Riot at Sydney University
Protesters have disrupted a lecture, fighting with security guards, at the University of Sydney.
Protestors Photo: David Sokol/J-Wire
The lecture was being given by retired British military officer Colonel Richard Kemp, a world-renowned expert on armed conflict, the Middle East and a prolific media commentator,
Colonel Kemp had been invited by the University to speak on “Ethical Dilemmas of Military Tactics” and “Dealing with non-state armed groups,” in light of Australia’s military engagement with non-state actors, including ISIS.
Kemp began his talk with a brief explanation of his career and a joke about England’s cricket loss to Bangladesh on Monday. He went on to discuss non-state militant groups in Ireland and Afghanistan and the obligations of soldiers when engaging with civilians and civilian groups. Before he could go into any detail or discuss any other issues, he was interrupted by over a dozen students bursting into the lecture hall screaming “Richard Kemp, you can’t hide, you support genocide.”
A demonstrator with a megaphone drowned out any attempts by the moderator to get the lecture back on track. Protestors wrestled with security guards who had asked them to leave and were then forced to remove them. Protestors stood on chairs, began to push students and shout loudly at those who objected to their behaviour.
Professor Jake Lynch, the director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS) and an ardent opponent of Israel, shouted in the faces of students, including at a senior officer of the Jewish student union. He then proceeded to stand on chairs and film attendees. Lynch screamed that attempts to remove the protestors was a violent attack on freedom of speech by security guards. When another academic suggested that he ask a question, Lynch responded that was not what this is about, only later opting to ask a question when invited by the Colonel.
One student commented that Kemp “hadn’t even mentioned Israel or Palestine” in the time he had to talk. Another student mentioned that she did not have strong views on either side of this issue, was studying international relations and had come expecting a talk, not an ambush.
After about 20 minutes of shouting, the protestors were finally removed from the hall, having objected loudly to their treatment by the security guards and some others present. Kemp, resuming as if nothing had happened, continued to speak on engagement with non-civilian groups in armed conflict. Concluding his talk, Kemp briefly addressed what he termed a “commercial break.”
Disruption Photo: David Sokol
“This protest was about my perspective on the IDF… I was in Israel during the 2014 summer conflict and I do believe that the IDF in their attack on Hamas in Gaza… were doing everything they could to protect civilians… People have told me I am wrong, but no one has told me what more steps Israel could take to minimize civilian casualties.”
Students, academics and other interested people had come from all over to hear an expert speak on a topical and important subject. Sydney University academic Professor Suzanne Rutland was present at the event and I spoke to her shortly following its conclusion:
“I feel that the demonstration really showed clearly that the anti-Israel group speaks in slogans without any sort of understanding of the intricacies of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and without any sort of acknowledgement that when they stand there chanting, “free Palestine,” what they mean is the dismantling of the Zionist entity which means genocide against Israel’s Jewish population.”
Professor Rutland said, “Accusing Israel of committing genocide has no academic basis whatsoever; they even said the Colonel (Kemp) was responsible for genocide. I strongly support legitimate criticism and when we teach about Israel we try to present a critical, balanced voice which is part of academic learning.”
“What I think the demonstration represented was the struggle faced by myself and others on campus who are opposed to Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions. While we try to follow the rules of polite debate, the BDS supporters will often not allow an alternative voice and this is what happened during the lecture.”
“Given the anti-Israel bias on campus we were grateful Dr Gil Merom agreed to chair the function and advertise it to his students.”
Peter Wertheim, the Executive Director of the ECAJ, which facilitated the lecture, was scathing about the disruption to the event, telling J-Wire:
“The attempt by about 15 students and academics to shout down and censor a public lecture at the University of Sydney by Col Richard Kemp, an internationally renowned, much-decorated expert on military and security affairs, is an utter disgrace. Their attempts to bully campus security personnel who restored order was also shameful. These are the same people who have on numerous occasions invoked the principle of academic freedom to justify their engagement in political advocacy on campus. Their hypocrisy is now obvious. For them, academic freedom does not apply to views they disagree with. They are cowards who are afraid of the truth. Fortunately, the lecture was resumed after a 15 minute disruption and Richard Kemp’s presentation was so compelling that even academics who had participated in the earlier protest asked him questions and were given comprehensive answers. The ECAJ is proud to have facilitated the lecture.”
