← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Recluse
Thread ID: 11254 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2003-11-25
2003-11-25 06:24 | User Profile
Here's Lucy, caving in, taking flight By Alan Ramsey October 25, 2003
[url]http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/24/1066974313719.html[/url]
Dr Hanan Mikhail Ashrawi is a woman, a professor of English, an international human rights activist, and a politician. A year ago she was chosen, unanimously, to receive the 2003 Sydney Peace Prize. The Premier, Bob Carr, will present Ashrawi with her award at State Parliament in 12 days. The first four recipients of the annual prize were honoured at functions in the Great Hall of Sydney University. They included South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1999), East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao (2000) and Australia's Sir William Deane (2001). However, for Ashrawi, the Great Hall is out of bounds.
This is not because Ashrawi is either a woman, an academic or a political activist. It is because she is a Palestinian. That is enough to ensure a virulent campaign of distortion and ridicule by Jewish critics to brutalise her image and try to have Carr renege on Ashrawi's presentation and the award taken from her. So far Carr has refused to buckle. Not so Sydney University.
Earlier this year the university's chancellor, Justice Kim Santow of the NSW Supreme Court, made it known to Professor Stuart Rees, director of the Sydney Peace Foundation, and to Kathryn Greiner, the foundation's chairwoman at the time, that the Great Hall would be closed to Ashrawi. Rees and an academic colleague, Ken McNabb, took the matter to Sydney's vice-chancellor, Gavin Brown. In what was called a "difficult and shameful" meeting, Brown confirmed the decision. The campaign now is about maximum political pressure for other corporate and civic sponsors to abandon Ashrawi and intimidate Carr.
Lucy Turnbull, Sydney's Lord Mayor since Frank Sartor joined Carr's ministry after the NSW elections in March, is the latest to fold her tent and take flight. Sartor, as lord mayor, had earlier arranged for the City of Sydney to be a $30,000 annual sponsor, for five years, of the Peace Foundation lecture, which is always given, in a separate function, by the peace prize winner the night before the award ceremony on the first Thursday in November.
On Tuesday this week, in a brief "Dear Professor Rees" letter dated October 20, Turnbull told Rees the Sydney City Council "will be unable to participate in this year's Peace Prize events". That is, the council was blackballing both the lecture and the award ceremony. Turnbull's reasons for doing so were a travesty: the usual ignorant mishmash of allegations forever trotted out by the usual suspects against any Palestinian with international credibility and standing in the peace process.
Lucy Turnbull should read the letter from a Jewish academic at Oxford University published in the Herald yesterday. Then she should go hide her head in shame. The letter responded to Tony Stephens's story in the Herald two days earlier about Turnbull's craven cave-in to the anti-Ashrawi campaign. It said: "Opposition to awarding the Sydney Peace Prize to Dr Hanan Ashrawi has so far been based on historical ignorance, ideological blindness, wilful malevolence or provincial political opportunism." (Are you listening, Malcolm?)
The letter continued: "Dr Ashrawi has been a rare and precious voice of reason in the peace process and her commitment to a just solution has been exemplary. She has consistently encouraged Palestinians to reject violence, despite continuing Israeli territorial expansion and systemic political oppression." (signed) Ben Saul, Tutor in International Law, Magdalen College, University of Oxford, England.
And what does Rees think of Lucy's white feather? He said yesterday: "When I negotiated the sponsorship contract with the City of Sydney, I did so with Frank Sartor, not Lucy Turnbull. She's an interesting person. I've had face-to-face communications with all the major corporate sponsors who support us over this issue. I even flew down to Melbourne to talk to Rio Tinto. But Lucy Turnbull and co are like the Medicis of the Town Hall. She never talks to me. All I got was this summary note a couple of days ago in which, for her own purposes, she completely misinterprets Ashrawi's public statements and says she won't publicly support us this year.
"In other words, she won't be seen in the same company as Ashrawi. She doesn't even want to be seen in the lecture theatre. Apparently it's more than her husband's political life is worth."
