Published: 14 October 2022
Last updated: 5 March 2024
The Spanish Supreme Court has declared Israel boycotts constitute discrimination but in Australia academics call them a right.
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has passed a wide-reaching resolution supporting boycotts of Israel, banning its officials from accepting trips to Israel, and rejecting the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
The move comes as other countries move to reject the singling out of Israel. The Spanish Supreme Court this week released a ruling that boycotting Israel constitutes discrimination and infringes basic rights.
The two cases illustrate a widening disparity in the way Jews and Israels are viewed in western political discourse.
Spain was once a hotbed of efforts by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, known as BDS. A slew of lower-court rulings in Spain had curtailed that trend, but they had pertained only to individual cases and thus had a limited impact, the group said, but this ruling will function as a legal precedent applicable to all cases going forward.
ACOM, a Spanish pro-Israel nonprofit that has sued multiple entities for discriminating against Israel, described it as a major win.
The Spanish ruling is designed to address cases like those being promoted by the NTEU, which represents 27,000 university workers in Australia.
The NTEU resolved to:
- Seek to strengthen ties with Palestinian unions, including the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees.
- Prohibit elected officials or staff of the NTEU from accepting expenses-paid tours to Israel that are sponsored by the Israeli state or pro-Israel lobby
organisations - Oppose the adoption of policies that prohibit criticism of Israel by any Australian academic institution, including the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
- Support the right of NTEU members to engage in boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) actions that seek to end the occupation of Palestine
- Contribute $2,000 to the organisation of the next Black-Palestinian Solidarity Conference, to be held in late 2023.
- Call upon members to participate in active solidarity with Palestinians.
But the resolution stopped short of officially endorsing BDS as had been initially proposed.
Farhad Ali, a Palestinian activist who moved the motion, said on Twitter, "The motion also explicitly names apartheid, ethnic cleansing, settler colonialism, and land theft, and recognises the history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Palestinian solidarity in our struggles against settler-colonial violence."
When Israel criticism becomes antisemitism
Jewish leaders were particularly incensed by the Union's rejection of the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, which has been endorsed by both the Federal Coalition and Labor, as well as governments throughout the world.
The IHRA definition is used by governments to prevent hate speech and control antisemitic organisations. In a move separate from its Supreme Court decision, the Spanish parliament this week passed legislation that bars public funding for organisations that promote antisemitism, using the IHRA definition.
The definition includes examples where attacks on Israel may constitute antisemitism, including denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor; applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation; or holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.
ZFA President Jeremy Leibler said, “That the NTEU has the temerity to define and tell the Jewish community what is and isn’t antisemitism is deeply insulting. The definition the community overwhelmingly endorses is the one also endorsed by the UN, by the EU and by Australian federal and state governments – the IHRA working definition of antisemitism.”
The. co-CEO of The Executive Council of Australian Jewry Peter Wertheim noted that even the UK Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn, had after an intense debate, endorsed the IHRA Working Definition in its entirety, including all the examples.
"The resolution’s reference to “pro-Israel lobby organisations” is a sneering dismissal of every major Jewish community organisation in the country, simply for supporting Israel’s right to exist in peace and security. This part of the resolution is effectively saying that the heartland of the Australian Jewish community, which is overwhelmingly “pro-Israel”, should be kept at a distance by the NTEU."
Fear on campus
Jewish leaders expressed concerns that the NTEU action and its influence on teaching academics would worsen the sense of siege felt by Jewish students on campuses across Australia.
"The NTEU has packed lies, half-truths and obfuscations into a motion that is specifically designed to reduce understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to increase the exclusion and danger that Jewish Australians are facing on campus," said Leibler.
“While spurious and easily disproven allegations about Israel are offensive and highlight the wilful ignorance of NTEU members, the real harm in this motion is the denial of Jewish indigeneity – indeed, Jewish connection – to the land of Israel. Far from being a colonialist endeavour, Israel is the self-determination of its indigenous inhabitants. Describing Israel as practising colonialism, apartheid and genocide is a deliberate tactic designed to seek the ostracism of anyone who supports Israel’s existence. It is a deliberate tactic designed to exclude almost every Jew in Australia,” said Leibler.
Photo: Demonstrators protest outside the Spanish Government Delegation in Barcelona, (JTA)
