Anti-Israel scholar Randa Abdel-Fattah’s $870,000 grant probed
The Australian Research Council has flagged ‘significant concerns’ about the conduct of a taxpayer-funded scholar who has called for the ‘end of Israel’.
The Australian Research Council has flagged “significant concerns’’ about the conduct of a taxpayer-funded scholar who has called for the “end of Israel’’, denounced fellow academics as white supremacists, and bragged of bending research rules.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare asked the ARC on Friday to “investigate this issue as a matter of priority’’ – nine months after the federal opposition demanded he intervene to cancel the $870,000 research grant for Macquarie University academic Randa Abdel-Fattah.
“The government expects the ARC grant recipients to follow the rules set out in their grant agreements,’’ Mr Clare said.
“I have written to the ARC chair requesting the ARC board investigate this issue as a matter of priority.’’
The furore relates to a provocative speech by Macquarie University academic and ARC research fellow Dr Abdel-Fattah, who told a symposium in Brisbane last week “I look for ways to bend rules, and refuse and subvert them’’.
She said she had refused to stage a conference as a condition of the ARC’s $870,000 Future Fellowship grant to research the history of Arab and Muslim Australians’ social projects since the 1970s.
Instead, she had asked women of colour to send her “revolutionary quotes’’ that were then printed on coloured paper, cut into pieces and put into jars.
During her 15-minute speech at the symposium last Friday, Dr Abdel-Fattah labelled fellow academics “cowardly white supremacists” and “pseudo intellectuals’’.
And she declared that “I refuse to cite anybody who has remained silent over Gaza, no matter how authoritative and big they are in their respective fields … they are deficient human beings’’.
Dr Abdel-Fattah accepted a symposium award for “innovatively using social media as an anti- racist strategy in 2024’’.
Her X account – which describes her as a “Future Fellow in Sociology researching Arab & Muslim social justice movements’’ – has posted: “May 2025 be the end of Israel’’.
Shortly after Hamas terrorists parachuted into Israel to massacre, rape and kidnap Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, the profile picture on her Facebook page was changed to a paratrooper in the colours of the Palestinian flag.
A defiant Dr Abdel-Fattah, who has refused to respond to questions from The Australian, took to social media on Friday to attack her critics and defend “the jars workshop (as) one of the best outputs I’ve so far produced as part of my ARC’’.
Her Instagram post described The Australian’s reporting of her closed-door symposium speech as a “hit piece which frankly showcases my best work’’.
It said the jars workshop was “akin to a ‘call for papers’ ”.
“A lot of theorising on citational justice and decolonising knowledge went into this,’’ the post says.
“The workshop was inspired by my desire to honour, celebrate and pay homage to the labour, theorising, collective action and practices of solidarity that happen at the grassroots, around kitchen tables and cafes, in those long goodbyes from a venue, to the door, to the carpark, in WhatsApp groups and social media posts, in protest slogans and chants.’’
Dr Abdel-Fattah posted photographs of two jars filled with coloured paper, saying “my two personal favourites were the quotes rolled into scrolls and quotes rolled like vine leaves’’.
Mr Clare on Friday wrote to ARC chairman Professor Peter Shergold – who served as secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under John Howard – asking the ARC board to investigate the grant.
“The government expects that grant recipients follow the rules established to govern the use of taxpayers’ funds provided them through an Australian Research Council grant,’’ Mr Clare wrote.
“I ask that the board investigates this issue as matter of priority to ensure that the grant provided is being used in accordance with guidelines and relevant agreements.’’
An ARC spokesman said it could terminate grant agreements and recover money where funding obligations have been breached.
“The ARC has significant concerns about recent comments made by the researcher regarding the conduct of the research project and other previously reported activities,’’ he said.
“The ARC is engaging directly, and as a matter of priority, with Macquarie University to ensure, as the administering organisation, it is properly managing the grant and is actively complying with the terms of the agreement.’’
A Macquarie University spokesperson said it was “subject to strict obligations of confidentiality and does not comment on matters that could impact the privacy of its staff’’.
“Macquarie University does not tolerate unlawful discrimination, vilification, threats or incitement of violence on grounds of race or religion,’’ the spokesperson said.
“(It) has policies and procedures in place to balance its commitments both to providing a safe and welcoming environment for all and to lawful free speech and academic freedom.’’
Federal opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said the ARC should have cancelled the research grant last year, but Mr Clare had “sat on his hands’’.
“He should have acted immediately, nine months ago when I first raised my serious concerns with him,’’ Senator Henderson said.
“Australian taxpayers should not be funding activism or hate speech under the guise of so-called research.
“This research fiasco shows Labor’s decision to remove ministerial discretion from taxpayer-funded research grants was grossly irresponsible.”
Dr Abdel-Fattah was a guest speaker at the three-day National Symposium on Unifying Anti-Racist Research and Action, organised by the Queensland University of Technology’s Carumba Institute.
On Instagram, she said The Australian’s journalist “staked out the Brisbane Convention Centre for hours waiting for certain speakers, including me, to emerge to corner us’’.
“We were only able to avoid her because security escorted us out of the conference from a rear exit directly to our Uber.”
More Coverage
Weak government response means anti-Semites are winning
The Albanese government must now assume Australia’s Jewish community is under active terrorist attack and set up an Operation Sovereign Borders-type multi-agency campaign to combat the deadly rise of anti-Semitism.
Rise of local terror demands better from our leaders
The scourge of anti-Semitism in Australia has become a runaway train that now demands a radically escalated counter-terror mindset from federal and state governments, police and spy agencies.