An outstanding interview of Richard Kemp on ABC Radio National, prior to the lecture, can be heard at http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programitem/pgNyGERDD6?play=true
Glen Falkenstein is a Policy Analyst/Staff Writer at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC)
A note of advice for anyone who attends an investigative interview at the University of Sydney. Take a recording device and insist on using it. If you allow yourself to be schmoozed out of using it because of ‘procedural uniformity’ or some other such glissade, insist on getting a record of interview. It will only be approximate and you should be offered the opportunity to read it and make additions etc. Take legal advice or better still, bring your legal counsel with you. To state the obvious, two pairs of eyes and ears are better than one, especially if you are anxious. Your interest and the interest of the interviewer are not necessarily the same.
Thank you for your comments, Jan. I agree with them whole-heartedly. I did write to the Vice-Chancellor of Sydney University, and received a reply in response to that letter, but nothing to follow in regard to the outcome of the investigation.
Our response to what took place that day has been important, and potent I believe, which is the only reason Lynch addressed the ‘Jewish community’ in the way that he did via J-Wire in the latter stages at the close of the investigation. We shall see what the future holds for this man and the Centre of which he is Director. I am wondering, under all the circumstances, who would be happy to have their children attending the University of Sydney? It’s standards are suspect and the pursuit of knowledge and excellence obviously not a major part of their vision.
To all those who wrote letters of complaint to the Vice Chancellor of Sydney University about the Kemp fracas, I thank you for your efforts. I attended the lecture and also wrote to the VC. I now believe that appealing for justice to the authority of the University was doomed and ultimately futile. The University put in place an investigation process to give the appearance of dealing with the issues in the complaints but restricted the terms of reference to decontextualized allegations of breaches of code of conduct whereby the reasons that provoked behaviour were completely ignored. This is about play acting and dealing with surface appearances. Only three of the ‘demonstrators’ were called to answer allegations whereas the whole demonstration with its academic supporters were indulged on the spurious grounds of ‘freedom of speech’. In truth we got their message from the first outburst. It was a message of hatred. After that it was sustained abuse. Appealing to authority was a complete failure. Alternative responses are needed.
Jan
nothing good goes in vain and could go on like this in an aphoristic way all day…
The reaction seen at people like those “subscribing” here has the effect of building up the case against Jake Lynch. He is not an indispensable academic at Sydney Uni. and, should he continue to behave in this manner, the next episode is bound to have an entirely different outcome from what, so far, is perceived to be a “tolerant” VC and his “team”. The kind of publicity Lynch has been attracting all these years cannot possibly be favourable to a respectable learning institution.
Otto,
Are you back in Oz yet? I would like to meet you as I have said before.
I need to hear whence your ray of optimism especially after your travels in the east.
Jan
sorry, but I am still in Europe, today in Hungary and I am staying around here for quite some time. In Sept. I will be attending that incredible Enescu Festival which will host some of the best orchestras in the world, including the Israel Phil., Concertgebow, Gewandhaus, Berlin, Vinenna, London, and magnificent musicians. After that I have not decided yet because, although I look like a very tough, independent minded bloke, there is SOMEONE who knows much better what’s good for me and I must ask her permission to mention her name; that’s how well trained/obedient I am…..but, once back home I am sure she’ll allow me out for a cuppa, but I must warn you I am given only a $1.35 allowance per “outing” so, ether you come up with the difference or we just order a glass of tap water….but I can talk on just (not to mention under ) water just as much.
…incidentally, Enescu Festival is held only in Bucharest, all tickets are sold out, but if you want some, maybe I can get some very good ones.. @ a price to be agreed and paid, strictly CASH, in advance, after which you people will have to wait for the tickets to be delivered in a safe Bucharest dark alley….
Hi Otto,
Enjoy all that wonderful music. I’ll shout you a coffee when you get back safely.
I’m with you there, Otto. I would have helped you carry that bucket of filthy water and I certainly wouldn’t have been yawning!
I’m not suggesting people in the audience shouldn’t have been more ‘animated’ – I’m just saying the end result in this case makes the perpetrators look bad as bad, with no deflection possible for them. I mean they’ve already used the little bottle of water that was sprayed at them as accusation of violence …
Shabbat Shalom
Still have to be careful of getting down and dirty, Otto. Especially in the land of Oz, which is a mightily conservative place. Even in regard to personal relationships, someone with ‘righteous’ complaint can find that complaint frustratingly ignored due to deflection of focus onto one small mistake one might make, like a slap to the face.
If those in the audience at Sydney University had got involved on the ground and everything became physical, the outcome we now have would have been clouded, rather than as clearly obscene as it is.
I’m not implying non-physical action should be the case every time – not at all. It depends on the circumstances and what you wish to achieve.
