Jennifer Westacott’s leadership turns tide

In condemning anti-Semitism and hate speech rampant on campuses, Western Sydney University chancellor Jennifer Westacott provided leadership sorely lacking from most top academics around the nation. After weeks of encampments, chants such as “From the river to the sea” and “Intifada”, and agitators blocking the paths of Jewish students, Ms Westacott wrote in Inquirer on Saturday that the protests were an assault on Australia’s principles and multiculturalism. Universities “must never be places of fear”. For many Jewish students, regrettably, that is what they have become, while most academic leaders, including the heads of the Group of Eight, acquiesced.

Ms Westacott, who took up her role last year after 12 years as Business Council of Australia CEO, brought moral clarity to a fraught issue, prompting others to speak up.

University of Queensland chancellor Peter Varghese, a former secretary of DFAT, said the rise in anti-Semitism was to be condemned. “Any criticism of Israeli policy should not translate to an attack on the Jewish community.” University of Canberra chancellor Lisa Paul said: “We celebrate on our campuses people from hundreds of different countries, those who live in Australia full-time and those who study from overseas.” As Ms Westacott wrote: “Standing in Jerusalem’s memorial to the victims of the Holocaust and seeing the names on the wall of those who signed their death sentences, I was shocked by how many signatories were often well-educated … History tells us it can happen through incremental acquiescence. It happens when ordinary people look the other way, when we are silent, and when we compromise our principles.” But Jane Hansen, chancellor of Melbourne University, refused to say there was an anti-Semitism crisis in higher education. Questions of university leaders’ handling of the Israel-Hamas war were “looking for division”, she claimed.