A University of Sydney student has been cleared of misconduct after taking part in a protest interrupting a lecture by former British Army Colonel and staunch defender of the Israeli military Richard Kemp.
Fahad Ali, a Palestinian-Australian medical student, was one of 11 people notified by the University after the protest that he was being investigated for misconduct.
The March 11 protest saw tempers flare as pro-Palestinian demonstrators entered the event, sparking an angry reaction from some of those in the audience.
Under pressure to respond to claims of anti-Semitisms as well as accusations security staff used excessive force in removing the protesters, the University engaged Workdynamic Australia to investigate and complete a report.
After its initial stages the University proceeded with its investigation into Ali, as well as associate professor Jake Lynch – a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign – two security guards, a number of students, and some members of the audience.
The investigation cleared Lynch of accusations of anti-Semitism. Later cautioned for “unsatisfactory conduct”, Lynch kept his job.
The associate professor has faced ongoing pressure over his support of the BDS campaign, including an unsuccessful lawsuit by Israeli group Shurat HaDin.
As New Matilda revealed in April, the University pursued a number of students despite the fact they were alleged to have committed seemingly minor offences, such as swearing, yelling, and resisting removal from the theatre.
They faced punishments including expulsion, suspension, and fines.
While Ali was found to have participated in the protest and yelled at an audience member, an allegation he swore at Alex Ryvchin, a member of the Executive Council of the Australian Jewry in the audience, was not upheld.
Video from the incident showed a member of the audience denying the existence of Palestinian people in earshot of Ali, much to the surprise of those protesting out the front.
Ali was informed this week the University would not take further action against him.
The fate of other students who took part in the protest is not immediately clear, nor the result of the investigation into security personnel or off-campus figures who responded to the protestors and were subsequently embroiled in the investigation.
The University of Sydney has been contacted for comment.
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MJoanneS
Posted Thursday, August 13, 2015 - 16:56
Very typical zionist, no such thing as Palestinians. When resolution called for the partition of Palestine and two thirds of the population were Palestinians on 87% of the land who do these old racists think they were?
This user is a New Matilda supporter. Tokujiro
Posted Thursday, August 13, 2015 - 17:04
Common-sense resolution of something which should have been nipped-off at the time. What happened to the woman who assaulted protesters - has she been charged? If not why not - the video-evidence was quite clear on her outrageous behaviour! Jake LYNCH is a hero! A pity Fahad ALI had to wait so long for his name/place-at-university - to be cleared/assured. And the person declaring there was no such thing as a Palestinean? Have they been cautioned/an apology sought? One can only hope so!
This user is a New Matilda supporter. paul walter
Posted Thursday, August 13, 2015 - 19:53
Another disgraceful episode with the Zionist Lobby at back of it.
Do these people ever tell the truth, as to these sorts of antics?.
This user is a New Matilda supporter. Rychard
Posted Friday, August 14, 2015 - 00:11
Funny how Palestinians apparently disappeared when Israelis appeared and all their villages and homes gained new owners and names, or disappeared under satirically titled "Peace Parks" or even car parks.
MazelMan
Posted Friday, August 14, 2015 - 08:50
@MJoanneS, besides your agenda inspired claims regarding the origins of the Palestinians please give me some concrete references.
The Palestinians only exist today as a knee jerk reaction to Zionism and strong antipathy from their Muslim brethren. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for maintaining a struggle against the state of Israel for the sake of Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do Palestinian advocates tout the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that they posit the existence of a distinct “Palestinian people” to oppose Zionism.
Until the arrival of Zionist immigrants to Palestine in numbers at the turn of the 20th century there was no Palestinian identity, the people of the region choosing to identify with Syria. The genesis of the "Palestinian people' has been a reactionary, xenophobic response to developments that took place in Palestine during the British mandate.
This user is a New Matilda supporter. Rychard
Posted Friday, August 14, 2015 - 11:40
Mazelman... Usual zionist bullshit. Problem is all those maps and REAL historical documents, eh? It does not matter a jot who they "identified" with... The Palestinans are the people who were there for millennia before Israel was invented and they were forcibly kicked out of their homes, villages and land as well as being brutalised, raped and killed. Ilan Pappe. That is the problems with facts. They get in the way of hasbara. Shall we apply this "identifying" thing to all those jews, real and imaginery, imported into the country to swell the numbers? Many of whom are now leaving?
MazelMan
Posted Friday, August 14, 2015 - 13:07
@Rychard, instead of echoing this unjustified, baseless statement "The Palestinans are the people who were there for millennia" and giving me your usual tangential anti-semitic tripe about events that have occurred since the Palestinians invented their identity, please respond to the following facts:
Prior to partition, Palestinian Arabs did not view themselves as having a separate identity. When the First Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations met in Jerusalem in February 1919 to choose Palestinian representatives for the Paris Peace Conference, the following resolution was adopted:
In 1937, a local Arab leader, Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, told the Peel Commission, which ultimately suggested the partition of Palestine: “There is no such country as Palestine! ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria.” (refer Moshe Kohn, “The Arabs’ ‘Lie’ of the Land,” Jerusalem Post, October 18, 1991).
The representative of the Arab Higher Committee to the United Nations echoed this view in a statement to the General Assembly in May 1947, which said Palestine was part of the Province of Syria and the Arabs of Palestine did not comprise a separate political entity. A few years later, Ahmed Shuqeiri, later the chairman of the PLO, told the Security Council: “It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but southern Syria.” (Avner Yaniv, PLO, Jerusalem: Israel Universities Study Group of Middle Eastern Affairs, August 1974, p. 5.)
Palestinian Arab nationalism is largely a post-World War I phenomenon that did not become a significant political movement until after the 1967 Six-Day War.