Academic Free Speech Under Zionist Attack At Notre Dame Australia And LSE, UK

By Dr Gideon Polya

16 December, 2015
Countercurrents.org

Dr Sandra Nasr, lecturer in Middle East politics at  Notre Dame University, Western Australia, published an article on the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)  website uncontroversially linking Old Testament Biblical imperatives of violent occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine in the first millennium BC  to Zionist colonialism  and gross human rights abuse in Palestine today. Dr Nasr  was immediately attacked and falsely defamed by Zionists and the Fairfax-owned  WA Today as “racist” and “anti-semitic”  and the article was removed from the LSE website. To its shame, rather than defend Dr Nasr, Notre Dame said it “apologizes” for her article which it is  now “addressing”.

This is the sorry  statement by Notre Dame University (Australia): “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 of Notre Dame Australia. The University expresses its disappointment and apologises that comments causing such offence have been associated with it. Notre Dame is addressing this issue in accordance with its relevant processes and will not make any further comment until these have been duly followed" [1].

If anything, Dr Sandra Nasr's article is  remarkable for its restraint. Thus it refers to and documents repeated expressions of “racial superiority” and “ethnic cleansing”  in the Old Testament but in relation to present-day Palestine merely talks of human rights abuse and “Delegitimising through Dehumanisation: Palestinian “human” rights denied” by the Zionists ruling all of Palestine today (plus a largely ethnically cleansed slab of Syria) [2].

Dr Sandra Nasr: “Notions of ‘racial' superiority are contained in Jewish scriptures and Rabbinical pronouncements have the effect of relegating ‘the other' to a standard which is sub-human and, therefore, not deserving of the same considerations that are reserved for one's ‘own kind'. The status as God's ‘Chosen People', who are superior to all others, in receipt of ‘The Covenant' and His gift of a ‘Promised Land' cleansed of its previous inhabitants makes for a very attractive concept, and a dangerous one. Modern-day Israelites found practical and ideological expression of this concept in Zionism. This is evident in the words made famous by Golda Meir, later an Israeli PM, referring to Palestine as ‘a land without a people for a people without a land'. This statement clearly relegated Palestinians to a non-people” [2].

Professor Richard Dawkins in his book “The God Delusion” (pages 253-257) reported the findings of Israeli psychologist George Tamarin: “Tamarin  presented to more than a thousand Israeli school children, aged between eight and fourteen , the account of the battle of Jericho in the book of Joshua [which states] Then they utterly destroyed all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and asses, with the edge of the sword … Tamarin then asked the children a simple moral question: “Do you think Joshua and the Israelites acted rightly or not? They had to choose between A (total approval), B (partial approval) and C (total disapproval). The results were polarized: 66 per cent gave total approval, and 26 per cent total disapproval, with rather fewer (8 per cent) in the middle with partial approval … Tamarin ran a fascinating control group in his experiment. A different group of 168 Israeli children were given the same text from the book of Joshua, but with Joshua's name replaced by “General Lin” and “ Israel ” replaced by “a Chinese kingdom 3,000 years ago”. Now the experiment gave opposite results. Only 7 per cent approved of General Lin's behaviour, and 75 per cent disapproved… It was religion that made the difference between children condemning genocide and condoning it” [3].

Decent, sensible people are outraged by primitive religious clap-trap being  foisted on children, and regard this as constituting egregious intellectual child abuse. How infinitely  more egregious and evil is invasion, devastation, brutal subjection, remorseless humiliation, mass murder and genocide imposed  on the Palestinian people by the neo-Nazi Zionists who justify this by the obscene, genocidally racist spoutings of genocidal barbarians of 2,500 years ago who asserted that their God had chosen them as his Chosen People and instructed them to destroy all others. Thus the Old Testament declares in Deuteronomy chapter 7: “1 When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; 2 And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them: 3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. 4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. 5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth” [4].

US scholar Professor William Cook's recent seminal book ”Age of Fools” [5] is a powerful condemnation of Jewish Zionist and Christian Zionist racism  and   summarizes the ongoing Palestinian Genocide by the racist Zionists (RZs) of US-backed Apartheid Israel: “Few know that Palestinians are, in all legitimate ways, the indigenous population of the area; that in 1870, 98% of the population was Arab and only 2% Jewish; that in 1940, Palestinians accounted for 69% of the population  even as Jews thronged to the area from Europe in an attempt to  escape the Nazis; that in 1947, the year that  the UN created Israel without the approval of the indigenous population, the Palestinians represented 65% and the Israelis less than 35% of the 1,845,000 who lived there; that Israel now occupies all but 22% of the Palestinian land , having taken it in the 1967 war and consistently refusing  to return it to its proper owners” ([5], page 47).

