Uni sorry for prof’s blog

A WEST Australian university has apologised to the Jewish Community Council of Western Australia (JCCWA) over an article by one of its academics, berating Israel.

The article, posted to the website of the London School of Economics (LSE) by Dr Sandra Nasr, claimed Zionism was based “upon notions of separateness, superiority and entitlement. It finds its origins in the ‘promise’ believed to have been made by God to ‘His people’.”

The Middle East politics lecturer at the University of Notre Dame Australia stated that the Torah and Tanach “not only raise the Israelites to special status (‘a people apart’) above all other peoples of the Earth, but legitimises – and even requires – the ethnic cleansing of non-Israelites from the land of Canaan”.

Nasr further described Zionism as “essentially a colonial plan” based on “assumptions of European racial and cultural superiority”.

The JCCWA, with the backing of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), protested to Notre Dame and received an apology from vice-chancellor Professor Celia Hammond.

Noting in a statement that “the opinions and comments expressed by Dr Sandra Nasr were not endorsed or sanctioned by the university and do not, in any way, represent the views of the university,” a statement from Notre Dame added, “The university expresses its disappointment and apologises that comments causing such offence have been associated with it.”

Commending the LSE for removing Nasr’s comments from its student blog, and praising Notre Dame “for promptly and unreservedly dissociating itself” from the comments and apologising, ECAJ executive director Peter Wertheim said the post “misrepresented and denigrated Zionism, and did so in a way that explicitly appealed to ancient misconceptions and prejudices about Jews and Judaism”.

“Her insidious message was that all the peoples of the world have the right of self-determination except the Jewish people. It is disgraceful for anybody, especially an academic, to use racism as a polemical tool,” he said.

Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein and international and community affairs director Jeremy Jones also complained to the university, noting that the blog included “deplorable stereotypes” such as “alleged, false, Jewish belief of superiority, depiction of adherents of Judaism as religiously directed ‘ethnic cleansers’ and of Jews as ‘baying for blood’”.

Rubenstein said he was pleased with the vice-chancellor’s “speedy and proper response”.

Describing the article as “appalling”, JCCWA president David Denver told The AJN that when the body’s director of public affairs Steve Lieblich contacted Notre Dame, the apology from vice-chancellor Hammond “was very prompt and very pleasing”. He added that there are now plans for the JCCWA to meet with her.

PETER KOHN