Matthew Lesh (The Spectator 30/6/18) draws attention to the closed-mindedness of Australian universities and academics. He writes that Macquarie University academics were invited to a presentation on cyber security by an Israeli. Several academics declined to attend for pretty much the same reason: “the Human Rights abuses currently in Gaza”.

The Israeli, Avi Shavit, was INVITED to speak on his area of expertise, cyber security. This was apparently irrelevant to boycotting academics, who chose to “... put his religious and national background foremost in their mind”.

In other words, these academics discriminated against Shavit on nationality and religion. Against a man who might or might not agree with his country's stand on Palestine; a man who identifies as LEFT WING just as those bigoted against him do.

Lesh rightly identifies this incident as a further example of how Australian universities are “.... ostracising and rejecting ideas that do not fit the dominant progressive MONOCULTURE.”

Particularly egregious is that one of the boycotters is one Associate Professor, Noah Bassil, who is supposed to be an “impartial decider” on which projects get funded and which PhD students are accepted: but he has shown “clear bias that raises red flags”. Lesh ponders what would happen if an Israeli or Zionist Jew proposed a project. Would they be “less likely to get funding because of their background or their views”? Given Bassil's administrative position, and the fact that he can willingly boycott a speaker points to a monoculture without “shame”, “second thoughts” or “repercussions”.

The boycott was not “completely unanimous”, and one senior lecturer, declaring his opposition to the boycott pointed out, that it showed a lack of ethical leadership, was “self-indulgent moral posturing which diminishes our University's reputation”. He will be attending the talk on cyber security

Holding opinions is one thing, acting on them is quite another.
Cleansing of political opposition in uni lecture halls, is not educational.
The whole spectrum of education has become narrow minded; but the culmination of this phenomenon is at its most disturbing, when university lecturers can hold sway with personal opinion, aimed at silencing any oppositional rumblings.

Matthew Lesh is a former Director of the Australasian
Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) and does have his own
axe to grind.

The fact remains that Macquarie University did invite
Avi Shavit to speak. And people were free to chose if they
wanted to attend or not.

On the other side of the coin - The University of Sydney's
Student Representative Council (SRC) was attacked by the
Australasian Union of Jewish Students about student
magazine Honi Soit cover of the image of suicide bomber
Hamida al Taher. The Sydney University Student Representative
Council called the image "highly defensible" and labelled
the Australasian Union of Jewish Student's complaint as an
attack on free speech. And stated defenders of the recent
Israeli massacres should be confronted about their bigoted
views.

There's always two sides to every story - in this complex
and emotional controversial conflict. Depending on your own
personal point of view.

Too many only want to hear from those with the same views that they have. One of the good things about olo is that I hear the views of those who disagree with me. I might learn something from them. At least I can get an insight on why they disagree and where they are coming from. The closed mindedness of universities is nothing new.

Irrespective of Matthew Lesh's affiliations, the case of University academics boycotting a presentation by an expert on cybersecurity because of the speaker's race and nationality is petty and more than a little racist.

Similarly, it is more than a little hypocritical of the Sydney University Student Representative Council to feature a mass murderer on the cover of its magazine and then claim the defence of "free speech" when they have been instrumental in shutting down the free speech of others.

Drain the swamp.Start with the abc.