Hamas massacre ‘was anti-racist’, says Monash University researcher
Monash University is investigating an academic’s provocative speech praising the Hamas terrorist group at QUT’s scandal-stricken symposium against racism.
An Australian “decolonial’’ academic has celebrated the Hamas terror attack on Israel as an “anti-racist practice’’ and boasted about her part in a Melbourne “riot’’ in which police officers and horses were injured.
Monash University doctoral candidate and teaching associate Tasnim Mahmoud Sammak praised Hamas at QUT’s National Anti-Racism Symposium. During a panel discussion on “anti-racist excellence’’, Ms Sammak was asked to talk about “an anti-racist practice you’ve been involved in that’s innovative or exciting or inspiring’’.
She chose to cite the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, when terrorists killed 1175 Israeli and foreign nationals and took 251 hostages.
Describing the attack as a “mass uprising’’, Ms Sammak stated that Hamas – which the Australian government has listed as a terrorist organisation – “represented” the Palestinian residents of Gaza.
“If we’re talking about an example of anti-racist practice, I would say that that was an attempt from the people of Gaza to liberate themselves,’’ she told the closed-door symposium on January 23, according to audio recordings obtained by The Australian on Friday.
“Whether people want to have a moral opinion about that or not, that’s one thing. It’s not Hamas holding the people of Gaza captive, it’s the people of Gaza who Hamas is representative of who decided to break out of the siege of Gaza, the prison, the concentration camp of Gaza.’’
The Hamas attack started a 15-month war with Israel, with Gazan authorities claiming 46,000 residents were killed before last month’s ceasefire. Hamas is still holding dozens of Israelis hostage.
Ms Sammak’s comments at the QUT symposium follow the furore over a “Dutton’s Jew’’ presentation, a public shaming chant, a threat to punch an attendee in the throat, and a boast by keynote speaker Randa Abdel-Fattah that she “bends the rules’’ in her taxpayer-funded research.
QUT vice-chancellor Margaret Sheil has apologised for the “hurt and offence’’ caused by the “Dutton’s Jew” presentation and has hired a retired judge to hold an independent inquiry into the symposium, which was organised by QUT’s Carumba Institute.
Ms Sammak also used her QUT platform to speak about a violent protest outside the Land Forces defence expo in Melbourne last September.
Twenty-seven police officers were injured when they were pelted with acid, rocks, eggs, horse manure and water balloons filled with vomit.
She told the symposium that activists were trying to “impose sanctions on the war machine’’ in Melbourne, which she referred to by its Aboriginal name of Naarm.
“So we’ve had the weapons factory picket and then we … disrupted Land Forces, which was a riot, and we have now this reputation that Naarm is like the protest city of Australia or whatever, and I’m proud to be part of all of that,’’ she said.
To applause from the audience, she said: “Sure we’ve been stigmatised, and now the law has been used against us, the cops are on our backs, but at the same time … how else do we end genocide in a moment like this?’’
The Australian contacted Ms Sammak to ask why she was celebrating violence against Israelis, given the recent anti-Semitic firebombing of a Sydney childcare centre and a Melbourne synagogue. She responded: “In my talk I accurately analyse the conditions that led to the October 7 militant uprising. I state that Gaza’s attempt to break out from the cage of the occupation is a practice of anti-racism and anti-colonialism. I also acknowledge the moral concerns with the uprising and I acknowledge the Israeli casualties, hostages and Palestinian casualties and prisoners in the talk.’’
Asked if she was proud to have taken part in riots that injured police officers and horses, Ms Sammak responded: “I stated that I am proud to be part of taking action against the war machine’s capacity to fund the Gaza genocide … I have organised anti-war protests in Melbourne for 15 years.’’
Ms Sammak is a former schoolteacher who is studying a PhD in education, “engaged in counter-storytelling as decolonial methodology’’. A Monash University spokesman said the university was “investigating the matter’’.
“The university imposes obligations on staff and students that prohibit anti-Semitism and other forms of hate, and we investigate reports thoroughly and take appropriate action,’’ he said. A spokeswoman for QUT said the university would not comment until retired Federal Court judge John Middleton KC had finalised his independent investigation.
Fifty-five attendees from the QUT symposium have signed an open letter criticising the “Murdoch press’’ for its reporting of the event. “Now, more than ever, there must be spaces for people to come together to discuss different modes and forms of racism, without threat or intimidation by bad faith actors seeking to dictate the terms of academic freedom and debate,’’ they wrote.
Signatories include Dr Abdel-Fattah, who has an $870,000 Australian Research Council grant through Macquarie University, and used the conference to rail against “white supremacist’’ academics.
Others were Sisters Inside chief executive Debbie Kilroy, and Jewish Council of Australia executive officer Sarah Schwartz, whose “Dutton’s Jew’’ satirical presentation prompted Professor Sheil’s public apology.
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