University of Queensland has distanced itself from pro-Palestine book publisher
The University of Queensland said a publisher who wore a pro-Palestine shirt to the Australian Book Industry Awards did not represent the institution’s views.
The University of Queensland has distanced itself from one of its key personnel, book publisher Aviva Tuffield, who wore a pro-Palestine shirt to the Australian Book Industry Awards.
Ms Tuffield, publisher at the University of Queensland Press (UQP), attended the awards event in Melbourne last Wednesday wearing a shirt that had “Readers and Writers Against the Genocide” printed on the front.
The shirt, which featured the Palestinian flag’s colours and had a poem printed on the back by Goorie and Koorie poet Evelyn Araluen, called “One day the books will count the dead”.
“And pass over the weapons, the death mongers, the megatons of carbon and fire and steel, will sing sorry songs for crimes they say were never certain, won’t name names but show you faces in black and white and never colour, never blood or rage,” the poem begins.
Dr Araluen - a Stella Prize-winning author who is published by UQP - is one of three poets whose works feature on the back of the “Readers and Writers” shirts.
UQP won the Small Publisher of the Year award at the event.
While UQP’s website described Ms Tuffield as one of its key personnel, she was not the representative who accepted the award.
Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies president Jason Steinberg said the shirt, available on several bookstore websites and described as a “great way to make visible your support for Palestine”, could intensify anti-Semitism, which he said had been on the increase since the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas terrorists.
“Seeing a T-shirt that’s emblazoned with such a slogan – while superficially noble – represents a broader campaign to delegitimise Israel and promote anti-Semitism against Jewish people,” he said. “We’ve experienced the biggest rise in anti-Semitism in this country than we’ve ever experienced. And we have to ask, ‘Why is that?’ It’s because of T-shirts like this. It’s because of protests.”
“A conflict that’s thousands of kilometres away should not impact Jewish kids in Queensland who are getting abused and bullied simply because they’re Jewish.”
Ms Tuffield is an executive member of left-wing advocacy organisation the Jewish Council of Australia. She is also co-founder of Australia’sthe Stella Book Prize, and helped front the initiative to send five books about Israel-Palestine history to all Australian MPs to encourage nuanced debate.
Many Australian authors were part of this initiative, including Tim Winton, Charlotte Wood and JM Coetzee.
A University of Queensland spokeswoman said the university supported Ms Tuffield’s freedom to express her views but clarified that she did not represent the university’s stance on the issue.
“The university representative who accepted the award … at the Australian Book Industry Awards was not wearing the T-shirt,” she said.
“In relation to Ms Tuffield’s personal decision to wear the T-shirt, the university’s freedom of speech policy allows for staff and students to express their personal views if they are lawful. The views of Ms Tuffield should not be considered as representing the views of the university.”
The Israeli government has faced international criticism for its recently announced plan to expand its Gaza offensive, seeking to occupy the entire strip.
As the events in Gaza are an increasingly difficult topic to broach, Mr Steinberg said there needed to be a shared context before discussion.
“I think the most important thing is to acknowledge that on the seventh of October, Hamas terrorists killed more Jewish people since the last day of the Holocaust,” he said.
Ms Tuffield said it was a “very deliberate choice” to wear the shirt with Dr Araluen’s poem on the back.
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