Centre chief Jake Lynch rebuked over Israeli snub

The dean of the university's arts and social science faculty, Duncan Ivison, yesterday wrote to Jake Lynch spelling out that "he does not speak for the faculty on visiting scholars and cannot make decisions about who comes here".

Associate Professor Lynch caused outrage after he rejected a bid for assistance by Hebrew University of Jerusalem academic Dan Avnon, credited with developing Israel's only state program in civics written for Jewish and Arab students, on the basis of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel.

Concern has been growing over the centre's support for the BDS, with academics saying it "shouldn't play a partisan political role" and staff expressing fears that by choosing one side of the conflict, it will not be perceived as "neutral" on policy and research.

Avril Alba, who is the Roth lecturer in Holocaust studies and Jewish civilisation at the University of Sydney, said the BDS movement ran the risk of "being blind to the great work" that individual academics are doing.

"I personally don't support the BDS movement," she told The Weekend Australian.

"Within the Israeli academic community, it's precisely these academics like Professor Avnon who are doing the important peace and reconciliation work that are being penalised through an individual blind policy such as the BDS."

According to minutes of the centre's council meetings, Jewish scholar Suzanne Rutland, also based at the University of Sydney, expressed concern about Associate Professor Lynch's support for the BDS.

"Suzanne said that Jake's decision to send letters to support BDS was a political one," say the minutes of a meeting on April 5 last year. "We shouldn't play a partisan political role," she was quoted as saying.

Other university colleagues raised alarm bells even earlier, with both Professor Rutland and staffer Jenny McNaughton taking issue with Professor Lynch's attendance of a "Sydney rally over the Gaza flotilla, and general position of the centre in Middle East issues".

"Jenny told the council that she was concerned that CPACS (the centre) was not being neutral as an academic institution by supporting one side of the conflict over the other," say the minutes of a meeting held in June 2010. " She believes CPACS should not be partisan."

In both meetings, Professor Lynch and his colleagues defended the centre's support of the BDS and involvement in rallies, saying there was "no intention to be partisan".

"CPACS shouldn't be neutral regarding human rights issues or international law," Professor Lynch said, according to the 2010 minutes.

"Especially regarding Israel, mainstream Australian media tries to excuse Israel's actions so CPACS has a duty to discuss it."

A spokesman for the University of Sydney said yesterday that the institution and vice-chancellor Michael Spence did not support Professor Lynch's position on Professor Avnon.

"Professor Duncan Ivison has written to Associate Professor Lynch advising him that he does not speak for the faculty on the issue of visiting scholars and cannot make decisions about who comes here," the spokesman said. "Professor Ivison and other academics in the arts faculty are very happy for Avnon to come to the University of Sydney."

The spokesman also said it was not the first time Professor Lynch had been warned by university leaders that his comments about the BDS were inappropriate.

"Both the vice-chancellor and the dean ... have written to Associate Professor Lynch pointing out that his comments were inappropriate and did not reflect university policy, and they have said so publicly on a number of occasions," the spokesman said.

"The vice-chancellor first wrote to Associate Professor Lynch in June 2009 advising him that he did not agree with ... (his) call for a boycott of Israeli universities and academics."

The spokesman said that when Professor Lynch wrote of "we", he was only "speaking on behalf of himself and maybe one or two colleagues".

"He does not speak on behalf of the school of philosophical and historical inquiry, or the faculty of arts and social sciences or the University of Sydney," he said in a statement.

Professor Lynch told The Weekend Australian yesterday he was happy to explain the situation to Professor Ivison, saying he simply declined Professor Avnon's request to name him as a personal contact for the University of Sydney in his fellowship application.

"I quite understand why Duncan has sought clarification from me on this, and I was happy to supply it," he said.

" I am careful to make it clear that support for BDS is a policy of my centre, not the university or any other part of it ... It was, and remains, open to him (Professor Avnon) to approach any of my colleagues, who may of course respond as they see fit."

Professor Lynch said he had "nothing against him personally, and his research sounds interesting" but he declined his request because of the centre's support for the BDS.

"I explained, in my reply, that this would involve us in an institutional arrangement with Israeli higher education, and as such I would decline to do so, under our support (as a centre) for BDS," he said.

The controversy sparked a furious response from British academic Denis MacEoin, the editor of Middle East Quarterly, who wrote a letter to the university saying he found the prejudice shown by Professor Lynch "appalling".