Universities bearing collateral damage of campus protests

The organisers of campus protests are delusional if they believe demonstrators wearing masks, children chanting “intifada” or teenagers plotting unspeakable violence will win over mainstream Australians to support Hamas (“Moral leadership is in absentia: chancellors refuse to condemn campus anti-Semitism”, 3/5).

The freedoms this country enjoys were too hard-won to allow the majority of us to be bullied into supporting a terrorist organisation. Collateral damage is being done to the reputations of weak political leaders and especially the heads of our universities, who seem to have no moral compass and fail to recognise what the rest of us see as a grave injustice to Australians of Jewish faith.

Whatever your views, the shameful actions of a small minority should be condemned and stamped out by those given the power to do so.

Chris Blanch, Spring Hill, Qld

Violence begets violence and nowhere is this more evident than on the campuses of American universities, which have become the template for our universities here, providing meeting grounds for conflict and violence. Heavy-handed law enforcement by police is now breaking up these conflicts in the US, and we can only hope that common sense and wisdom may prevail before we see similar force needing to be used here.

The destructive invasion by Hamas operatives in their cruel attack on Israeli citizens in October last year has yet to be condemned by those who use our university grounds to incite anger. They are being abetted by mealy-mouthed academics lacking in moral leadership and politicians whose chief concern is not to lose seats in Labor-dominated seats around Australia.

The tragedy is that there are so many young people and children being caught up in the excitement of conflict who have no real understanding of what the conflict is about. They can recite the slogans and wave a placard or a flag.

This is a form of child abuse that will spill into their lives as adults, limiting their understanding for conflict resolution without resorting to violence.

Stephanie Summers, North Turramurra, NSW

I always thought that the best thing for my kids’ education would be that they complete their schooling and enrol in university. However, after witnessing the recent events unfolding on our university campuses, I am now of the opposite view.

In my opinion, our universities have become toxic cesspools of left-wing hatred where, under the guise of free speech, anti-Semitism, anti-Western and pro-terrorist views have become the standard rhetoric. It’s disgusting but not surprising.

Russ Fathers, Tweed Heads, NSW

It strikes me as somewhat ironic that the thing the pro-Palestinian protesters are advocating and defending – peace and stability in Gaza – is what is not being displayed at the various protest sites, primarily in the US but now around Australia. Unfortunately, this was reflected in previous protest movements such as the demonstrations against the Vietnam war, the US race riots of the 1960s and the January 6 Capitol Hill riots, to name a few that began with good intentions but degenerated into violence.

Angela Kueter-Luks, Bruce, ACT

Natasha Bita’s front-page article rightly criticised the shameful anti-Israel demonstrations for employing unwitting children at the protesting frontline (“Who are they kidding? Stop using children as props”, 3/5).

Children are far too young to understand the nuances of geopolitics and thus forcing them to shout threats of loathing and uprising against the Jewish people into a microphone surely constitutes a form of child abuse.

I cannot understand how various chancellors and council members can simply allow their university grounds to resemble tent cities in Los Angeles and become soaked in vile anti-Semitic sentiments.

If the plethora of political activists are truly committed to justice, then ideally they should direct their hostility at Hamas which, after 16 tremulous years of wretched governance in Gaza, has brought little positive progress socially to the area and built next to zero infrastructure, save for a labyrinth of underground tunnels whose sole purpose is to weaponise terrorists and bring misery into the region.

Peter Waterhouse, Craigieburn, Vic