Jewish groups appalled by ‘abhorrent’ University of Queensland deal

Jewish groups are incensed at the University of Queensland’s agreement with pro-Palestine protesters and are threatening to restart Camp Shalom, a counter-protest encampment.

Pro-Israel protest Camp Shalom on the University of Queensland campus in early May. Picture: Liam Kidston

Jewish groups are incensed at the University of Queensland’s agreement with pro-Palestine protesters and are threatening to restart Camp Shalom, a counter-protest encampment pitched on the UQ campus weeks ago.

They are particularly concerned by a clause in the agreement that says the university will “develop and publish an anti-­racism commitment”.

The commitment will work “alongside the university’s diversity, equity and inclusive behaviours policy and our codes of conduct for staff and students”.

“This will be supported by a speaker series to build an understanding of different perspectives and lived experiences. The series will be led and co-ordinated by UQ’s Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences but co-created with students.”

Camp Shalom member and ­liaison for an academic alliance against anti-Semitism Yoni Nazarathy said the agreement “seems like a commitment for keeping the door open to more harassment, vilification, hate speech, and anti-Semitism on campus”.

Dr Nazarathy is an associate professor at the university’s school of mathematics and physics.

“The university has had a very slack response to a series of hate and vandalism events on campus during the past month,” he said.

“With this, the statement negotiated with the anti-Israel camp has no explicit mention of anti-Semitism and opens the door for a series of more demands from anti-Zionist protesters.

“As such, the contributors to Camp Shalom have agreed to physically set up the camp on campus during the graduation days, July 8 to 12, in protest.”

Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies president Jason Steinberg said the university’s decision to “acquiesce” to the protesters was “absolutely abhorrent”.

“What they’ve done is opened the door for anti-Israel, anti-­Semitic activists to change the policies of the university … which was already an unsafe place for Jewish people; now it’s an even more unsafe place,” he said.

A spokesperson for the student protesters said they “strongly reject” the accusation they were anti-Semitic.

“Criticising Israel is not anti-Semitic,” they said.

When contacted for comment, a UQ spokesperson said that the university had been engaging with representatives from both Camp Shalom and the pro-Palestine protesters, and that the anti-racism commitment would “cover all forms of racism, including anti-Semitism”.

“Work on these important initiatives will commence this week and we are hopeful that the work we will do together will enable more respectful dialogue and debate and will help drive greater understanding and acknowledgement of different perspectives,” they said.

“The university has not changed any policies or positions. What we have done to is to address concerns from the broader community to provide greater transparency, where possible, about our research, our partnerships and investment policies.”