Dear Liat
Getting down and dirty does not necessarily mean violent as much as violent does not mean a few drops of clean water. The notion of a conservative society , if still a preferred option, would first apply to those who barged into a civilised, “conservative”, if you want , gathering in breach of heaps of civilised norms. As such, the other, implied option of “down and dirty” is haughty and squeaky , precious clean, comfy in some well protected place heavily involved in “in your face-book”……down and dirty. I, for one, have the guts to act up front and show that cannot stomach blatant violent bastards. I could not imagine myself at that event sitting down yawning at what was going on. I would have found a bloody bucket of filthy water !
Hello Otto,
I was one of the 60 contributors you read, an early one. I did more than yak yak with my comments. I agree with all you had to say, and had been wondering where you were as comments increased and no sign of Otto. Good to have you here.
Looking at the video, it’s not fair, I think, to lump all the Jews in the audience with the young fair-haired woman who was smiling. The camera spans to other faces that looked grim, serious … It would not have helped to get down on the floor and physically fight the intruders – that would only give them an excuse later to deflect the issue. They could have given voice – however the megaphone at full volume would have effectively dismissed the effectiveness of that.
Dear Liat, dear fellow fighters ( wherever yourse is !!!)
Yep, back to the good ol’ ECAJ , NSWJBD and the rest who always had a fantastic good reason NOT do engage in any way apart from the epidemic of comments almost all cannonically starting with ” I/we am/are appalled….”.
Fairly recently I saw the most inspiring Jewish reaction to such intrusions as the Lynch case. It was in New York in the heart of the Jewish Diamond District… a well known fantastic Jewish retort to similar situations.
Yes, get down there in their stupid faces and tell them off because waiting for security to clear the scene on account of them having been expected or “contracted” to do so could be seen as the typical vicarious manner of the old Galuth inspiration. To be clear, the vicarious way is the lazy, uninspired or, at best, lawyer inspired “strategy” employed in comfy places such as Sydney CBD and strict environs.. In the Galuth the poor buggers had nobody to help them and they could only expect the worse, unable to react. This, our nowdays Galuth has come a long way and we ARE ALLOWED to get down into the nitty gritty of it and DO SOMETHING concrete, no excuses !!!
Otherwise who could stop anyone extending the argument into ancient history and ALL associated dialectical old wares. As we are dealing with a certain rat right in our midst, immediate and real danger, to mention that bastard Mengele et Co is a bit of a bow stretching. I like the analogy, but for anyone’s sake, analogy shmnalogy…..
I have just Googled Vivienne Porzolt and opened The Green Left Weekly. There poor Vivienne authored an item as follows:
‘Once again we have seen the spectacle of the Jewish leadership banning dissenting Jews from their annual festival of ideas’. Anyone who attended Wednesday’s lecture by Col Kemp will appreciate the irony of the above quotation. Ms Porzolt prefers to exercise her own bans and boycotts.
We can discuss ( because we are so incredibly good at it ) here all kinds of issues seemingly related to a non-event. Why non event ! A well known speaker held a presentation of well known political complexities at a place where opposition to his stance has been a well entrenched tradition.
The organisers must have known that a certain “academic” nests his feral lot there and they must have anticipated the short interlude and ensure that the short interruption would not be allowed, in other simple words, get security to block the bloody entrance door. That did not happen. Not only it did not happen , but, once the morons got inside, they did everything they were there to do for a few good minutes.
What also….”happen” was that almost NOTHING happen as far as the audience was concerned. Assuming that the audience was overwhelmingly in favour of the Colonel speaker and also establishing that the presence of the Lynch-Porzsolt ( don’t you just love the idea; just an idea NOT an incitement )tandem until the ferals barged in was of no consequence,what one sees in the video is a listless audience, some bored, leaning their heads on the arms and waiting for the nasty interlude to be cleared by the same security who let them in.
All talk here, some 60 comments prior to mine, yak and yak about who said what and how would a University which has tolerated worse from a feral “academic” do anything else on account of a ….non event.
As long as these useless deadbrains know that the Jew is a soft ( what did I say, “soft”, forget it, let’s make it super soft, just like silk, soft and exquisitely elegant, now on special at David Jones ) target, they will enjoy doing the cretinstic stuff they can only do and enjoy in the process seeing how their purpose in life – assaulting the same bloody Jews – will just sit there resting their bored heads on their bored arms or sipping hot chocolate impervious to the good old public fracas and the ensuing priceless publicity.
Mind yourse I have signed and distributed that “sack Lynch” insurgent call to arms and I am so bloody sure that any minute now Sydney University will kick the bastard’s fat tuches after which we will, most definitely deserve a bloody piping hot chocolate. MY SHOUT. What happened to the shouts which did NOT happen in that lecture hall from OUR hot chocolate brigade…. who cares because WE argue much better than them because we are comprehensively informed, articulate and bloody fearless on – almost – ANY blog !!
