‘Why did abusive students go free?’, Jewish body asks

The nation’s peak Jewish body has challenged Deakin University to explain why students who chanted anti-Semitic slurs to Jews at an anti-Israel rally on campus should be allowed to keep studying there.

Moran Dvir. Picture: Julian Kingma

The nation’s peak Jewish body has challenged Deakin University to explain why students who chanted “F..k off Zionist Scum” to Jews at an anti-Israel rally on campus should be allowed to keep studying there.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has complained to Deakin on behalf of a Jewish student who felt threatened by anti-Semitic chants at a rally at Deakin’s Burwood campus on May 7. Video of the incident shows two students chanting “F..k off Zionist Scum” near a person holding a Jewish and Australian flag.

One of the students was initially suspended for participating in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Deakin, but the decision was overturned on appeal with that student describing her appeal victory on Instagram as a win for “free speech”, adding that “Deakin University can’t get rid of us”.

Moran Dvir, the mother of the Jewish student who made the complaint, also witnessed the anti-Semitic chants and said she was shocked by what she saw.

“They chanted racial slurs, ‘f..k off Zionists - f..k off Zionist scum’ blatantly, openly in the middle of the day on the university campus, in front of campus staff, in front of campus security,” Ms Dvir said. “And those students are allowed to be on campus, they are allowed to return as full students. I am sure that if the slur was ‘f..k off Indigenous/gay/black etc scum’ they would have penalised the student immediately and with no hesitation.”

Ms Dvir said the safety of Jewish students such as her daughter “has been sacrificed by Deakin University to appease an ugly mob of hateful protesters who have weaponised a conflict on the other side of the world to inflict and express racist sentiment against Australian Jewish students and staff in a public space”.

Ms Dvir said she repeatedly contacted the Dean of Students and vice-chancellor at Deakin about the issue without receiving any substantive reply. Last week, ECAJ wrote to Deakin to ­complain about the university’s treatment of the issue.

“Multiple incidents of hate speech by speakers and students from the day of the rally were filmed,” ECAJ said.

“The specific incident impacting the student the subject of this complaint is also captured on film and concerns the use of the highly offensive phrase, ‘F..k off Zionist scum’.

“A student who was part of this incident was suspended but has since had their suspension revoked, signalling to other(s) that such conduct is acceptable.”

A spokesperson for Deakin said the university could not comment on individual student misconduct processes and the university declined to answer the question of whether it considered the words “F..k off Zionist scum” to be anti-Semitic.