Universities face fines for failing to protect Jewish staff and students from hate speech and attacks, months after the Bondi massacre, a caustic review of antisemitism on campus has warned. Jewish academics are being “targeted and silenced’’, sacked or boycotted, Emeritus Professor Greg Craven found in his government-initiated investigation of 32 universities. His damning report exposes ongoing intimidation and harassment of Jewish staff and students on campus – including academics “glorifying the leader of a proscribed terrorist organisation’’ to students. Jewish students and staff have been verbally abused as “baby killers, defenders of genocide and fascists’’ while some student newspapers published Jewish tropes. “Though prohibited, chants such as ‘globalise the intifada’, ‘long live the intifada, ‘glory to the intifada’ and ‘from the river to the sea’ continue to be used … confronting flags are routinely flown on campus,’’ the report states.
“Jewish academics have needed to decide if they want to ‘come out’, identifying themselves as Jews, and in some cases have decided not to for fear of the consequences. “Antisemitism is being directly used to repress the academic freedom of its victims.’’ Professor Craven – a constitutional lawyer and former vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University – lashed the university sector for failing to adopt clear and enforceable definitions of antisemitism – five months after 15 people were shot dead at a Jewish festival on Bondi Beach. He deplored the “grave inability” of universities to stamp out antisemitism and questioned why they refused to treat hatred of Jews as seriously as discrimination on the grounds of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability or mental health. “Given the attacks at Bondi, on synagogues, as well as the direct harassment of Jewish people, it surely is the case that antisemitism should take a detailed definitional place among other contemporary forms of harassment and vilification,’’ he said in his report.
Criticising “arcane and almost unusable complaints and disciplinary processes’’ across higher education, Professor Craven found that university campuses had hosted aggressive protests and sit-ins featuring antisemitic slogans, offensive symbols, antisemitic guest speakers and “loud harassment of Jewish students and others seen as supporting the state of Israel or ‘Zionists’.’’ “It is implausible for universities to deny any significant level of blame here,’’ he said. “Antisemitism is a continuing and very serious problem within Australian universities. Not only is any degree of antisemitism in our universities racist, bigoted, unethical and immoral, it undermines their international viability as institutions of research and learning. “As institutions of free debate and intellect they cannot allow themselves – or others connected with them – to be perceived as discriminating against a vulnerable and fearful minority.’’
Professor Craven said a continued failure by universities to define antisemitism and stamp it out should be referred to federal Education Minister Jason Clare. He said consequences for individual universities might impact funding and registration through referrals to the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), the regulatory watchdog he helped establish. Mr Clare will introduce legislation to parliament in July granting TEQSA new powers to fine universities for regulatory breaches. Universities have an August 31 deadline to implement a clear and enforceable definition of antisemitism. “We are making changes to the standards universities must meet to tackle antisemitism and other types of racism,’’ Mr Clare said. “That includes having a definition of antisemitism and other forms of racism, and policies and complaints processes to address it.’’ The Coalition’s education spokesman, Julian Leeser, said it was “pathetic’’ that universities had failed to define and stamp out antisemitism. “How can you address a problem if you can’t even agree what it is?’’ Mr Leeser said.
“We have seen 15 of our fellow Australians murdered on Bondi Beach because of their religion – that should be a massive concern to every decent person.’’ The National Union of Students (NUS) blasted the government’s intervention as “straight out of the Trump playbook’’. “Australia does not need the Americanisation of our university system, where governments threaten funding to pressure universities into ideological compliance,’’ NUS president Felix Hughes said. Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal asked Greg Craven to prepare a report card on antisemitism in universities. He said antisemitism on campus was real and Jewish students should be safe but insisted that “definitions of antisemitism cannot be used in ways that shut down legitimate criticism or scholarly examination of Israel’’. However, Professor Craven said free speech was not an “absolute right’’. “Realistically, protecting against antisemitism in a university context will limit to some extent both academic freedom and freedom of speech,’’ his report states.
“Writings that are overtly antisemitic, as opposed merely to being critical of the policies of the state of Israel, will be affected by such protections. Similarly, freedom of speech will be curtailed, current examples being the use of such slogans as ‘from the river to the sea’ or ‘globalise the intifada’.’’ Universities Australia announced last year that 39 institutions had agreed to a “clear definition’’ of antisemitism that included calls for the elimination of Israel, or holding Jews accountable for Israel’s actions. It stated that “substituting the word ‘Zionist’ for ‘Jew’ did not eliminate the possibility of speech being antisemitic’’. More than a year later, Professor Craven found that 32 universities had failed to adopt a “clear, comprehensive and binding’’ definition. “A vaguely described concept of antisemitism contained in a low-level university policy that merely invites decision-makers to have regard to it as seems appropriate to them is not a definition,’’ he said.
Professor Craven, who has built a career developing and interpreting complex regulations, scorned some university definitions as “profoundly obscure, impenetrable and truly baffling’’. He identified six universities for making the most effort: the University of Canberra, Swinburne University of Technology, Southern Cross University, the University of Southern Queensland, Charles Darwin University and Western Sydney University. Universities Australia said, “antisemitism is abhorrent … Jewish students and staff should feel safe, respected and supported on campus, and we recognise the hurt and distress many in the community may have experienced’’. The Group of Eight sandstone universities at the centre of anti-Israel encampments in 2024 said “they are places of debate, protest and strong disagreement’’. “Any suggestion that universities are not doing enough to protect students and staff from harassment, intimidation or hate must be treated with urgency,’’ it said.
Source: Compiled by APN from media reports