March 15, 2016
The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) has applauded Student associations at the University of Vienna for declaring their opposition to anti-Israel and anti-Semitic academic boycotts as well as to the BDS movement. In its statement, the student council of the University of Vienna noted that, “As student representatives it is important for us to criticize the academic boycott against Israel, which entirely excludes Israeli academics…There are rising violent anti-Semitics attacks on, above all, American universities, which are connected to BDS and Israel Apartheid Week. Academic events from Jewish professors are regularly disrupted. And hostility toward the existence of Israel is expressed by the burning of Israeli flags.” This rejection is believed to the first major European opposition to the rising tide of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic academic moves in the United Kingdom and the US.
Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the ADC, issued the following statement:
“We commend the members of the Student organisations at the University of Vienna for proclaiming their opposition to all forms of anti-Semitism, including the divisive and unproductive BDS movement. Campuses have become hotbeds for anti-Jewish bigotry and Israel hostility. The malicious BDS campaign, which is particularly popular at universities, traffics in racism, and does not contribute in any way to the promotion of sustainable peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. At its core, the BDS uses strong-arm tactics and unfounded, vicious and relentless assaults on the Jewish state to promote its primary objective of rejecting Israel’s Jewish existence and the two-state solution. We know that anti-Israel activists are creating a toxic environment on campuses, stifling debate, inflaming tensions, and intimidating Jewish students. This welcomed declaration makes it unequivocally clear that there are principled students who will fight against prejudice and defamation, and that reason and truth will always triumph over hypocrisy and hateful double standards.”
The Anti-Defamation Commission, founded in 1979, is Australia’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through educational programs that combat bigotry, prejudice and all forms of hatred.
For further information please contact Dr Dvir Abramovich on (03) 9272 5677
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or visit our website at antidef.org.au