Academic ‘wrongly sacked’ for superimposing swastika on Israeli flag
Far-left academic Tim Anderson, who was sacked by Sydney University following a series of misconduct findings that included superimposing a Nazi swastika on an Israeli flag, was unlawfully dismissed, a court has ruled.
Far-left academic Tim Anderson, who was sacked by Sydney University following a series of misconduct findings that included superimposing a Nazi swastika on an Israeli flag, was unlawfully dismissed in a breach of employment law, a court has ruled.
On Friday, Justice Thomas Thawley found Sydney University had acted unlawfully when it fired Dr Anderson in 2019, ruling that the controversial academic was exercising his intellectual freedom when he displayed a swastika graphic in a lecture.
Justice Thawley – who upheld the university’s decision to dismiss the academic two years ago – said he now accepted Dr Anderson’s argument that he created the swastika graphic for academic purposes, to stimulate critical analysis and comparisons between “fascist systems”.
“While I consider that the (slide) would be offensive to many people, in the context in which the Israeli flag superimposed with the swastika was used, I do not consider that its use involved ‘harassment, vilification or intimidation’,” Justice Thawley wrote in his judgment, noting that senior university leadership had breached employment law by issuing multiple warnings to Dr Anderson.
“While some may feel offended by Nazi-Zionist analogies, I say the inclusion of the analogy in that graphic was appropriate,” Dr Anderson told the court in an affidavit. “The purpose of the slide was to encourage critical analysis … no student raised any issue with the slide during the seminar.”
Dr Anderson, who worked at Sydney University for three decades before his dismissal, was issued several warnings before the university sought to terminate his employment after he presented the swastika graphic in late 2018.
At the time, the university leadership told Dr Anderson the doctored image served “no legitimate academic or intellectual purpose” and was deliberately intended to cause offence.
As an academic, Dr Anderson made several statements that resulted in several formal warnings from the university’s leadership, including claims a News Corp journalist was a “traitor” because of a story on the Armenian genocide and former US senator John McCain was a “war criminal”.
Dr Anderson – who was convicted in 1990 over the 1978 Hilton hotel bombing in Sydney but acquitted the following year – leads the Centre for Counter Hegemonic Studies, a network of pro-Assad and pro-Tehran academics.
Following the judgment, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Darren Bark said he was deeply disappointed by the Federal Court’s decision and “vehemently rejected” any assertion that superimposing a swastika over an Israeli flag was an acceptable form of conduct for any university lecturer.
“This display was grossly insensitive and caused deep offence,” Mr Bark said.
In a statement, Sydney University said it was also disappointed with the court decision, noting that the judgment “focused on just one aspect of the proceedings initially brought against the university”.
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