As about Ms Porzsolt, have you noticed that I avoid her completely. And I am very good at it. Tell you why me so good. Have visited France lately a few times and, in spite of her great historic beauty, there is something I AM COMPLAINING HERE ABOUT. The footpaths of France are littered with dog droppings, something awful. You must be bloody good at walking and… avoiding that stuff. This is how that kinda practice has made me good at avoiding Viviennne Porzsolt. Just avoid her, good ( and elegant ) people and do not trod into her stale, irrelevant rants !!
Conclusion, if we/you have something to object to, DO IT where it happens while it happens against those we/you so obviously would have something to say and then come here on Jwire and brag about how PERSUASIVE, brave and great you were !!!
Incidentally, I have a very good excuse, I have been in Eastern Europe all this time and still away from where the action is, Jewish Sydney….. I am needed here, bigger problems.
Hi Otto,
Are you on campus? I’d like to meet up and hear about Eastern Europe et al.
Please let me know.
I’d love to Jan, but right now and for the next few months I am in Eastern Europe, occasionally Western, Central of the same old place.
But I SHALL return; you’ll notice it, the weather will change dramatically…..
Anyways, do tell us what your tzures are, Henry may give you my email address.
Dear Otto,
Travel safely and may your tzures diminish in an increasingly hostile world. When you return to Sydney it would be good for us to know about the climate over there! The Muslim community in Sydney has gathered the finance for a TV station to counter the negative publicity given the religion and the community. It may be up and running on your return.
Zai gezunt und freilich
One of the lessons which we have re-learnt from this incident is that being an academic is no guarantee of intellectual integrity or morality. Many Nazis were highly educated academics; some even had medical degrees, e.g., Dr Mengele.
I would actually see the real “academic credentials” of this rather vulgar “Lynch”? Degree obtained via online-shopping?
Did anyone present at Col Kemp’s lecture see Professor Lynch doubled over in agony as one would expect had he been kicked in the balls as he alleges? I have doubts that he was kicked in this way and false claims would not surprise me. If criminal charges are laid against the woman at whom he waved his $5 to threaten prosecution, the video will be vital as will testimony from eyewitness. Any witnesses?
The University of Sydney should investigate whether the two academics who orchestrated / contributed to the disgrace had offered their students inducements in the form of bonus marks in return for their participation in the disruption of the talk.
Those bonus marks might have been awarded for “practical work.”
Anyone who reads the annual reports of the peace foundation can see immediately that the Sydney peace industry is dedicated not to academic excellence but to the dissemination and inculcation of propaganda.
This poison is pumped into young, impressionable, naive minds.
For example, if you relied only on this material, you might reach the conclusion that Hamas is a reasonable, civilised, even peace-seeking entity, not a gang of genocidal criminal barbarians.
Globally, many universities are tolerating and even encouraging this sort of activity, and this is only one of the many symptoms of the incremental decline of the West in the face of, effectively, the collaboration between resurgent imperialistic jihadism and an opportunistic extremist “socialist” movement which aims to revolutionise the world order and believes that jihadism is an ally of convenience in the project.
In the Soviet era, there existed fifth column communist front organisations which invariably contained the word “peace” in their names; today other front organisations use the same tactic. Sydney University harbours one of these, and its title is “The Conflict Resolution and Peace Centre.”
Its movers and shakers cunningly create for it a “respectable” facade by involving celebrities who either do not know its real agenda or don’t care.
If The University of Sydney wishes to retain what is left of its reputation, it needs to tell the Centre to go somewhere else to peddle its shoddy wares.
With so many posts calling for appropriate action from the University of Sydney in relation to Jake Lynch and the students involved in this crass, lengthy interruption to a lecture on their premises, shouldn’t we organise a formal protest to them that would include these comments? It’s not effective to keep them ‘in-house’.
They would also be advised to look into how the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies is being administered across the board, the kind of material being studied, the academic staff attitude to those studies and the method of assessment, with a view as to whether it’s meeting criteria there surely must be in relation to the Centre’s operation, indeed its existence.
If all the representations that have already been made to the university do not lead it to investigate and scrutinise the “Peace Centre”, the former will have failed in its duty.
Here are some important questions:
1. who gave the money to establish the Centre before it became an official university department?
3. was a financial inducement involved in the change of status? How much money was involved?
2. who funds the Centre now?
3. what vested interests are involved?
4. what are the backgrounds of the sources of the money?