Today in 2015 the genocidally racist Israelis have now ethnically cleansed 90% of the land of Palestine by military takeover, “Jews-only” highways, the obscene Apartheid Wall and related barriers,  village, farm and home destruction, and by illegal settlements. Of 12 million Palestinians, 6 million are forbidden to step foot in their own country, 4.3 million exist without human rights  as prisoners  without charge or trial in the blockaded Gaza Concentration Camp (1.8 million) or in West Bank Bantustan ghettoes (2.5 million),  and only 1.7 million Palestinians Israelis (14% of Palestinians and 28% of Palestinian subjects of Apartheid Israel) are permitted to vote for the government ruling all of Palestine, albeit as Third Class citizens under Nazi-style Apartheid laws. 2 million Palestinians have been killed by violence (0.1 million) or by violently-imposed deprivation (1.9 million) since 1936 [6, 7].

In this context, “holocaust” means the death of large numbers of people whereas “genocide” is defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention thus: “In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group” . Article 3 states that “The following acts shall be punishable: (a) Genocide; (b) Conspiracy to commit genocide; (c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide; (d) Attempt to commit genocide; (e) Complicity in genocide”; Article 4 states that “Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals” [8].  Accordingly  a large body of eminent anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish contributors   to the book “The Plight of the Palestinians” referred to an ongoing Palestinian Genocide [9, 10].

The annual per capita GDP is  $2,900 for Palestine, 13  times lower than for Apartheid Israel ($38,000)  that continues to steal land, steal water and impose a Nazi-style Apartheid regime on Occupied Palestinians of whom it kills 1,000 violently  each year and kills a further 4,000 non-violently each year through imposed deprivation.  Half the Palestinians are children and most of those in the blockaded Gaza Concentration Camp are badly traumatized by repeated Israeli Gaza Massacres involving shelling, rocketing or bombing from IDF tanks, ships or planes [6, 7].  One notes that it is not just Occupied Palestinian and Palestinian Israeli children who are being violated and traumatized by child-abusing, neo-Nazi Apartheid Israelis – a recent survey of Israeli children provides shocking evidence that 48.5% have suffered physical psychological or sexual abuse, with 18% suffering sexual abuse [11].  

Of course all decent people around the world – and notably anti-racist  Jews – are utterly opposed to this US-backed Apartheid Israeli New Nazism and can respond effectively and peacefully by application of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against US-backed Apartheid Israel and its supporters (notably Apartheid America and its lackeys the UK, France and Apartheid Australia), just as boycotts were successfully used against US-, UK- and Apartheid Israel-backed Apartheid South Africa. Pro-Apartheid Israel France has disgustingly criminalized advocacy of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel [12] and the pro-Zionist Australian  Coalition Government has declared that it will cut off Federal funding to any academics supporting BDS (this including anti-racist Jews who are outstanding in Australia and around the world as strong critics of Apartheid Israel).

Dr Nasr's article was concerned  with racist Zionist attitudes and accordingly  did not deal with the attitudes of anti-racist Jews who are for reasons of simple humanity  utterly opposed to racist Zionism and the ongoing Palestinian Genocide and gross  human rights  abuses of Palestinians   by Apartheid Israel. Further,  I was instructed as a child that Orthodox Jews for about  2,000 years have held to the beautiful  notion of the Kingdom of the Mind (that finds expression today in the international communities of scientists and scholars) and to the belief that pious Jews can only return  to Zion (Jerusalem)   when the Maschiach (Messiah)  comes to proclaim the glory of Adonai (the Lord) to all peoples of the world [13]. Thus the Orthodox  Jewish Neturei Karta on the blasphemy of the Zionist State: "The founding of the Zionist State is in direct contradiction to the teachings of the Torah, which forbids the establishment of a Jewish State and commands Jews to remain in exile until released from that exile by G-d Himself without any human intervention. At which time all Nations of the world will live together in peace. Two thousand years ago, at the time of the destruction of the holy Temple, the Jewish people were commanded by the Creator (kesubos 111a) not to go up en masse to the land of Israel; not to rebel against the nations; and not to in any way attempt to end the exile. Torah faithful Jews are to behave in a civil, honest and grateful manner towards their host nations throughout the world. The Zionist intervention against G-d's will by establishing the ‘State of Israel', represents a direct rebellion against G-d and the Torah, a rebellion which has generated untold pain and suffering, to Jew and non-Jew alike” [14].

