‘Tacit support for protesters’: Open letter calls out UQ response

More than 100 people, including former governor Paul de Jersey, have signed an open letter calling out UQ’s response to campus protests.

University of Queensland students, staff and alumni have penned an open letter accusing the institution of giving tacit support to anti-Israeli protesters, calling for the school to take a zero-tolerance approach to anti-Semitism and retract its controversial commitment with the activists.

The letter was sent to the university on Friday and signed by more than 100 people, including former Queensland governor and chief justice Paul de Jersey.

It comes after rising tensions between pro-Palestinian and Jewish students at the University of Queensland, where two students admitted on camera they would be terrorists if involved in the war between Israel and Hamas.

In June the university entered into a commitment with protesters, agreeing to publish a statement on its approach to sensitive research, making an anti-racism commitment and doubling the number of refugee and humanitarian scholarships for communities affected by the war.

There is no suggestion that any students in the student group have engaged in anti-Semitic behaviour.

The open letter sent on Friday calls for the senate and UQ executive to retract the commitment to activists, publicly declare that if activist groups re-establish an encampment it will be removed, and to make any anti-Semitism a dismissible offence and demonstrate zero tolerance.

UQ associate professor Yoni Nazarathy at Camp Shalom on the UQ campus in May

The letter says “bullying” by the protesters “has reaped their desired results, at great detriment to Jewish staff and students and others who simply want to participate in higher education and be part of the university’s community”.

“This disparity, and failure to recognise the reality of hatred on your campus against Jews and anyone with an opposing view... raises deep questions about a commitment to treating all students equitably,” it states.

“Your actions leave us deeply concerned and disappointed in the reputation of UQ, an institution that provided us with the best higher education the state could provide.”

UQ associate professor Yoni Nazarathy said he had seen various incidents of anti-Semitism happening in front of him, such as the snatching of flags, pouring of coffee on signs and using the word Zionist in a “derogatory and hurtful” manner.

“I think that the University of Queensland... is complicit with anti-Semitism,” he said.

“It does not mean that they’re anti-Semitic, but they allow for anti-Semitism to go on campus unchecked, and that is the big problem.

“I feel abandoned by university management, and this is why I’m choosing to use a phrase as serious as ‘UQ... is complicit with anti-Semitism’.”

A UQ spokesperson said: “The university received several reports through its complaints processes regarding allegations of anti-Semitism by some individuals around the time of the encampments.

“The university is continuing to investigate and consider appropriate action...

“There is no place on campus for any form of racism, including anti-Semitism.”