University of Sydney’s Mark Scott takes aim at ‘disastrous’ American response to Palestine protests

University of Sydney boss Mark Scott says Jewish students will have to tough out “discomfort” with anti-Israel slogans, defending the response of Australian universities to pro-Palestine protest camps.

University of Sydney boss Mark Scott says Jewish students will have to tough out being “uncomfortable” in the face of anti-Israel slogans, defending the response of Australian universities to pro-Palestine encampments imported from the United States.

Explicit calls for violence and endorsements of terrorism are banned under the university’s code of conduct, under which Professor Scott promised “disciplinary action will be taken”, however the USYD Vice-Chancellor confirmed chants such as “from the river to the sea” and calls for an “intifada” against Israel do not, in his view, meet that threshold.

Professor Scott described the phrases, which Jewish organisations have described as “hate speech” and anti-Semitism, as the “discomfort” of maintaining free speech.

“We do need to be able to … separate out criticism of Israel and Israel’s foreign policy conduct … I don’t think that is automatically anti-Semitic,” he said.

“I can understand that it is uncomfortable for some of our Jewish staff and students to have the encampment there, and they would prefer it not to be there. I’m very sympathetic to that view.

University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott. Picture: Britta Campion / The Australian

“That is, though, how our university and (other) places committed to free speech will operate.

“People will be upset from time to time by things that they hear, by things that they see, by the presence of people who hold strongly divergent views from them, but as a university, we need to be able to manage that diversity of views.”

Calls for an ‘intifada’ are not considered hate speech by the university. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said the controversial slogans are “inherently violent and racist” and “can never be justified”.

“Intifada in a Palestinian conflict refers to a period when suicide bombers murdered and maimed thousands of civilians on buses, in cafes and nightclubs,” he said.

“The chant ‘from the river to the sea’ was devised to proclaim Palestinian rejection of a Jewish homeland in any borders and the desire to destroy Israel completely.”

Activists supporting under-fire academic Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah, whose recent ‘Families for Palestine’ event at the university included young children chanting for an ‘intifada’, previously said the phrase “is not a call to violence but a call to rise up against injustice”.

ECAJ Co-CEO Alex Ryvchin says ‘intifada’ as “an unambiguous call for Israel’s destruction”. Picture: John Feder/The Australian

The iconic lawns of the University of Sydney’s quadrangle have played host to a ‘Gaza solidarity camp’ for over a week, with the institution expressing no intention of dispersing the protesters who have on multiple occasions invaded administrative buildings and blocked both student and vehicle thoroughfares, proudly broadcasting their actions on social media.

Obstructing access to classes and harassing or intimidating staff and students are considered breaches of the university’s code of conduct and both internal and police investigations are underway, however it is understood no students have faced official sanctions such as suspension or expulsion.

The Vice-Chancellor also took aim at the “disastrous” response of American institutions to similar encampments, with protests turning violent at California’s UCLA, New York’s Columbia University and the University of Texas among others.

Pro-Palestinian supporters confront police during demonstrations at The City College Of New York (CUNY). Picture: Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP

“Australian universities across the board are doing a far better job in de-escalating this, in keeping our communities safe … than we’ve seen in universities overseas,” Professor Scott said.

“The actions taken there have created an environment where … the university community (is) less safe, where more anti-Semitism has been unleashed, there has been greater levels of violence.

“We’re not keen to escalate conflict here.”

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