Numerous outstanding anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish scholars and leaders have declared their opposition to racist Zionism and Apartheid Israel's ongoing Palestinian Genocide [13-19]. Thus, for example, the outstanding  anti-racist Jewish American scholar Professor Jared Diamond in his best-selling book "Collapse” (Prologue, p10, Penguin edition) enunciated the "moral principle, namely that it is morally wrong for one people to dispossess, subjugate, or exterminate another people" [20] – an injunction grossly violated by racist Zionist (RZ)-run Apartheid Israel and its racist, genocide-committing and genocide-ignoring US Alliance backers [7, 21-24]. Anti-racist  Jewish Canadian activist and writer Naomi Klein: “There is a debate among Jews - I'm a Jew by the way. The debate boils down to the question: "Never again to everyone, or never again to us?... [Some Jews] even think we get one get-away-with-genocide-free card...There is another strain in the Jewish tradition that say[s], 'Never again to anyone.”” [25]. And Nelson Mandela in an address at the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People (1997):  “The UN took a strong stand against apartheid; and over the years, an international consensus was built, which helped to bring an end to this iniquitous system. But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians” [26].  

Australia's most  eminent Jewish public figure, Sir Isaac Isaacs (the first Australian-born Governor General of Australia) (circa 1946) : “The honour of Jews throughout the world demands the renunciation of political Zionism" and "the Zionist movement as a whole...now places its own unwarranted interpretation on the Balfour Declaration, and makes demands that are arousing the antagonism of the Moslem world of nearly 400 millions, thereby menacing the safety of our Empire, endangering world peace and imperiling some of the most sacred associations of the Jewish, Christian, and Moslem faiths. Besides their inherent injustice to others these demands would, I believe, seriously and detrimentally affect the general position of Jews throughout the world" [27].

For anti-racist Jews and indeed all anti-racist humanitarians the core moral messages from the Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million dead, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) and from the more general WW2 European Holocaust (30 million Slav, Jewish and Gypsy dead) are “zero tolerance for racism”, “never again to anyone”, “bear witness” and “zero tolerance for lying”.  Yet the racist Zionists and their US Alliance supporters grossly violate these precepts in their pursuit of the Palestinian Genocide (2 million dead from violence or imposed deprivation since 1936) [7]  and the US War on Muslims (over 30 million Muslim deaths from violence or  imposed deprivation in 20 substantially or significantly Muslin countries invaded by the US Alliance in the 21st century alone) [12, 21-23].

Yet these horrendous realities are kept from Western public perception  by Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI) –subverted Mainstream media, politicians and academics. Indeed a fitting  anagram for ISRAEL is e-LIARS because of the egregious Zionist mendacity and propensity to defame their critics as “racists” and “anti-Semites”. All racism is repugnant because it punishes people for being born into an ethnicity or culture, a matter over  which they had no control. Anti-Semitism occurs in 2 equally repugnant forms, namely (1) anti-Arab anti-Semitism  against 300 million culturally  and ethnically Semitic Arabs and 1,500 million mainly culturally  Semitic Muslims,  and (2) anti-Jewish anti-Semitism against 15 million mainly culturally Semitic Jews. The Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist  (NAZI)-perverted US Alliance and Apartheid Israel  are genocidally anti-Arab anti-Semitic through mass murder of Muslims and are also anti-Jewish anti-Semitic through falsely conflating decent, anti-racist Jews with these appalling crimes.

Outstanding anti-racist Jewish American scholar Professor Ollman Bertell has stated: “An all out struggle against Zionism by Jews, therefore, is also the most effective way to fight against real anti-Semitism. Furthermore, if Zionism is indeed a particularly virulent form of nationalism and, increasingly, of racism and if Israel is acting toward its captive minority in ways that resemble more and more how the Nazis treated their Jews, then we must also say so. For obvious reasons, the Zionists are very sensitive about being compared to the Nazis (not so sensitive that it has restrained them in their actions but enough to bellow "unfair" and to charge "anti-Semitism" when it happens). Yet, the facts on the ground, when not obscured by one or another Zionist rationalization, show that the Zionists are the worst anti-Semites in the world today, oppressing a Semitic people as no nation has done since the Nazis.” [27].

In my view, Professor Bertell's proposed  “all out struggle against  Zionism by Jews”  - and by anti-racist non-Jews – should involve (a) informing everyone they can; (b) sidelining racist  Zionists (RZs)  and their supporters from public life as has already happened to like racists such as the Nazis, neo-Nazis, Apartheiders and the Ku Klux Klan; and (c) urging and applying Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel and its supporters, as were successfully applied against Apartheid Israel-backed Apartheid South Africa.

