The occupation is unjust but that doesn’t mean boycotts are justified

MICHAEL VISONTAY: The Gaza conflict sparked a year of fierce debate; boycott calls are effective at highlighting the cause, but a boycott of the Sydney Festival defies justification

THE CALL FOR a boycott of the upcoming Sydney Festival over the Israeli embassy’s sponsorship of a dance event in the festival is the exclamation mark on a year of intense debate over Israel and “the Occupation”.

A coalition representing Sydney’s Arab community, Jews Against the Occupation and others have called on patrons and performers to boycott the festival in response to its partnership with the embassy, which is sponsoring the performance of Decadance, by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin, who is himself an outspoken critic of the occupation. Several prominent Australian artists have withdrawn from festival in solidarity with the boycott call.

The contradictory arguments wrapped up in this story underscore the new level of hostilities that have been played out since the Gaza conflict in May. As critics condemned Israel over the death and destruction inflicted on Gaza, pro-Israel advocates fumed at the critics’ apparent dismissal of Hamas’ rocket barrage and loss of Israeli life.

In Australia this tension was further aggravated by a discussion on the ABC’s Q&A program which Jewish community leaders alleged was blatantly one-sided in favour of pro-Palestinian voices, sparking a sustained campaign against alleged ABC bias by community leaders.

While they argue Jews have been victimised through anti-Israel bias, there are many more, Jews as well as non-Jews, who believe Palestinians are the victims of a greater Israeli oppression – a dichotomy that seems to have become the de facto signature of the debate.

Fallout from the Gaza conflict spilled over into fierce disagreements about the IHRA definition of antisemitism, as Jewish academics and advocates exchanged arguments about whether the definition had gaps that would allow right-wing institutions to tar criticism of Israel as antisemitism, and effectively shut it down. An international group of Jewish academics proposed an alternate definition, The Jerusalem Declaration, which sought to address these potential loopholes.