Jewish group ‘implores’ PM to back campus anti-Semitism judicial inquiry

Labor’s idea to hold an inquiry in a joint parliamentary committee lacks ‘the most elementary rules of procedural fairness’, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry says.

Pro-Palestine protesters at the University of Sydney earlier this year. Picture: Jeremy Piper/NCA NewsWire

The peak Jewish community body has blasted a Labor proposal to conduct an inquiry of university anti-Semitism in a parliamentary committee instead of in a royal commission-style forum, saying the idea lacked “the most elementary rules of procedural fairness”.

In a letter sent to Anthony ­Albanese, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry “implored” the government to support a judicial inquiry into campus anti-­Semitism instead of addressing the issue with “half measures”.

A Senate committee last week delivered its report on a Coalition proposal to establish a judicial inquiry into campus anti-Semitism, with findings split along party lines. Labor senator Nita Green, the committee chair, recommended the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights should conduct an inquiry into campus anti-Semitism.

Coalition senators maintained the government should commission a judicial inquiry.

Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi opposed any inquiry and cast aside reports of campus anti-Semitism as a “gross misrepresentation of the peaceful and welcoming ­nature of the protests”.

In a letter to the Prime Minister last Wednesday, the ECAJ noted that the idea of conducting a new parliamentary inquiry “was never put to the Australian people, including the hundreds of people who made written submissions to the inquiry, and those who gave oral testimony to it”.

“They have had no opportunity to express their views about this idea, a deficiency which seems to us to be contrary to the most elementary rules of procedural fairness,” the letter reads.

“Nothing short of a royal commission was considered to be appropriate as a response to the failure of universities to address sexual assault and harassment on their campuses, and the same measure is therefore equally necessary as a response to the ‘remarkably similar’ failure of universities to address unprecedented levels of anti-Semitism.”

ECAJ also pushed back on Senator Green’s argument that a ­judicial inquiry would take too long to address the issue.

“Speaking for the Jewish community, which has the most direct stake in how our government ­handles anti-Semitism, we wish to place on record in the clearest possible terms that getting to the truth – the whole truth – overrides all other considerations,” the letter reads. “We’d rather wait longer for a judicial inquiry to establish the truth than to have a quicker outcome from a more superficial and less authoritative process.”

Separately, opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson blasted “anti-Jewish events on campus” scheduled for the one-year anniversary of the October 7 terrorist attacks, and called on the Albanese government to shut them down.

Senator Henderson pointed to a “fundraising dinner” scheduled at Monash University’s banquet hall on October 7, hosted by the university’s Islamic society.

The event billed itself as a “fundraising dinner to raise much needed funds for Palestine” and said it would be an “an inspiring evening where we will have a range of stalls, an auction, guest speakers and dinner”.

Senator Henderson said she had received an assurance from Monash University that the event would not be allowed to proceed.

“It is vile and sickening that such an event could be held at a time when the Jewish community will be commemorating the greatest loss of life since the Holocaust,” Senator Henderson said.

A Monash spokesman said the event had been rescheduled.