In summary, Middle East scholar Dr Sandra Nasr has written an uncontroversial, factual and well-documented  essay on the arcane, Biblical basis for racist Zionism but has suffered defamation, censorship and threat as a consequence. Notre Dame Australia and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) should reverse their initial craven stances and instead support this decent scholar whose ethical writing  embodies the aphorisms attributed to Edmund Burke and George Santayana, respectively , to whit:  “Evil happens when good men do nothing” and “History ignored yields history repeated”.  Censorship of Dr Nasr's article contributes to ongoing censorship of the ongoing Palestinian Genocide. Genocide ignoring and holocaust ignoring  are far, far worse than utterly repugnant  genocide denial and holocaust denial because  at least the latter admit the possibility  of public debate. Universities that censor are unfit for our children [28]. 

References.

[1]. Heather McNeill and Colin Cortbus, “Perth university lecturer Dr Sandra Nasr in hot water over anti-semitic article”, WA Today: 11 Decemebr 2015: http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/perth-university-lecturer-dr-sandra-nasr-in-hot-water-over-antisemitic-article-20151211-gllhqk.html#ixzz3u9GScOPO .

[2]. Dr. Sandra Nasr, “Delegitimising through Dehumanisation: Palestinian ‘human' rights denied”, London School of Economics and Political Science, 3 December 2015: https://archive.is/HSoC4#selection-167.0-445.65 .

LSE& PS: https://archive.is/HSoC4#selection-167.0-445.65 .

[3]. Richard Dawkins, “The God Delusion”, Mariner, 2006.

[4]. The Holy Bible, King James Version.

[5]. William A. Cook, “Age of Fools”, Dandelion, Mesa, Arizona, 2015.

[6]. Gideon Polya, “Book Review: “Age Of Fools” By William Cook – Stop Neocon & Zionist Palestinian Genocide, War On Muslims & War On Humanity”, Countercurrents, 3 November, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya031215.htm .

[7]. “Palestinian Genocide” :  http://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ .

[8]. UN Convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide, UN: http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html .

[9]. William A. Cook (editor),  “The Plight of the Palestinians. A Long History of Destruction”, Palgrave Macmillan, London , 2010.

[10]. Gideon Polya, “Review: “The Plight Of The Palestinians. A Long History Of Destruction”, Countercurrents,  17 June, 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya170612.htm .

[11]. Gideon Polya, “Horrendous Pro-Zionist, Zionist And Apartheid Israeli Child Abuse Exposed”,  Countercurrents, 21 April, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya210414.htm .

[12]. Gideon Polya, “Paris Atrocity Context: 27 Million Muslim Avoidable  Deaths From Imposed Deprivation In 20 Countries Violated By US Alliance Since 9-11”, Countercurrents, 22 November, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya221115A.htm .

[13]. Michael Selzer (editor), “Zionism reconsidered”, Macmillan, New York, 1969.

[14]. Neturei Karta, “Israeli Independence Day”: http://www.nkusa.org/activities/Statements/20090429IID.cfm .

[15]. “Boycott Apartheid  Israel”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/.

[16]. “Gaza Concentration Camp”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/gaza-concentration  .

[17]. “Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/ .

[18]. “Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/nonjewsagainstracistzionism/ .

[19]. “Nuclear weapons ban , end poverty & reverse climate change”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/nuclear-weapons-ban .

[20]. Jared Diamond, "Collapse” ,  Penguin, 2011.

[21]. Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ .

[22]. “Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/ .

[23]. “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .

[24]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, that includes a succinct history  of every country and is now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/  .

[25]. Naomi Klein quoted in Yotam Feldman, “Naomi Klein: oppose the state not the people”, Haaretz, 2 July 2007: http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1097058.html .

[26]. Nelson Mandela quoted in “Nelson Mandela quotes: A collection of memorable words from former South African president”, CBS News, 5 December 2013: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nelson-mandela-quotes-a-collection-of-memorable-words-from-former-south-african-president/ .

[27]. Sir Isaac Isaacs, quoted by Wikipedia, ”Isaac Isaacs”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Isaacs .

[28]. Bertell Ollman, “Letter of Resignation from the Jewish People”, Dialectical Marxism, 2004: http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ollman/docs/resignation.php .

[29].  Gideon Polya “Current academic censorship and self-censorship in Australian universities”, Public University Journal, volume 1, Conference Supplement, “Transforming the Australia University”, Melbourne, 9-10 December 2001: http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/57092/20080218-1150/www.publicuni.org/jrnl/volume/1/jpu_1_s_polya.pdf   .

Dr Gideon Polya has been teaching science students at a major Australian university for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/australian-complicity-in-iraq-mass-mortality/3369002#transcript

) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine ). When words fail one can say it in pictures - for images of Gideon Polya's huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ .