Universities refuse to stamp out terrorist slogans
Australia’s top unis claim they are powerless to stop students chanting terrorist slogans at pro-Palestinian protests, despite disciplining staff and students for the use of gendered or other ‘offensive’ language.
Australia’s top universities claim they are powerless to stop students chanting terrorist slogans at pro-Palestinian protests, despite disciplining staff and students for the use of gendered or other “offensive’’ language.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare on Friday warned protesters “language that stokes fear cannot be tolerated’’.
He said he had made it clear to university vice-chancellors that “their No. 1 priority must be the safety of students and staff’.
“There is no place for hate on our university campuses or anywhere else,’’ he said.
“There is no place for the poison of anti-Semitism or Islamophobia or any kind of racism.’’
Mr Clare refused to specifically condemn the inflammatory slogans of “intifada’’ – an Arab word for violent uprising against Israel – and “from the river to the sea’’ – which is shorthand for the annihilation of Israel.
The comments came as protests heated up on Friday. A crowd of about 100 people – mostly men – marched up the main avenue at the University of Sydney with black-and-white flags of Islam.
A University of Sydney spokesperson confirmed that the images were “from today on campus, as part of a peaceful procession”.
One Jewish group, the Australian Jewish Association, claimed the flags were extremist. But the Lebanese Muslim Association said it was “unfair” to label the flags a “far-right Islamic symbol”.
Also on Friday, opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson demanded that universities sanction hate speech, such as chants of “intifada’’.
She called on universities to dismantle the student encampments and invoke “time and place’’ protest rules to govern the permitted times and locations of campus protest activity.
“While free speech and the right to protest is fundamental, this must not come at the cost of trampling on the lawful rights of others,’’ she said.
“There must be the most serious consequences for students who endorse terrorist groups such as Hamas, including possible expulsion.’’
But Group of Eight chief executive Vicki Thomson said the protest slogans were offensive but not unlawful.
“The Group of Eight universities completely understand that these phrases are deeply offensive, hurtful and distressing and we would prefer that they were not used,’’ she said.
“But the fact remains that they are not unlawful, and police are not and have not taken any action when they are used in a multitude of fora across the nation. That doesn’t make them less hurtful; however, until such time as they breach the law, we have little recourse to their use. What we would do is call upon those using this language to reconsider using phrases that are demonstrably hurtful and distressing.’’
The Group of Eight includes the nation’s most prestigious research universities – the University of Sydney, the University of NSW, Monash University, the University of Melbourne, the Australian National University, the University of Queensland, the University of South Australia and the University of Western Australia.
All the universities have strict codes of conduct as well as “inclusive language guides’’ that dictate how students and staff are allowed to behave and speak.
They require students to avoid “gendered language” or stereotypes based on sexuality, gender, race or disability, and to use the correct gender pronouns.
The University of Queensland (UQ) – where students displayed a terrorist flag of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – has marked down students for using the word “mankind’’ in essays, instead of the gender-neutral “humankind’’.
UQ vice-chancellor Debbie Terry said the university was “committed to freedom of speech’’.
“Of course, there are limits to what is acceptable under law and through our own codes of conduct, and I have made it absolutely clear to our staff and students that we will not tolerate racism, discrimination and hate speech,’’ she said.
Queensland National Party senator Susan McDonald wrote to Professor Terry on Friday urging her to “stamp out Jew hatred’’ at her alma mater.
“I have university students and lecturers as well as university staff contacting me that they do not feel safe on campus,’’ she wrote.
“Freedom of speech does not include the freedom to intimidate and harass Jewish students and staff. Thousands of Australians gave their lives fighting the genocidal Nazi regime. Allowing that same hateful anti-Semitism to fester in places of learning tarnishes Australia’s legacy.’’
UQ law student Drew Pavlou – who was kicked off the UQ governing body as a student representative as a result of his anti-Chinese government activism in defence of Hong Kong protests in 2020 – on Friday accused UQ of double standards.
