Joe Hildebrand: How universities became hotbed of harassment and hate

Universities are breeding a generation of doctrinaire elites who think they are radicals while possessing all the privileges of the establishment – meanwhile, you can’t get a plumber for love or money, writes Joe Hildebrand.

Universities have always been strange places.

The very first were founded by the Christian church in the Middle Ages in the pursuit of higher religious understanding and learning. It’s fair to say they are not a hotbed of Christianity any more.

However, their more radical students and staff do at least maintain one key tenet of their medieval forebears, namely a ferocious hatred of Jews.

We have seen this in reports that young people in yarmulkes have been spat on and abused at America’s august Harvard University, and Israeli academics barricaded in rooms to protect them from throngs of howling protesters in Sydney.

And across universities throughout the West – including the most prestigious in Australia – there has been an epidemic of Jewish students feeling harassed, intimidated and unsafe on campus. Not to mention at music festivals.

Protesters gather on the lawns of The University of Sydney in support of a pro-Palestine encampment last year. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

Indeed, one academic at an Australian university infamously boasted that it was her duty to make Zionists, people who merely support the existence of Israel, “feel uncomfortable”.

But that’s just “Zionists”, right? Not, like, “Jews”?

As Scooby-Doo would say, Ruh-roh! Because another academic from another university said in a speech at yet another university that he fully supported these comments but with a delicious twist.

Demonstrators wave flags and cheer during a protest against Israeli and American attacks on Iran. A a senior lecturer at the Australian National University said “if Iran wants to achieve military deterrence, it must take serious nuclear measures that will prevent such attacks”. Picture: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

“I agree with (Academic A) when she says ‘Jews SHOULD feel uncomfortable,” they said.

“It is our DUTY to make them uncomfortable’.”

Oh dear! In a transcript of the speech submitted to the NSW parliament for posterity, there was a “clarification” from Academic B, who said he “inadvertently misquoted” Academic A. Funny how he jumped to that conclusion.

All of these things and so many more are a matter of public record.

I have avoided naming the people involved simply because a conflict in which tens of thousands have already died should be a matter of profound consideration, not a platform for the personal grandstanding of such individuals.

But it is against this backdrop that yet another academic’s foray into the Middle East rears its ugly – or perhaps just “analytical” – head.

This time it is a senior lecturer at the Australian National University, our nation’s peak educational institution, who told Al Jazeera: “If Iran wants to achieve military deterrence, it must take serious nuclear measures that will prevent such attacks. As long as the Israelis can attack Iran without suffering greater defeats, this will probably continue for a long time.”

As reported by The Australian on Friday, the said academic defended his remarks as an “analytical observation”, postulating that nations would use nuclear weapons as the “ultimate means to prevent attacks”.

Plumber are far more useful than protesters.

This is somewhat odd, given Iran has always officially denied it has a nuclear weapons program, but to give him his due, our man told the paper: “First, I categorically oppose the development or possession of nuclear weapons by any country, including Iran. I have repeatedly stated that Iran does not have a nuclear bomb, and it should not have one.”

Let’s take him at his word then, even though saying “if Iran wants to achieve military deterrence, it must take serious nuclear measures” does not seem like much of a deterrent to me.

A more sage expert who spoke to my podcast this week had a very different view.

Middle East Policy Forum director Adam Slonim said that the obliteration of Iran’s nuclear program, which resulted in an Israeli-Iranian ceasefire and may have paved the way for another possible ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, was a critical circuit-breaker.

Facts, as opposed to fantasy, have so far proved him right.

And no, he’s not a Trumpist crank, he’s a Labor guy.

Plumber Brittany Watt does a lot of work for underprivileged families.

Brendan Coonan was named Toowoomba’s best plumber in 2023.

So where does this leave all these Iran-loving ideologues of the Left, all these academics and activists who seem to look at all issues through the eyes of the Ayatollah?

To quote their own touchstone, they are clearly on the wrong side of history.

Frankly, they are on the wrong side of everything.

So what or why are they teaching the leaders of tomorrow in their lecture halls and tutorial rooms?

In the storied tradition of Socrates, it is a rhetorical question. The highest ivory towers of learning have become incubators for ideology instead of free spaces for independent and rigorous thought.

We are breeding a generation of doctrinaire elites who think they are radicals while possessing all the privileges of the establishment.

Meanwhile, you can’t get a plumber for love or money in a skills shortage crisis that is crippling home ownership and genuine economic advancement.

It is a blue-collar revolution that this country needs, not an army of activists with arts degrees – trust me, I have one.

It is tradies, not trendies, who will truly save the world.