Ah, yes, of course - Malcolm Turnbull's much publicised stalking of the Liberals' Peter King in his pursuit of the eastern suburbs' federal seat of Wentworth. Lucy Turnbull has gone to ground since her "Dear John" letter to Rees this week. But a senior business figure phoned Rees on Tuesday to tell him of a conversation he'd overheard at a function the previous night. It apparently included Lucy being told something like: "That wretched King is going around saying you support the Palestinians because you're a party to this peace prize."
Rees commented: "So Hanan Ashrawi gets her name sullied and ridiculed because the Turnbulls want to be more important that they already are."
And Kathryn Greiner? Greiner was chairwoman of the Sydney Peace Foundation for four years until her resignation this year over an issue of solidarity involving her husband, Nick, against the Senate of Sydney University and unconnected with the peace prize bitchiness. She was one of the jury of six who selected Ashrawi unanimously in September last year as this year's recipient (the other five: Rees; social researcher Hugh Mackay; Dr Jane Fulton from University management; Stella Cornelius, Sydney's 83-year-old grand dame of conflict mediation; James McLachlan, a director of Kerry Packer's PBL).
Greiner remains a non-voting member in support of Rees. But two weeks ago, on October 9, she phoned Rees to talk frankly about her concerns with an accelerating campaign against Ashrawi. A file note of their conversation reads: KG: "I have to speak logically. It is either Hanan Ashrawi or the Peace Foundation. That's our choice, Stuart. My distinct impression is that if you persist in having her here, they'll destroy you. Rob Thomas of City Group is in trouble for supporting us. I think he must have had a phone call from New York. And you know Danny Gilbert [partner in the law firm, Gilbert and Tobin] has already been warned off."
SR: "You must be joking. We've been over this a hundred times. We consulted widely. We agreed the jury's decision, made over a year ago, was not only unanimous but that we would support it, together."
KG: "But listen, I'm trying to present the logic of this. They'll destroy what you've worked for. They are determined to show we made a bad choice. I think it's Frank Lowy's money. You don't understand just how much opposition there is. We cannot go ahead. If only there was progress in the Middle East, this would not be such a bad time."
SR: "I won't be subject to bullying and intimidation. We are being threatened by members of a powerful group who think they have an entitlement to tell others what to do. This opposition is orchestrated. The arguments are all the same - that Hanan Ashrawi has not condemned violence sufficiently, that she was highly critical of Israel in her address to the UN's Johannesburg Conference on racism, and wilder accusations that do not bear repetition."
KG: "But you're not listening to the logic. The Commonwealth Bank - I was at a reception last night - is highly critical. We could not approach them for financial help for the Schools Peace Prize. We'll get no support from them. The business world will close ranks. They're saying we are being one-sided, that we've only supported Palestine."
SR: "Kathryn, we need to avoid the trap of even using the language of 'one side'. That's not the issue. We are being bullied and intimidated and you are asking that we give way to it. The letter writers and the phone callers who this group encourage have spent weeks bullying a 25-year-old colleague of mine who handles the foundation's administration. You are asking me to collude with bullying."
KG: "I'll tell you how serious this is. Bob Carr won't come to the dinner. He'll flick the responsibility to [his deputy, Andrew] Refshauge at the last minute. And you won't get the Town Hall. It is more than Lucy's life is worth. They will desert us as well."
SR: "I've never given way to bullying. Public life is too much characterised by cowardice. If we give way I'd be so ashamed I couldn't face myself. The image of the Peace Foundation would be shameful. Our reputation would count for nothing."
KG: "My friend, I am telling you what the reality is. The foundation will be destroyed. I'd hate to see its work come to nothing over this. Our critics are saying it's an awful choice."
SR: "These critics are 'they' and 'them', invisible but powerful people. They stay powerful because they are invisible. They bully and intimidate in the same breath they behave as unblemished pillars of the community. Do you mean to say that in cautious, often gutless Australia we are not going to follow through on this? No. I remain completely committed to our decision."
