EDITORIAL: Anti-Semitism probe must be a line in the sand
EDITORIAL: Behind the walls of Australia’s elite universities, a disturbing crisis was unfolding that many say went unchecked.
It is both puzzling and deeply alarming.
How was it that the anti-Semitism which poisoned our streets during the height of the pro-Palestinian protests was able to take hold in so many of our universities.
Our most esteemed educational institutions. Where students were meant to be preparing to take their places on the front line of the nation’s future.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Instead, many took their places on the front line of the anti-Semitic marches which terrorised Jewish students and staff.
This week’s hearings of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion showed clearly that many institutions of higher learning failed.
The result was that for some students just the simple act of attending campus meant stepping into an unpredictable and frightening place.
Consider the evidence given by Australian National University student Liat, who said she would hide her Jewish identity on campus.
“Every single day when I would make the walk into uni, I would have to pick: am I Jewish Liat today, or am I regular Lia?” she said. “Micro-calculations that you make every single day and at every single instance is exhausting.”
And there’s the case of Melbourne University physics professor Steven Prawer, who told the royal commission 20 masked pro-Palestine students marched his office and staged a sit-in.
Professor Prawer said the intruding students wore keffiyehs, carried signs, chanted and some covered their faces in a “classic terrorist pose” during the office takeover in October 2024. “I had no idea at that stage if it was a protest, if it was a terrorist attack,” he said.
“I don’t know what their intentions were, but when a Jewish person with some experience of what happens in Israel sees a masked person, you could only see their eyes ... ,” he said.
Australia-Israel and Jewish Affairs Council policy analyst Bren Carlill reiterated details of a 2023 survey about the experiences of Jewish students at Australian universities. The survey found 64 per cent of Jewish students had reported at least one incident of anti-Semitism during their time at university.
The most reported type of incident was people or events which made the student feel intimidated because of their Jewish identity.
Dr Carlill warned the reported number of anti-Semitic incidents was likely the tip of the iceberg.
An honourable exception to the failure on our campuses was provided by Western Sydney University chancellor Jennifer Westacott, who had publicly called out anti-Semitism and argued that universities must be places of enlightenment and never places of fear.
Professor Westacott told the commission too many of her contemporaries had mistaken hate speech for free speech. “Placards calling for the murder of Jews, chants calling for the annihilation of the Jewish state, and the intimidation of Jewish students and lecturers are not a contest of ideas,” her submission said.
“Too many universities hid behind the veil of free speech, and too many used academic freedom as cover for tolerating what was plainly abhorrent.”
Hers was a lonely voice of clarity. The commission must serve as a line in the sand. The failures must not be repeated.
