Outrage after uni finds salute, moustache gesture are not antisemitic

A probe into antisemitism at the Australian National University found there was no case to punish a student who was videoed making an apparent nazi salute, even though a deputy vice chancellor conceded the gesture were made “on a superficial level”.

The revelation has prompted Labor MP Josh Burns, the chair of a parliamentary human rights committee investigating antisemitism on campus, to call on the ANU chancellor, former foreign minister Julie Bishop, to reassess the institution’s leadership if it stands by the findings.

A screenshot of a student holding their finger to their nose, appearing to imitate a Hitler moustache.

Members of the committee were outraged when ANU vice chancellor Genevieve Bell said on Wednesday during a hearing that an investigation into students apparently giving a Nazi salute and making a gesture suggestive of a Hitler moustache found this was not antisemitic.

“The incidents that you refer to were reported through our disciplinary proceedings, there was an investigation of them and it was found that that did not in fact happen … it was not in fact found that there had been a Nazi salute or a Hitler moustache,” Bell told the inquiry, rejecting the video evidence.

May 2024 footage from an online meeting hosted by the ANU Students’ Association shows a student apparently performing a Nazi salute and another appearing to use their finger to mimic a Hitler moustache.

ANU deputy vice chancellor Gradys Venville conceded during the Wednesday hearing that the salute and moustache incident happened “on a superficial level”.

Labor MP Josh Burns.Credit: AAP

“At a superficial level absolutely we agree with you that they’re [antisemitic] ... and that’s why we investigate it,” Venville told Burns, who asked how the incident was not found to have breached university policy.

Bell said the university had a full process that involved collecting extra footage and evidence but refused to outline the details of the findings.

“Our policy is not to discuss individual cases … our finding was that there was not a case here,” she said.

Speaking after the inquiry to this masthead, Burns called on the ANU to reassess its finding that there was no need for disciplinary action.

“I was shocked and astounded during the hearing and would definitely call on the university to reconsider their position,” he said.

“If not, the chancellor [Julie Bishop] needs to assure herself of her confidence in the ability of the administration to manage antisemitism on campus, including something as blatant as a student performing a Nazi salute.”

Executive members of the Australian Union of Jewish Students at the ANU said Bell’s remarks at the hearing on Wednesday morning were the first they had heard about the case’s outcome.

“As far as we know, there were no interviews conducted with Jewish students in attendance at the AGM, which also raises the question on how they came to their findings,” advocacy co-ordinator Ethan Mileikowski said.

“Alongside the very damning evidence, it kind of begs the question as to how they came to the conclusion this was a superficial form of antisemitism.”

Bell also defended another student who told the ABC that Hamas “deserves our unconditional support”.

“I think it is always important to remember that it is possible to believe in academic freedom without endorsing what is expressed within it,” Bell said.

Asked if she supported the student’s comments about Hamas, Bell said she wished the student had not said those words.

“I try to think about what it would be like as a young person in a moment of stress and thinking about the things that you care about profoundly. Do I believe that we should be publicly supporting Hamas? Of course not,” she said.

The ANU had one of Australia’s longest-lasting student encampments, with tents pitched on the campus to protest against the war in Gaza for about 110 days.

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