Randa Abdel-Fattah made ‘anti-Semitic statements’, Macquarie University concedes

Macquarie University vice-­chancellor Bruce Dowton has conceded his university’s anti-­Israel academic Randa Abdel-Fattah had made ‘anti-Semitic’ statements, but said there was limited capacity for disciplinary action.

Macquarie University vice-chancellor Bruce Dowton. Picture: Jane Dempster

Macquarie University vice-­chancellor Bruce Dowton has conceded his university’s anti-­Israel academic Randa Abdel-Fattah had made “anti-Semitic” statements, but said the term was not well-defined in law and hence limited capacity for disciplinary action.

“This is the dilemma and the conundrum that my university and every university in Australia finds itself in, in the intersection between a range of things which are essentially about social norms and social values, stopping short of the law and what the law demands and our employment contractual arrangements,” he said.

The leadership of Macquarie University and the Queensland University of Technology were called to testify before the joint parliamentary inquiry on campus anti-Semitism following The Australian’s reporting on an anti-­racism symposium at QUT that had sparked allegations of anti-Semitism.

Randa Abdel-Fattah.

Professor Dowton was grilled by LNP MP Henry Pike as to whether previous statements by Dr Abdel-Fattah had been anti-Semitic.

“On Boxing Day last year this staff member of yours did a tweet that said ‘May 2025 be the end of Israel’: is that anti-Semitic?” Mr Pike asked.

Professor Dowton replied: “As an individual I can certainly accept that that could be construed as anti-Semitic.”

“What about when she changed her profile picture to a picture of a Palestinian paratrooper the day after the October 7 attacks, is that anti-Semitic?”

“Personally I believe that is an anti-Semitic statement but whether I believe something is anti-­Semitic or not doesn’t necessarily hold that it would be subject to the test of law,” Professor Dowton said.

He said Dr Abdel-Fattah’s public comments had been “very disturbing” and the university “absolutely” did not endorse them.

When pressed on why the university had not taken disciplinary action, Professor Dowton said “any consideration of an academic staff member’s relationship to the university in terms of employment under our employment agreement would ultimately be tested at law”.

“Whether something is anti-Semitic or not is ultimately a matter to be defined at law and my concern is that in Australian law at the moment, we have inadequate help from the law in defining what anti-Semitism really is,” he said.

Committee chair and Jewish Labor MP Josh Burns challenged Professor Dowton on a previous social media statement by Dr Abdel-Fattah that Zionists “have no claim or right to cultural ­safety”.

Professor Dowton again said that “cultural safety” was “not defined under Australian law and that has been a conundrum”.

He confirmed that Macquarie University had been in contact with the Australian Research Council following comments by Dr Abdel-Fattah at the QUT symposium where she – a recipient of an $870,269 taxpayer grant over four years – bragged about bending research rules.

Following the hearing, Dr Abdel-Fattah directed her social media followers to a thread on X from another account that she called “searing”.

That thread author said after watching the hearing, they felt “physically ill and assaulted by the lies, gaslighting and erasure of Palestinians and Arabs at our campus and what we are facing”.

Queensland University of Technology vice-chancellor Margaret Sheil apologised to the parliamentary committee for the “hurt” caused by the anti-racism symposium.

“I subsequently apologised on behalf of the community for the hurt caused to anyone within and outside the community as a result of those images and what was said,” she said. “I unreservedly repeat that apology here today for the hurtful concerns these events caused both to our own staff and students, and to the wider ­community.

“QUT also reached out and apologised to an academic from another university who reported through the press that he had felt shamed in the symposium session.

“I am saddened and dis­appointed that these events overshadowed an important academic symposium on a very serious issue, especially as it relates to the lived experience of racism of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

“I have commissioned an independent review by the eminent jurist, the Honourable John Middleton AM.”