Universities took extraordinary lengths to curb anti-Semitism but ultimately failed, commission is told

From creating a new poster-approval body and cutting power to pro-Palestine encampments, Australian universities went to extraordinary, yet ultimately unsuccessful, lengths to curb anti-Semitism.

To address on-campus tensions, universities have told a royal commission they issued eviction notices to encampments, blocked unapproved materials, implemented mandatory staff training and better vetted study tours.

Monash University Vice-Chancellor Sharon Pickering said after incidents like Jewish students being harassed between classes and others filming TikTok dances on an Auschwitz study tour the institution had a rethink on its approach to the issue.

Professor Pickering said detailed efforts including getting 2000 staff through professional development by the end of this year as part of a “broader cultural piece”.

She declared that universities had a role to play in shaping young minds against hatred.

“We’re dealing with 18 to 20-one year olds largely. If we can get this right with them, then we stand a chance on social cohesion, and that’s where our focus is,” she said.

But other appearances raised questions to the level of understanding of the issues Jewish-Australian students faced.

Australian National University acting vice-chancellor and president Rebekah Brown made a startling blunder when she failed to describe the Israeli flag.

Under questioning from Australia Palestine Advocacy Network’s lawyer Yasser Bakri, Professor Brown said she was “drawing a mental blank” and had to be reminded it was “blue and white”.

Mr Bakri had offered to help the vice-chancellor, to which she had replied “yes please do. I’m embarrassed now”.

Earlier in the hearings on Thursday, ANU’s acting Provost and Senior Vice-President Joan Leach had walked the Royal Commission into Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion through some of the actions it had taken to mitigate the hatred.

She said it included banning tents and sleeping on campus and as well as introducing a “poster policy” to review all material students want to publish on their grounds.

After complaints of unacceptable material posted on campuses, including white supremacists stickers, the university also created a new establishment to ensure all material posted was approved.

Professor Leach said the “poster policy” was introduced in February 2026 which “governs all material displayed on university grounds, including posters, notices, bans, and flags”.

She cited multiple reasons for its establishment, including that there was “community desire” for it, an “operational need” but also to prevent the campus from looking “increasingly untidy”.

“We wanted to make sure that we were able to have a look at what was being posted,” she said.

“So that, the complaints that you might see that we received around posters, we could monitor them and take them down if they were problematic.”

“The poster policy includes where students might post. The campus was looking increasingly untidy, because if students are allowed to post anywhere, they will, and that was seen by most of the communities as acceptable.

“There’s plenty of places for them to post to make their views known, which I think is very important, but not everywhere.”

Professor Leach said another policy, rolled out in August 2024, was designed to effectively prohibit any future encampment of a similar kind from emerging again.

It had stipulated that people could only sleep on campus in “designated accommodations”, prohibited “tents or other structures”, and vowed to ensure demonstrations were “orderly, peaceful, and not make other campus users feel harassed or intimidated”.