Gideon Polya, "Open Letter to VC, Notre Dame Australia & Director, LSE (UK) re Zionist & pro-Zionist attack on academic free speech", Gideon Polya Writing, 17 December 2015:
https://sites.google.com/site/gideonpolyawriting/2015-12-17 .
Open Letter to VC, Notre Dame Australia & Director, LSE (UK) re Zionist & pro-Zionist attack on academic free speech
Dear Professor Hammond and Professor Calhoun,
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].
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 awful realities of the ongoing Palestinian Genocide by nuclear terrorist, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel – the racist Zionists (RZs) have now ethnically cleansed 90% of the land of Palestine and 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, a Palestinian Genocide that is part of an horrendous Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide [3-7].
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 [8-10].
Yours sincerely, Dr Gideon Polya, Melbourne.
[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 .
[3]. 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 .
[4]. “Palestinian Genocide” : http://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ .
[5]. Gideon Polya, “Review: “The Plight Of The Palestinians. A Long History Of Destruction”, Countercurrents, 17 June, 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya170612.htm .
[6]. 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 .
[7]. 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/ .
[8]. Gideon Polya, “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability”, now available for free perusal on the Web: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com.au/ .
[9]. 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 .
[10]. Gideon Polya, “Academic Free Speech Under Zionist Attack At Notre Dame Australia And LSE, UK”, Countercurrents, 16 December, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya161215.htm .