USyd vice-chancellor: ‘river to sea’ and ‘intifada’ not hate speech
Mark Scott says chants such as ‘intifada’ and ‘from the river to the sea’ do not cross the line into hate speech and insists his uni has acted when people exceeded ‘legitimate protest’.
University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott says chants such as “intifada” and “from the river to the sea” do not cross the line into hate speech and insists his institution has acted where people have exceeded “legitimate protest”.
The vice-chancellor of Australia’s oldest university maintained universities must be “safe and responsible bastions of free speech” as the controversial pro-Palestine protest encampment on campus nears its four-week mark.
“While the encampment at Sydney has mostly been peaceful, I appreciate its presence is deeply uncomfortable for some of our Jewish students and staff, and others on campus,” Professor Scott writes in Monday’s edition of The Australian. “They would prefer it was not there, and I am very sympathetic to that view.
“However, as long as it remains peaceful, respectful and not disruptive to university life, it remains a legitimate protest.”
Professor Scott said the university would not tolerate protests that crossed over into “racism, threats to safety, intimidation, bullying or unlawful harassment”.
Australian universities that have hosted pro-Palestine encampment protests are now diverging in their responses, after weeks of calls from Jewish groups and the federal opposition to take a more hardline stance.
The University of Melbourne is in a standoff with protesters who have been occupying a campus building for four days. Deakin University last Monday was the first to demand protesters dismantle their encampment but they refused and the tents remain.
Professor Scott said an incident last week went beyond “legitimate protest”. In that incident, first reported by The Australian, pro-Palestine protesters “hijacked” a lecture and did not comply with directions to leave.
“Some view these actions as a legitimate form of protest,” he wrote. “The university does not. If an investigation currently under way proves these protesters have crossed the line from peaceful protest to unacceptable conduct, disciplinary action will be taken.”
He said the university had taken action in response to accusations of anti-Semitic chants, banners or flags.
He also said it had begun misconduct proceedings where students had shared ID cards with visitors in a bid to dodge security.
On the other hand, he suggested slogans such as “intifada” and “from the river to the sea” did not cross the line into hate speech.
Referring to the “difficult debate” about those phrases, Professor Scott said “it is hard to argue that phrases that can be used elsewhere without repercussion are unacceptable within our borders”.
“We do not believe, nor understand, how our campus can be a place where people are less free to speak than they are in the wider world,” he wrote.
“There is no difference” between his views and Western Sydney University chancellor Jennifer Westacott who, in an op-ed for The Weekend Australian last week called on universities to address “the hate speech and anti-Semitism occurring on our campuses”.
A Jewish leader at a US campus where a pro-Palestine encampment protest sparked the most violent scenes and over 200 arrests has urged Australian universities to act early and firmly before the situation descends into the violence seen in the US.
Rabbi Dovid Gurevich, director of Jewish student centre Chabad House at the University of California Los Angeles, watched on two weeks ago as police entered the campus to clear out the encampment protest and reportedly arrested over 200 protesters.
“Australia should stop selectively enforcing university policies – stand by your principles and apply them early and firmly,” he told The Australian.
“If the (US) universities had taken a principled stance to protect the campus environment and safety of all students – not just protect some rights at the expense of other students’ rights – it would not have gone that far.”
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