5. what are the histories of the Centre’s operatives?
Lynch of lynch mob fame wasn’t making an anti-Semitic slur when waving money at an elderly woman at the Kemp fest. He was offering to pay her for her attendance. If he did not pay you for yours, give him a call. He might give you $500. He can afford it. He has petro dollars support.
While I agree that people are entitled to their opinion, no matter how irrational, absolutely no-one has the right to disrupt an academic lecture to the extent shown in this video. As an alumni many times over of the University of Sydney I am appalled that a Sydney academic was actively involved in this barbaric and grossly unprofessional behaviour. I call for the Senate of the University of Sydney to immediately stand down Professor Lynch on full pay and implement a wide-ranging investigation of this incident including disciplinary proceedings against each of the students involved. Failure to do so would have a negative impact on the credibility of this fine Institution.
Associate-Professor Lynch was not the only Sydney University academic who behaved this way at the talk.
Wandering around the auditorium and yelling abuse, slander and slogans in chorus with the students was a bespectacled man who was pointed out to me to be a Sydney University staff member “of Jewish background.”
His name escapes me at the moment, but other posters might know who he is.
He is culpable, too.
Would Andrew Riemer hit the spot? His academic duties are light enough to give him time propagandising against the screening of Israeli films at Australian Film Festivals and boycotting and isolating Israeli universities. This information is available on his university profile in the Department of English.
If everyone pulled in one direction, the world would tip over.
From the evidence that is available to me I have learnt that the basic lesson which is instilled into students at The Sydney University Peace and Conflict Resolution Centre is this:
1. to resolve a conflict and achieve peace on your own terms, you must achieve overwhelming victory over the enemy. No compromises.
2. to achieve victory, you must ignore all the rules, but you must attempt to compel the enemy to respect all the rules.
3.if your enemy is the State of Israel and the Jewish Nation, you must ensure that the benefit of the basic law of nature, that is, the law of self-preservation, is at all times denied .
There is a lesson in that for us.
Colonel Kemp spoke about the rules of war and the obligations which they impose on combatants: it was then that the enemy invaded the auditorium and stopped him from speaking, since the enemy believes that the rules do not apply to them.
“Brad Keyes says: (March 12, 2015 12:25 am at 12:25 am)
Jake Lynch has forfeited the privilege of tenure and professorship by taking part in such an embarrassing and puerile assault on the free exchange of ideas.
The credibility of the University itself is now at issue. Putting an anti-intellectual thug like Lynch in charge of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies was an error of judgement; allowing him to keep his job after today would be unforgivable.”
….. Brad has said it all !!!
Lynch and his department are an oxymoron …..the ultimate irony.
By not taking a stand on Lynch’s actions, the University has lost all respect and credibility.
please explain how what lynch did and does is included in the context of academic freedom
he should be removed from his position asap
Reading carefully the above comments, it seems very clear to me that Lynch has no place at the university tax payers money are wasted on someone that should educate without bias instead of lecturing incitement I suggest he leaves and goes to teach in West Bank, Gazans take your pick you will be very welcomed there, your not wanted here, and I and I’m sure many others don’t want to pay your salary. Sydney Uni get rid of him and control your radicle students. You owe it to the Australian public
Those brainwashed dumclucks, would not be capable of organising a riot in a chook yard let alone at a university. Disturbing, how the anti-Israel Sydney uni prof egged them on,though.
Sydney uni is not a bottom deck university, or at least it used not to be!
I attended Col. Kemp’s lecture yesterday, and this is a disappointingly unbalance article, that somehow fails to mention that at the event yesterday one of Col. Kemp’s supporters physically assaulted two Sydney University staff members in the audience. The same individual also attempted to damage and seize the property of these two Sydney University staff members. This violence is of course a serious issue and these events were reported to NSW Police who arrived on the scene.
What occurred was clearly not a “riot” as the title of this article argues, and being present during the whole event I did not observe any violence what-so-ever from the students protesting. This lack of violence is also shown in a video recording of the student demonstration posted by The Australian Jewish News: http://www.jewishnews.net.au/anti-israel-protesters-run-riot-at-sydney-uni/41008
While arguing for Col. Kemp’s right to “free speech” this article also fails to mention that the University of Sydney unfortunately has a history of barring, or trying to bar, particular speakers from campus that do not align with the University’s financial or other interests or for claimed security reasons. One recent example -widely reported by mainstream media including in the New York Times, Reuters, the Guardian, the Huffington Post and the ABC (media links are here: http://sydneypeacefoundation.org.au/pursuing-freedom-democracy-and-human-rights/- was the University’s secret attempt to ban the Dalai Lama from speaking in 2013. Sydney University has also banned other groups from speaking on campus including Hizb ut-Tahrir. And of course at Sydney Uni and more broadly in Australia speakers that engage in Holocaust denial are prohibited from speaking in public.
