Sydney Uni staff narrowly vote down BDS
THE University of Sydney branch of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) may have moved towards joining the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement if not for the intervention of NTEU national general secretary Grahame McCulloch.
THE University of Sydney branch of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) may have moved towards joining the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement if not for the intervention of NTEU national general secretary Grahame McCulloch.
A resolution which passed last month supporting discussion around joining BDS had caused divisions within the branch, prompting McCulloch to intervene to deal with what he called a “destructive debate” and to refocus the branch’s priorities on domestic challenges like education cuts in the recent federal budget.
Consequently, a motion put by McCulloch to a meeting of the branch last Wednesday “not to support, or to use branch resources to promote a debate around the BDS campaign”, bringing the campus into line with NTEU national policy, passed by a narrow margin.
A motion to continue debating BDS was defeated by 68 votes to 56.
McCulloch told The AJN he was “very pleased” the branch voted to adopt the national policy.
“That policy in turn was a very carefully constructed and balanced policy negotiated through our international trade union federation, and one that ultimately was able to gain support from both the Israeli education unions and the Palestinian education unions,” he said.
“The international union policy that we’ve adopted says there has to be a properly negotiated two-state solution, and what I wanted to make plain to University of Sydney members is what sits behind most elements of the BDS campaign is a one-state proposition.”
Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) executive director Peter Wertheim said the result was another defeat for the BDS campaign, which has been an “abject failure” in Australia.
“Judging by the number of noted apologies, there would have been an additional 15-20 anti-BDS votes but for the fact that the meeting was held on Shavuot,” he said.
“There is absolutely nothing stopping people discussing BDS if they so wish, but [University of Sydney] NTEU members understandably decided that they did not want their hard-earned money used to promote BDS.”
The AJN understands that opposition to University of Sydney academic Jake Lynch, a strong supporter of BDS, has galvanised support among some of his colleagues.
Lynch is currently facing a class action brought by Israeli civil rights group Shurat HaDin.
GARETH NARUNSKY
Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
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