‘Intifada’ protest gave kids ‘agency’, says Macquarie University academic Randa Abdel-Fattah

Randa Abdel-Fattah organised a ‘kids excursion’ to a Sydney University pro-Palestine encampment protest where children younger than ten led each other in chants for ‘intifada’.

Macquarie University academic Randa Abdel-Fattah.

Controversial Macquarie University academic Randa Abdel-Fattah says criticism of her by the nation’s peak Jewish body was “defamatory and racist” and an event where children were filmed chanting for “intifada” was intended to give them a “sense of agency”.

On Friday last week Dr Abdel-Fattah, with a group called Families for Palestine, held a “kids excursion” to the pro-Palestine encampment at the University of Sydney. Videos from the event showed children – many who looked younger than 10 – leading anti-Israel chants such as calling for an “intifada” and labelling Israel a “terrorist state”.

Dr Abdel-Fattah was standing beside them clapping, as was a crowd of children and parents.

An intifada is an uprising against oppression. In the context of the Palestine-Israel conflict, the term intifada often is used in relation to violent resistance on the part of Palestinians to Israel.

A Macquarie spokesperson did not condemn Dr Abdel-Fattah’s actions on Monday.

“Macquarie University has policies and procedures in place to balance lawful free speech and academic freedom with its commitment to providing a safe and welcoming environment for all,” the spokesperson said.

“This extends to those representing Macquarie University outside the campus. Where there is found to be a breach of policy, the university will act to address the matter under its policies and procedures.”

Independent MP Allegra Spender, who represents an electorate with a large Jewish population, has called on federal Education Minister Jason Clare and relevant universities to condemn the encampments and ensure campuses are “safe and inclusive for all students”.

“These encampments are only further escalating the sense of fear among Jewish students and are exacerbating an already tense atmosphere,” Ms Spender said in a statement. “Some of the speeches and social media posts are anti-Semitic or at least deliberately inflammatory. It is unconscionable that young children are being included in this as well.”

This followed similar denunciation by opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson on Sunday.

Dr Abdel-Fattah, in a statement posted to her social media accounts on Monday, defended the Friday event.

“We came together in a family-friendly gathering to express our solidarity with and admiration for students protesting at Sydney University, Melbourne University and across the US,” the statement read. “We spoke about Aboriginal sovereignty. We spoke about finding the courage to stand up for a better world.

“We gave children a space to participate in craft, ball games, face-painting and embroidery. We offered them the megaphone to lead chants of their choosing, hoping to give them a sense of agency in a moment of distress. The ones who jumped at the opportunity had been to the weekly rallies for over seven months, observing and participating in chants and calls for justice, freedom and an end to the slaughter.”

The pro-Palestine camp at Sydney University. Picture: Damian Shaw

She said accusations made against her by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry were “not only defamatory and racist as concerns me, a Palestinian Egyptian Muslim woman, but reprehensible in daring to portray the compassionate, brave children who attended as radicalised and violent extremists”.

“The ECAJ feels entitled to publicly pressure my employer, Macquarie University, to dismiss me and revoke my Future Fellowship awarded by the Australian Research Council,” she said. “Macquarie has policies in place to protect me from ‘improper pressures’ aimed at restricting my academic freedom.”

Her statement referred to comments from ECAJ co-CEO Alex Ryvchin on Monday, when he said “compelling children to chant in support of an ‘intifada’ … is perverse and inhuman”.

“By forcing children to repeat calls that Israel is ‘haram’, the organisers are attempting to convince Muslim children that Jewish Australians, who have deep emotional and historic bonds to the Jewish state, are their enemy,” he continued. “The organisers of this horrific spectacle want to split our country apart by inducting children into racial hatred and religious extremism. We cannot allow this to occur.”

He also called on Macquarie University and the federal government to cease funding to Dr Abdel-Fattah and for the university to review her position.

Following Dr Abdel-Fattah’s statement, ECAJ co-CEO Peter Wertheim said the assertion the event was intended to give children “a sense of agency” was “risible”.

“Children under the age of ten years do not spontaneously burst into ugly political chants that call for an intifada and delegitimise other nations,” he said. “They are taught to do these things by adults.

“To suggest that this gives the children ‘agency’ is risible. In truth these children are being indoctrinated and used for a political purpose that they are too young to genuinely comprehend.

“This is a form of child emotional abuse and ideological conditioning. If this is what government research grants are helping to fund, it is an appalling misuse of taxpayers’ money and needs to stop now.”

More Australian universities are following the lead of some US colleges in staging a pro-Palestine encampment protest, sleeping nights on campus and demanding that the university cut ties with Israeli universities and with weapons manufacturers. After students pitched tents at the University of Sydney and University of Melbourne, students from the University of Queensland and the Australian National University have since joined in.