There should be no place for antisemitism on Australian campuses. It’s time for Australian universities to live their values again. That’s why we need all universities to follow the lead of Melbourne university and adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, call out antisemitism where it occurs, take action against it and send it back to the dark place from whence it came.
Full speech
Mr LEESER (Berowra) (17:21): I want to thank my friends the member for Macnamara and the member for Wentworth for moving this motion. With the two of them, I’m pleased to be one of the co-chairs of the Parliamentary Friends of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. I also want to acknowledge the outstanding work of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, led by their president, Jillian Segal; and their co-CEOs, Peter Wertheim and Alex Ryvchin.
The ECAJ monitors instances of racial hatred and racial abuse directed at the Jewish community. For 10 years, Julie Nathan has produced the ECAJ’s annual Report on antisemitism in Australia. The 2022 report found that antisemitic incidents had increased by more than 40 per cent over the last two years. Many of those incidents involve the growth in politically motivated extremism from neo-Nazi groups, like the National Socialist Network and the European Australian Movement. But there was another sort of antisemitism that Julie Nathan identified: ‘Ostensibly left-leaning, progressive groups including so-called antiracism activists are mainstreaming antisemitism and are actively undermining the fight against antisemitism. Some perceive Jews as wealthy and powerful and, therefore, excuse any attacks on Jews as ‘punching up’ and not racism. Some ignore anti-Israel discourse which crosses the line into hateful conceptualisations of Jews.
In 2019 David Baddiel, a British author on the political left, wrote a book called JewsDon’t Count. His book chronicles the blind eye that is turned to antisemitism on the Left and the double standards of progressives, including minimising antisemitism as a form of racism. Most often, it’s hidden behind double standards and a demonisation of the State of Israel.
In 2019, Australia became the 33rd member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. I’m proud that Australia has joined this movement. This union of nations underscores the importance of confronting evil and educating the next generation of Australians. The Parliamentary Friends of IHRA is encouraging the adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism in all aspects of government and acknowledged by institutions across the public and private sector. That definition of antisemitism includes examples such as making mendacious, dehumanising demonising or stereotypical allegations about the Jews; accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel than to the interests of their own nations; and holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of the State of Israel.
Sadly, today the epicentre of antisemitic activity is our universities. The situation on campus for Jews is particularly bad. In 2022, SRCs at Sydney, Melbourne, ANU, Adelaide and Wollongong passed motions supporting the antisemitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. At Sydney university, when Jewish students spoke out against the motion, they were shouted down.
In Adelaide, the student publication On Dit published multiple articles calling for ‘death to Israel’ and ‘glory to the Intifada, may it be merciless’. Jewish students expressed concern to the university and were told that it was ‘a student issue’. One student was told they were just ‘more sensitive’ because they were Jewish. At an SRC meeting at Adelaide university there was a motion put forward condemning On Dit. Jewish students attended the meeting to express their concerns. They were not treated with respect. Instead, several students shouted them down with the words ‘death to Israel’. In response, on social media Jewish students were accused of old antisemitic tropes of divided loyalties, creating ‘an unnecessary holocaust industry’, and having sinister money, power and influence.
At QUT an academic posted comments on Facebook, with respect to a student, that included references to ‘Nazi Jews’ and ‘your lies and propaganda make you even more hated in the world’. Those examples, from 2022, which are by no means an exhaustive list of disturbing antisemitic incidents, are the reason why the first step of the Parliamentary Friends of IHRA has been to write to all university vice-chancellors encouraging them to adopt the IHRA definition. Already, the University of Melbourne has agreed to adopt the definition, and I commend and thank them. We’re calling on other universities to follow suit.
I was on university campus in the 1990s, and while there was some antisemitism in those days, it was certainly a minority view. You could be publicly Jewish on campus and feel a sense of belonging. But all that has changed now. As the national President of the Australasian Union of Jewish Students, Alissa Foster, told me:
Many students don’t feel safe being identifiably Jewish on campus, and part of that is because our experiences of antisemitism aren’t yet recognised by our Universities. Adopting the IHRA definition is not only a way for University’s to show their Jewish students that they are listening but it’s a way for them to tangibly work with us to address these concerns.
Alissa Foster is right: Jewish students should not have to put up with this sort of behaviour on campus. All too often, universities speak the words of diversity, inclusion and acceptance, but they don’t live it. When confronted by their failures, these same universities continue to hide behind banal bureaucratic language.
There should be no place for antisemitism on Australian campuses. It’s time for Australian universities to live their values again. That’s why we need all universities to follow the lead of Melbourne university and adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, call out antisemitism where it occurs, take action against it and send it back to the dark place from whence it came.