An Australian professor at the University of Sydney was cleared of anti-Semitic acts by the university, after waving money in the face of a Jewish person in a move bringing to mind classic anti-Semitic tropes during a tense on-campus event.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that associate professor Jake Lynch, a supporter of the BDS movement seeking to harm Israel economically, was in the audience of a talk at the university's Camperdown campus by retired British Colonel Richard Kemp, a staunch defender of the IDF's conduct.
Lynch claimed that in the audience Diane Barkas, a Jewish English lecturer and comedian, kicked him in the groin, a claim she resolutely denies.
At that point, he proceeded to wave a $5 bill in her face, saying "this is going to cost you a lot of money."
The university this month told Lynch that it was not convinced that his conduct "constituted anti-Semitic behaviour or unlawful harassment on the grounds of an individual's religious belief (or perceived religious belief)."
However, the university still warned him that he may be dismissed or face other disciplinary action for breaches of the university's code of conduct given his disrespectful behavior.
Outside of Colonel Kemp's talk a separate incident occurred, as a number of anti-Israeli students protested raucously with a megaphone blaring pro-Palestinian slogans, and refused to disperse until security guards forcibly removed them. Several of the students face expulsion.
Responding to Lynch's money-waving, Julian Kowal of the Australasian Union of Jewish Students said the professor had compromised the university's reputation as being a "safe space for Jewish students," and needed to be fired.
"In so far as the money-waving actions in the face of a Jewish woman evoked strong images of historically anti-Semitic stereotypes, his actions were undoubtedly highly inappropriate," said Kowal.
This isn't the first time Lynch's anti-Israel bias has run him afoul of regulations, nor the first time he was let off for his actions.
According to Haaretz, last year a federal court in Australia threw out a case against Lynch that had been filed by an NGO in Israel, which charged the professor with violating Australia's anti-racism laws by calling for an academic boycott of the Jewish state.
However, the case was dismissed not over the validity of the accusations against Lynch, but rather due to a technicality.