Anti-Israeli university ’campus camps of hate’ must go now, Josh Frydenberg says

The former treasurer says it is an outrageous breach of university guidelines and a failure of moral leadership to tolerate anti-Semitic protests on Australian university campuses.

Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg will present a Sky News documentary on anti-Semitism, Never Again, in late May. Picture: Sky News Australia.

Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg has accused university leaders of being derelict in their duties by appeasing anti-Israeli protesters and refusing to clear away their ‘campus camps of hate’.

Aa prominent member of the Jewish community, Mr Frydenberg says it was an outrageous breach of university guidelines and a failure of moral leadership to tolerate anti-Semitic protests on university campuses. “There needs to be zero tolerance for the kind of incitement and hate we are seeing on many Australian campuses, including the encampments which should be cleared out,” he told The Australian.

“A number of our university leaders are being derelict in their duty to maintain a safe place on campus.

“They should know better; you can never appease the mob.”

Anti-Israel protesters at the University of Sydney.

His comments come as the government refused to clear out anti-Israeli encampments on Australian campuses despite many of the protesters engaging in anti-Semitic behaviour.

The government has instead urged university leaders to enforce their codes of conduct to ensure student safety, but no university leader has taken action to end the encampments.

“It seems many in leadership positions at our universities prefer the path of least resistance rather than taking decisive, strong action,” Mr Frydenberg said. “Every day there is a different excuse for inaction, but many students, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, now feel unsafe on a number of Australian campuses.

“Unless a line is drawn, these encampments will grow bigger and stay longer and the chances of violence will increase by the day. So why not act now before it gets even worse?”

Mr Frydenberg was speaking ahead of the release this month on Sky News of his documentary Never Again: the Fight Against Anti-Semitism, in which he interviews prominent Australians about the rise in anti-Semitism since Hamas’s October 7 massacre of 1200 Israelis.

Those interviewed include Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton, as well as former prime ministers John Howard and Julia Gillard, former governor-general Peter Cosgrove, musicians, sportspeople and survivors of the ­Holocaust.

“Since the attack on October 7, anti-Semitism in Australia has reached an unprecedented and dangerous level. Red lines have been crossed and a green light given to what clearly is unacceptable conduct,” Mr Frydenberg said.

“This is a time our leaders need to show courage and moral clarity, taking stronger and more decisive action to call out and stamp out anti-Semitism in Australia.”

He said there had been a failure of leadership across the board on dealing with anti-Semitism, including by federal, state and local governments and by institutions.

‘Too often we are seeing that our laws are not being enforced so you get a situation like the (anti-Semitic) protest at the Opera House, the riots in Caulfield, the doxxing of 600 Jewish creatives and the boycotting of Jewish businesses, and no one has been held to account.’

Mr Frydenberg believes most Australians “don’t know how bad the situation has got and (how) dangerous the rise in anti-­Semitism is”.

He says it must be tackled now because it was not just the Jewish community’s fight, it was also an attack on the values of all Australians. “Australian Jews are being held responsible for decisions taken thousands of miles from our shores. And then vengeance and retribution has been carried out against the Jewish community, which is an attack on Australian values,” he said.

“We’ve seen this movie before and it doesn’t end well. It gets worse. As one Holocaust survivor said in the documentary, the age of innocence has been shattered.”

He said it was completely unacceptable that universities would tolerate encampments on Australian universities where protesters called for “intifada” and chanted “from the river to the sea”, which is seen by Jews as calling for violent uprising against Israelis and the destruction of Israel.

“How can the university leadership have failed so clearly to grasp the seriousness of the problem,” Mr Frydenberg said.

“Why wait for an act of violence on their campus? Why be passive? Why not be proactive and prevent a more violent action taking place.”

Mr Frydenberg said those who argued that the protests were justified on the ground of freedom of speech were wrong. “Free speech is trumped by safety on campus,” he said. “The free speech argument is being misused when the demonstrators are inciting hatred and violence.”

Education Minister Jason Clare has been criticised by Jewish leaders for saying anti-Israel slogans have different meanings to different groups.

Mr Clare said he has asked university leaders to enforce their codes of conduct to ensure safety on campus, but did not say whether this should extend to the forced removal of the encampments.

Mr Frydenberg said he would support police or other authorities removing the encampments, just as some had done in US university campuses, where similar protests have occurred.

“It is important that universities find a way to end these encampments and if that means working with local state and federal authorities to do so, then it should be done,” Mr Frydenberg said.

Never Again: The Fight Against Anti-Semitism premieres Tuesday 28 May at 7pm AEST.

Stream at SkyNews.com.au or download the Sky News Australia app.