Watch this space.
2003-11-25 06:42 | User Profile
More:
From Great Hall to messy brawl By Alan Ramsey November 8, 2003
[url]http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/07/1068013401404.html[/url]
Dr Hanan Ashrawi got her Peace Prize. Bob Carr stood his ground. Lucy Turnbull went to hers. Frank Lowy emerged to write a letter to the Herald and make a phone call to the Premier. The shrill and the malevolent remained shrill. For once they did not get their way. Ashrawi graced her cause. Mark Leibler shamed his.
Yesterday Ashrawi addressed the National Press Club, eight days after the ABC advised the club it would not televise the function. Last night the Egyptian ambassador hosted a private dinner. Four days ago the hierarchy of Sydney University issued a memo to its academic staff. Only the sweepings remain.
"Date: Tue, 4 Nov, 2003
"From: [email]Chancellor@vcc.usyd.edu.au[/email]
"To: All staff in the university
"Subject: Sydney Peace Prize
"The University of Sydney has made clear its position on the Sydney Peace Prize on a number of occasions. That is, that the Sydney Peace Foundation that awards the prize is an autonomous foundation making its decisions independently of the university, in accordance with its own rules and procedures. The university is scrupulous in not taking sides in the complex political problems of our times, but is committed to furthering the understanding of the issues involved.
"Nonetheless, inaccurate comment in the media about the availability of the Great Hall for the peace prize ceremony calls for correction. The sequence of relevant events, to the best of our understanding, is as follows:
"November 22, 2002: Tentative booking for the Great Hall made by the Sydney Peace Foundation. Similar bookings had been made of [State] Parliament House and Sydney Town Hall. February, 2003: Chancellor Kim Santow was approached by a member of the Jewish community concerning the award by the peace foundation of this year's prize to Dr Ashrawi. That approach brought home the importance of dispelling any suggestion the university was thereby taking sides, particularly if the ceremony were to take place in the Great Hall.
"The chancellor, believing this to be a legitimate concern, raised the question of the appropriateness of the use of the Great Hall with acting vice-chancellor Professor Ken Eltis. The acting vice-chancellor agreed that the matter required serious consideration but that, in any event, MacLaurin Hall being under repair, the Department of Music had requested a booking for the same evening as the Peace Prize award.
"February 25, 2003: The University Venues Management office telephoned the foundation office to check whether the tentative booking for the Great Hall was required. The reply was that the function had been relocated to Parliament House because of numbers (as it had the previous year when Mary Robinson was the recipient of the prize). The foundation formally cancelled the booking. Deputy Chancellor Renata Kaldor subsequently spoke to the chair of the foundation, Kathryn Greiner, to inform her the foundation office had cancelled the booking.
"April 1, 2003: Professor Rees [foundation director] and Dr MacNab [foundation executive member] met the vice-chancellor, Professor Gavin Brown. No request was made to use the Great Hall, as implied in Alan Ramsey's article in The Sydney Morning Herald on October 16, 2003 [the article, in fact, was published on October 25]. The person who first approached the chancellor was not a donor or potential donor. No improper pressure was brought by anyone - donors or potential donors - not to make the Great Hall available. Nor has any pressure been placed on the peace foundation by the chancellor, vice-chancellor, acting vice-chancellor or deputy chancellor. Indeed, the chancellor has had no contact whatsoever with anyone connected with the peace foundation.
"It is immaterial whether the university or any of the individuals who comprise it agree or disagree with the award of the peace prize this year or any year. The autonomy of the foundation and the independence and bipartisanship of the university as a place for those engaged to be heard, are and will remain the fundamental principles.
"[signed] Chancellor G.F.K. Santow, Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Gavin Brown."
A member of the university staff remarked: "I can't see how it explains anything. Moreover, it suggests that by 'chance' the hall was unavailable or that the SPP did not want to use it. In this case it simply allows Kim Santow an excuse to say his 'legitimate concerns' were not acted upon. Yet it remains he was influenced by a 'member' of the Jewish community, as he was prepared to support the view and further it by applying his own influence to the acting vice-chancellor. How does being 'approached' dispel the accusations of influence? As far as I can see, it only serves to confirm those suspicions. The whole affair stinks like a dead rat under the floorboards."
