Dear
Esteemed University of Sydney Academics,
I
am writing to you in reference to your support letter for Dr Tim
Anderson.
In
principle, your stand is quite admirable and this is what one would
expect from academics rising to the occasion of supporting a
colleague who is a victim of suppression of free speech and
Palestinian rights.
However,
as an Australian of Palestinian origin, I have during a lengthy
period been the person organising or co-organising all pro-Palestine
activities in Australia, and I assure you from a position of
knowledge that Dr Anderson has never been an advocate for Palestinian
rights. Furthermore, his recent online social media activities have
proven beyond reasonable doubt that he is not an advocate of free
speech either.
Allow
me to begin with the latter. Myself, among other Arab pro-Palestine
and Syria activists and their family members, have been systemically
attacked by Dr Anderson and a group of supporters that he selectively
chooses to send us intimidatory material, including death threats. He
is clever not to directly be involved in order to avoid legal
complications in Australia, but he is clearly complicit and the
examples are numerous and we can provide the evidence.
On
one occasion, Dr Anderson thanked a thug who lives in America for
advocating lynching us and even commented to this thug that he was
“Too Kind”.
On
another occasion, he publicly defended his colleague’s right to
vilify a journalist based on his Armenian ancestry, asking the
journalist if he wanted another Armenian genocide.
On
other occasions he endorsed and supported rumours about myself and
other colleagues of threatening to murder people.
He
used his friends on Facebook to befriend our family members so he
could spy on us and gain access to private information and family
photos.
His
gang of thugs intimidated our friends overseas and coerced them to
disassociate from us on the social media and threatened them with
photos of their grandchildren, telling them that they know where the
child lives.
He
made personal accusations against me, naming me and calling me an
Israeli, Mossad spy; which in my community is quite defamatory and
damaging.
Some
of us for our essential safety had to use pseudonyms, especially for
activists who happen to be Muslims who wanted to de-bunk the ISIS
ideology. These activists had entrusted Dr Anderson with this very
privileged information. But, Dr Anderson flagrantly and repeatedly
outed their names, their photos and published untruths about them in
a seemingly deliberate attempt to have them targeted by the
terrorists.
There
are many such stories and they can all be substantiated with clear
and solid evidence which we can provide to you upon your request.
Ironically,
the reasons for Dr Anderson’s outrage and backflip against those
indigenous Levantine allies was simply because they disagreed with
his alleged approach to defending Syria and because he wanted to be
the man in charge of the social media based activity.
So,
I ask you esteemed academics, how is it possible Dr Anderson alleges
to be a victim of an anti-free speech campaign conducted by the
University of Sydney, when he, in fact, has been spearheading a
vicious, dangerous campaign against me, my family, against many other
indigenous activists who are Palestinian, Syrian and including their
family members just because we disagree with him.
We
now go back to Dr Anderson’s alleged support of Palestine. As
mentioned earlier, all the pro-Palestine functions that I have
personally organised over many years, were done long before I heard
of the name Tim Anderson. His name in his alleged role in supporting
Palestine is only recent and cannot be substantiated with any
evidence at all. As a matter of fact, all that many Palestinian and
Arab activists have received from him has been nothing but
intimidation and threats.
Finally,
as a secular Palestinian, I along with other like-minded Arabs,
endorse a secular, all-inclusive Palestine in which Muslims,
Christians, Jews, members of other sects, even atheists, as well as
ethnic minorities, can live peacefully, side by side, all valued,
protected and equal before the law. Dr Anderson’s recent
endorsement of a public photo of his colleague wearing a badge that
curses Jews, does not serve the Palestinian cause. That same badge
calls for victory for Islam; a call akin to that of ISIS. The irony
here is that on one hand Dr Anderson uses anti-Nazi/Israeli materials
in his classes, and then at other times, conveniently adopts
Nazi-like anti-Semitic approaches.
The
question we ask here is; where does Dr Anderson stand on this all? As
a matter of fact, where does he stand on all other pertinent issues
mentioned above?
Dr
Anderson does not behave, speak or write like an academic should. He
is not a living example of an advocate for free speech and he is
surely not a friend of Palestine and Palestinians. The University of
Sydney has never in the past, to my knowledge, dismissed an academic
because of their support for Palestine. I am not aware of any such
dismissal based on suppressing free speech either. Among others, I
have reported Dr Anderson to the University, voicing our concerns and
fears. We believe that the University has taken into account all of
this in reaching their decision against Dr Anderson and, once again,
for the last time, as far as I can see, with the evidence available
to me, and from personal experience, I cannot see how this decision
was based on restricting free speech.
If
our personal safety and the safety of our families and children mean
anything to you, at a time when it is difficult to press charges
against anyone who is protected by the anonymity of Facebook and
Twitter, then we ask of you to take this into account and withdraw
your public support of Dr Anderson because he has been capitalising
on this flaw, using those weak spots to target, intimidate, smear and
endanger us, all the while being untouchable.
Thank
you,
Jamal
Daoud
President
of Social Justice Network, human rights campaigner and community
leader
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