Thus one would be naive to believe that the University does not restrict freedom of speech on campus. Whether one agrees that the University should restrict freedom of speech or not, I think we can all agree that the result should be consistent and transparent. Given Col. Kemp’s outspoken support for the Israeli military’s practice of killing civilians, one can’t help but wonder how consistent and transparent the University’s decision-making process was in allowing him a platform to speak at that respected academic institution.
What you don’t understand Paul, is that your juvenile little protest was carried out by YOU and YOUR MATES and has absolutely nothing to do with Sydney University. For some reason, YOU have declared that YOU are the person to decide who gets to talk and who doesn’t. YOU and your protein-dodging vegan mates decided to deny the human rights of freedom of speech, freedom of thought and freedom of association to the audience members who wanted to listen to Colonel (ret) Kemp.
You have a right to protest, and you could have done that effectively outside the auditorium without interrupting or abusing the people in the audience (yep, calling them “murderers” is abuse). But no, you decided to go ahead with your rude intrusion.
Oh, and a couple of your limp-wristed buddies were “assaulted” were they? And audience members attempted to “seize” the property of protesters did they? Count yourself lucky. Had less tolerant people been attending that presentation, you would have gone out missing a few teeth. You really have no idea, do you?
Dear Paul,
Your perception of what constitutes violence is breathtakingly myopic. I wonder what the Dalai Llama would have thought of the shrieking, the barking distorted megaphone in a confined space, the foul accusations, the complete disrespect for anyone in the room, the provocation, the abrupt rupture of an ongoing situation-which of course was the point. It was an exercise in power by noise against the unwilling and that, my obtuse interlocutor, is violence. Intentional violence. When the girl/bloke says no she/he means it. Stop trying to fuck him/her or it’s rape. And that is violent or haven’t you learned that yet?
“Financial interests,” eh, Paul? wink wink nudge nudge.
Hey, Paul, no riot; just a training exercise for The Sydney University branch of the genocidal Hamas Youth Movement and its fuhrer.
Hey, Paul, calm down and think rationally for a change.
Anti-Zionists love to whip themselves up into a self-righteous frenzied frothing at the mouth.
It must be a physiological or psychological need.
free speech does not mean one has the right to impede the free speech rights of others…which you and your bloody crew did
therefore, once you have taken away the rights of others, you have no right to whine about your own rights
here is the vid, which proves you to be a liar
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152770641067689
Hey, Paul, where your caliphate rules there IS plenty of free speech.
Can you draw conclusions and act accordingly, please?
Paul, can you theorise why I am wasting so much time replying to you?
It’ll amuse the posters.
You little pussy, you are very lucky I was busy that day.
You would not walk straight for a week.
Exactly! If Lynch had been kicked in the balls he would not have been upright for a long time but he was able to sit calmly after his lynchmob left and asked Col Kemp a question from a bit of paper. His was the very last question. He did not leave bowlegged but had plenty of upright time with the police.
I love how he had to use a piece of paper
Paul, you are careless, to be honest intellectually badly in need of major repairs.
Your people barged into a private lecture which was approved by the landlord of the place, therefore the idiots you support had no business to be there in the first place.Who gives a rat’s about other events and your assessment of Sydney University’s so called policies of choices.
The morons you defend here are a mob of antisemites and we do not care what your “position” on the matter is !!1 Your opinion is worth NOTHING to the Jewish causes not only because of your obvious prejudices , but because of the incongruities you are spewing.
The “assault” you are mentioning is a demented choice of expressions. One cretin claimed that he got “hit” with a few milliliters of drinking water. You call that “violence”.
Are you the full quid !!!
Congratulations to the AJDS’s Vivienne Porzsolt, one of the 2 above posters who actually attended this event, and who is prepared to call it what it was.
The rest of the above hysterical comments epitomise the continuing failure of Zionists globally to accept what is actually proven to be happening daily in the occupied territories & Gaza.
The schism is world Jewry over Zionism is widening by the day.
Dear Kevin,
Conversely the forces of Islamo fascism are consolidating more and more. Who do you support, Kevin?
Kev, you’re not convincing.
Hey, Kev, dy’a reckon Bob Carr will nominate her for the Nobel Peace Prize?
Kev, if not a Nobel Peace Prize, maybe a knighthood…ooops sexist… damehood for Viv?
Hey, Leon, “damehood” is sexist, too.
