On July 31, 2013, an Israeli civil rights group, Shurat HaDin, has filed a class action complaint under the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 with the Australian Human Rights Commission over a Sydney professor's participation and public support of boycotts of Israel including an academic boycott of Israeli universities. Recently, faculty and students at Sydney University called for the severing of links with Israeli institutions, actions that according to Shurat Harding would be deemed racist and in violation of Australian Federal anti-discrimination laws.
The complaint filed by Shurat HaDin's Australian solicitor Alexander Hamilton is the first time that a Racial Discrimination Act action has been launched in Australia against those promoting boycotts, sanctions
and divestment (BDS) against the Jewish State. It is the first time that Australia's anti-racism laws have been utilized against people who are claimed to seeking to harm Israeli academics or businesses because of their
national origin.
In its letter sent to the Australian commission, Shurat HaDin pointed out that the Federal Racial Discrimination Act of 1975 made it unlawful for anyone “to do any act involving a distinction, exclusion…or preference based on race…or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose…of nullifying or impairing…fundamental freedom in the…economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.” The Shurat HaDin complaint also noted that any boycott of Israeli “settlement products,” such as SodaStream and Ahava, harms Palestinian economic interests due to the fact the factories employ many Palestinian workers and provide an important source of income for local families and villages.
This past semester, the university's student body endorsed Associate Professor Jake Lynch's academic boycott of Israel. According to Shurat HaDin, Lynch had publicly announced his refusal to work with Dan Avnon, an Israeli professor from the prestigious Hebrew University in Jerusalem, which promotes Israeli-Arab coexistence, and also called for a “>here.