“It’s very interesting that they spent half a million dollars to smash me for protesting against the Chinese Community Party on campus, but they’re fine with these protests,’’ he said.
Mr Pavlou said he had seen the terrorist banner displayed on campus and felt some of the protesters were “naive and well-meaning’’ students upset over Israel’s bombing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
“But the Socialist Alternative Trotskyist group, they organise all the protests, so there’s a mix of genuinely well-meaning and well-intentioned young students who care about civilians, and the hardcore communist groups,’’ he said.
At the University of Sydney – where vice-chancellor Mark Scott has declared that the “discomfort” of Jewish students is the price of free speech – students were sent an official email warning them of the university’s “zero tolerance for “anti-Semitic or anti-Muslim language’’. Professor Stephen Garton – the vice-chancellor’s principal adviser – told students to contact the university’s protective services if they felt unsafe at the rally.
“Consistent with our longstanding commitment to academic freedom and freedom of expression, the university supports the right of our students and staff to assemble and protest peacefully,’’ he wrote.
“Equally, we have zero tolerance for any form of racism, threats to safety, hate speech, intimidation, threatening speech, bullying or unlawful harassment, including anti-Semitic or anti-Muslim language or behaviour.’’
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin lashed Professor Scott for failing to condemn the “inherently violent and racist’’ slogans chanted by pro-Palestine protesters.
“This is not a question of ‘discomfort’ caused to Jewish students,’’ he said. “The phrase ‘intifada’ invokes suicide bombings that murdered and maimed thousands of civilians. Calls for another intifada are calls for bombings of buses, cafes and nightclubs.
“Demanding a Palestinian state ‘from the river to the sea’ is a call for the destruction of a sovereign state, the world’s only Jewish state, and the destruction of its Jewish population. We would not take a permissive attitude towards chants calling for the destruction of any other country or for the murder of other civilian populations, and we will not accept it in this case.”
Jewish academics chided university chancellors for sitting on the fence despite rising tensions between pro-Palestinian protesters and Jewish students on university campuses across the country.
Professor Greg Rose, a spokesman for the Australian Academic Alliance Against Anti-Semitism, said the protest slogans were “clearly an incitement to violence’’.
He said Jewish academics had formally complained to the governing chancellors that university managers are letting anti-Semitism “spiral out of control’’.
“We looked to the (chancellors) as moral guardians, who made no call for action, uttered bland platitudes and didn’t attempt to find any resolution of the problem,’’ he said. “It was a very disappointing and dismaying outcome, and shocking to the majority of academics who were looking for a very strong statement.”
The chancellors include Jewish businessman David Gonski, who is chancellor of the University of NSW, and former foreign minister Julie Bishop, who is chancellor at the Australian National University. Former chief justice Robert French, who is chancellor of the University of Western Australia, told The Weekend Australian that his university has a code of conduct but “I do not propose to comment on the use of particular terms’’.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Australasian Union of Jewish Students raised concerns about “intimidation and harassment’’ on campus at a meeting with the Group of Eight vice-chancellors that was convened by the federal Education Department on Friday.
“A number of the universities are currently taking disciplinary action against individuals who have breached their codes of conduct,’’ the Jewish groups said.
ANU deputy vice-chancellor Grady Venville revealed in an email to staff that the university had taken “appropriate action’’ after a Gaza protest organiser declared this week that “Hamas deserve our unconditional support’’.
Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on October 7 last year, killing or taking hostage 1200 civilians in a raid that sparked the seven-month war in Gaza.
An ANU spokesperson declined to give any more detail of the disciplinary action.
A University of Melbourne spokesperson said that the university “welcomes debate and peaceful protest on campus, provided it does not extend to violence, threat or intimidation’’.
At Monash University, acting vice-chancellor Susan Elliott sent students an email this week warning them “the university does not tolerate unacceptable conduct’’.
A Jewish student, 22-year-old Paris Euten, said she felt unsafe at Monash’s campus in Melbourne.
“I feel intimidated, frightened and worried,’’ she said. “There are calls for an intifada, which is calling for mass violence against Jews.”
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