Professor Jake Lynch, the director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies doesn’t really do irony, does he?
What a nob. Pity someone didn’t just punch him in the face.
oh, that’s right, he’s allowed to violently disrupt a perfectly legal gathering, but to repel him would be oppression.
Sydney Uni should sack him immediately.
Kemp’s presentation was a disgraceful piece of propaganda, a bunch pf distortions and plain lies. It was quite undeserving of a serious academic platform. While the demonstrators disrupted the talk for half an hour, they did not lay a hand on anyone, while a woman in the audience repeatedly chucked water on the demonstrators,kicked them and hit them without any reaction from the security guys who roughly manhandled the demonstrators. That the university should host such a mendacious defense of ethnic cleansing and war crimes is a disgrace.
Don’t you understand the hypocrisy of whining about not being allowed free speech while interrupting the free speech given by another. YOU were denying the human rights of freedom of association, freedom of thought, and freedom of speech with your own puerile little protest. I would have done a lot more than flick water on you. I would have punched you in the face.
Unfortunately it is not true that protesters dd not lay a hand on anyone; there was quite prolonged fighting to get back into the room which the security guards prevented- but hands were definitely laid on security! The water comment is correct- but several people attending the lecture attempted to calm her down and limit conflict to words alone. It did not appear to me that violent protesters were treated in the same way by others in their group, which is very disappointing. They were either ignored or encouraged.
Vivien, you’re a Marxist BDS proponent yourself, just another Jake Lynch-type bigot.
Nothing you say on this subject has any credibility.
Dear Vivienne,
I also attended Kemp’s lecture and would so appreciate you enumerating his distortions and plain lies. Your use of ‘ethnic cleansing’ is as accurate as the person who claimed that Gaza was occupied and is itself a piece of the blatant propaganda you despise in others. In the immortal words-please explain Kemp’s ‘lies’. I have been lied to so incessantly by your campaigns I am sure you’re an expert.
You are joking, aren’t you, Ms Porzsolt?
If the lynch mob and his cheer squad hadn’t truncated the meeting you would have had the opportunity to tackle Kemp and hear his response. And we could have judged for ourselves. But that’s not what your little heart desires is it?
I agree the university should not fund mendacity Vivienne. That’s why Peace & Conflict Resolution, plus the BDS meetings held on their premises should go. A BDS pamphlet I was handed at Kemp’s lecture claimed that Israel does not provide basic legal equality for its Arab citizens and severely restricts Palestinian academic freedom and educational opportunities. These are patently mendacious claims. Every Israeli citizen!! from whatever ethnic background has full legal rights, including the right to vote, to stand for election,access to legal process. Knesset has several Palestinian MPs. Israeli Palestinians attend universities in Israel with high enrolments in medicine among other subjects. Schooling for Israeli Arab Palestinians is conducted in Arabic to ensure academic opportunities. Make you case by all means, but complaining that others lie, when that’s what your propaganda machine does shamelessly, exposes who you lie with, Vivienne. You must be very itchy!
The left despises debate and free speech.
A video clip will help – a lot.
Jake Lynch has forfeited the privilege of tenure and professorship by taking part in such an embarrassing and puerile assault on the free exchange of ideas.
The credibility of the University itself is now at issue. Putting an anti-intellectual thug like Lynch in charge of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies was an error of judgement; allowing him to keep his job after today would be unforgivable.
Jake Lynch’s next logical evolution for his Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution and its backers is to offer courses and scholarships in suicide bombing. Mackie Building could be subtitled headquarters for Hamas. We saw what peace means to him and his kind. It’s the peace of shut up. We saw what conflict resolution means to him and his kind. It’s to bludgen a roomful of elders with a megaphone at close range and egregiously slur them as racists and supporters of genocide. Meanwhile, having incited mayhem, Lynch photographed it and then complained that he came for an exchange of ideas. He both blamed security for being inadequate in dealing with the mayhem and attacked them for infringing on students right to free speech when security attempted to eject them.
The Hamas stormtroopers at Sydney University held a training exercise today at the talk by Colonel Kemp.
Present in the lecture theatre was their tax-funded mentor and fuhrer.
This is nothing new- It happens at American and UK uni`s-
The anti-Israeli lobby imitate the Jihadi.
If it is opposite to their ideology- You dont sit down and talk or compromise.
You “Blow it up” in any way possible.
