of numerous anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish scholars, writers and leaders who share the humane concerns of Professor Lynch over genocidally racist Zionism see “Boycott Apartheid Israel”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/ ; “Gaza Concentration Camp”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/gaza-concentration ; “Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/ ; “Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/nonjewsagainstracistzionism/ ; and “Nuclear weapons ban , end poverty & reverse climate change”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/nuclear-weapons-ban ).
As a self-proclaimed intellectual [?], Gideon, do you actually believe it helps anyone consider accepting your ‘status’ when you have to couch your ‘argument’ with terms such as “Zionist lynch mob” and “nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run, genocidally racist, democracy-by-genocide, grossly human rights-violating, Apartheid Israel”?
I doubt many would take up your recommendation to visit websites you suggest, unless they shared your quaint world view. On the other hand, your post will provide ample material for your opponents to destroy any credibility you may still have with those hoping to find rational paths towards ending the various current Middle East disasters.