What does Greiner, as former chair of the peace foundation and a member of the jury that chose Ashrawi, say about the Great Hall "ban" on the peace prize ceremony? On October 31, six days after my Herald article, Greiner told Mike Carlton on radio 2UE: "I think the concept of the peace prize, the individual selected and, indeed, the foundation, has been hijacked by people who have what I call a range war of self-interest. Dr Ashrawi, as a female Christian living in a Muslim world, has given a life of trying to broker peace ...
"I don't deny the right of others to disagree and to engage in debate about the disagreement. But this has gone beyond [that]. This has been ferocious lobbying, and I feel that that's my despair. When captains of industry have been approached not to support the peace prize, when individuals have taken decisions not to be involved for reasons of pure self-interest ..."
Carlton: "Are you disappointed also that the use of Sydney University's Great Hall has been denied?" Greiner: "Sydney University was distinctly opposed to being involved in any way with Hanan Ashrawi, despite the vice-chancellor's letter [published in the Herald that morning]."
Four days earlier, on October 27, the ABC's Sally Loane interviewed Dr Ken MacNab, president of the centre for peace studies at Sydney University. Had MacNab and Professor Stuart Rees taken the matter to Vice-Chancellor Brown? Had they had a "difficult and shameful meeting" with him "over whether or not Ashrawi would be denied access" to the university's Great Hall?
MacNab: "Yes, such a meeting did take place, but I'm not certain the description of it in the Herald is absolutely correct. In substance, it's broadly correct. It was intimated as having come from Chancellor Kim Santow that the Great Hall would not be an appropriate place to hold this particular ceremony. He, through an intermediary, informed Kathryn Greiner and Stuart Rees it would not be appropriate."
Loane: "Did he say why?" MacNab: "It wasn't clear, but the implications were there to be drawn. There is, however, a history to this, in the sense the first four [annual peace prize] ceremonies were in the Great Hall, and the next one [last year] in State Parliament because there was a difficulty, with graduation ceremonies, in setting up for [the peace prize dinner]. So on this occasion we did have two or three possible venues lined up. And when it was intimated, in the fashion that it was, that the Great Hall would not be appropriate, was felt not to be appropriate, the foundation officer at the time simply relinquished the Great Hall as an option and we pursued the other two."
Loane: "So Gavin Brown was not going to take up the matter with his chancellor?" MacNab: "I have no idea. But it was agreed we wouldn't make a public issue of it and make a fight of it."
Readers can make up their own minds. They can also have a good think about how Mark Leibler, national chairman of the Australia/Israel Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), carefully defines the difference between Palestinian suicide violence and Israeli government "action".
Interviewed by ABC radio's Linda Mottram on the AM program two days ago, Leibler said of Ashrawi's peace prize lecture in Sydney the previous night: "I looked everywhere for a clear condemnation of suicide bombers. I couldn't see it anywhere. You know, the people who go into malls and cafes and blow up women and children. No reference to it. There was also no call to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure ..."
Mottram: "Hanan Ashrawi said, and I quote, 'Acts of violence against civilians, regardless of motivation or reason, must stop immediately, must not be encouraged, must not be condoned, whether suicide bombers or Apache helicopters.' Isn't that the kind of language you're calling for?" Liebler: "Of course not. What you're doing is equating those who blow up innocent civilians, women and children, with actions by a country to deal with terrorists. That's not good enough, because the Israeli violence is only, is not violence. The Israeli action is there simply to protect the civilian population ..."
Is it no wonder people despair of zealots? And does Leibler conveniently forget how the cycle all began with Jewish terrorism and the King David Hotel atrocity all those years ago?
2003-11-25 15:44 | User Profile
Want to take a look at a real Fascist?
[url]http://www.ericblumrich.com/peace.html[/url]