I was at this event and it was really annoying. Colonel Kemp handled it really well, dealing with legal and historical facts in the brief time available to him. It was really disappointing not to be able to hear more from him; perhaps someone should organise a non-university event? There was a hint of the detail he knew that we never got to hear regarding investigations into the methods Israel uses to avoid civilian casualties. It is so much more interesting to hear factual detail in an academic context from someone who has experience and knowledge most of us will never be able to access ourselves. The ranting and yelling of the protesters, who referred to ‘occupied territories (what) is not particularly captivating.
Thank you for the radio link. I am glad to be able to hear SOMETHING this guy had to say! Here’s hoping for another book!
Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies?? The irony is dripping.
For how long will Sydney University continue to suffer Professor!! Jake Lynch at the helm of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies? What a farce, what an irony when considering the name of the Centre – the only conflict he’s interested in is his own with the State of Israel. As for the rabble rousing students he had in tow, they don’t deserve to be taking up good space at an Australian university. It’s obvious they’re not interested in, or capable of, listening to or considering different view points to their own. This is not indicative of university ‘mentality’ – if they can’t process anything but their own thoughts, they’re wasting tax payers’ money and their own.
Let them all, including Lynch, spend some time living in the Middle East, let them adapt themselves to the very different culture and way of life that would entail, let them see the way hate and war are taught in Palestinian schools to children … let them experience a few realities. The only person in that room where the lecture took place who has experienced the region is Colonel Richard Kemp, who was in Israel during the Operation conducted by Israel in Gaza and found that Israel did its best to restrict harm to civilians. Lynch and his immature, feeble-minded young clones know better, of course, as they analyse the situation from the fine grounds of an Australian University over cups of coffee.
Give me a break! Sydney University needs to come down hard on these pseudo-revolutionaries. If they can’t behave, stand them in a corner permanently. They might have a right to free speech, but they don’t have a right to inflict themselves on others in the way they do. Sydney University risks its reputation if it doesn’t act to bring this lot to order. Get rid of Lynch – he’s an idiot, and doesn’t deserve his position. Surely he doesn’t have tenure.
There is little difference between these racist fascists and those in Nazi Germany who claimed they were being denied free speech when their actions prevented free speech by those who opposed them. And not a word about the murder of a young Arab from Jerusalem saying he was an Israeli spy, by their heroes in ISIL.
Lynch discriminates so much between what Israel does and what the militant Islamic states and groups do, that it can’t be seen as anything but an ingrained hatred of Jews.
Wearing scarves in the image of Arafat and so obviously approving of this despicable “Palesteeenian”. Look closely at them and whatever you do, do never use them as baby sitters for your children. .
If Hamas had the Power they would obliterate as many Jews as possible .In the prewar era they violently revolted against Jewish escape from Nazi occupied Europe Trapping the Jews .
i had the great privilege of hearing Colonel Kemp at a UIA event last night. He is an awesome gentleman and I felt so honoured to shake his hand and to thank him for his talk and his admiration of our IDF. These students and supporting staff should be dealt with firmly. They need to be taught about respect, manners and they need to be made aware of how bad their behaviour was.
Sydney University, like a multitude of other institutions in the West, is successfully intimidated by these Hamas agents.
The university will do nothing significant.
I completed two courses at Sydney University both of four years duration,as well as teaching for some time.Admittedly that was over 20 years ago . It seems that the Sydney IDF brigade has learned and copied their masters at various campuses, colleges and universities in USA.
In times gone by these students would have been warned after the first incident and expelled after any successive exhibition of objectionable
and disorderly conduct. Today , most probably,no action will be taken by the university because it seems that everyone has rights. Rights to sometimes physically attack people who don’t have the same opinion as the rowdies. Never mind the rights of people who came to hear an eminent person.
As far as Jack Lynch is concerned , an academic at his level ,teaching and influencing his students ,he has no business being on the teaching staff of
Sydney University.
How is it possible that in Australia,an enlightened, liberal society, in 2015, an institution that claims to be a university can employ at taxpayers’ expense a “teacher” who publicly proclaims that his department engages in “advocacy,” not academic pursuits?
How many hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars are wasted each year in maintaining the den of iniquity which comically goes by the name of “Conflict Resolution and Peace Centre?” the name being a manifestation of hypocritical cynicism which would make even Stalin blush?
It is clear that genocidal Hamas has agents and a base within the University of Sydney.
Today their numbers are small; so were the Nazi Party’s numbers initially.
It was clear that the invaders of the lecture hall have undergone intensive training in propagandising, lying and disrupting.
It is highly likely that the training, incitement and instigation were the product of a Sydney University staff member who takes money from Australian taxpayers, occupies a comfortable university office and has nothing better to do than to combat the only free, decent and humane society and state in the entire Middle East, often employing ignorant young “useful idiots” to promote his monstrous cause.