Campus Crackdown: Antisemitism Inquiry Reveals Deep Divisions and Student Distress

Australian universities have long histories of passionate, provocative activism that uses protest to turn attention to injustice. This week, however, the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion turned its focus directly onto the anti-Israel protest movement itself, revealing a highly contentious environment on local campuses.

The commission heard repeated examples of campus activism crossing the line into racial and religious vilification. Jewish students and staff spoke of their distress at being individually targeted on the basis of their identity, reporting that the protest movement blamed them directly for the actions of the state of Israel.

"This is antisemitism, unambiguously," Melbourne University acting vice-chancellor Glyn Davis said. Davis further described the behavior as the "[It is the] conflation of the Jewish identity with the actions of a nation state."

Concerns Raised Long Before Encampments

For sections of the Jewish community, these admissions from university leaders were seen as too little, too late. Some community representatives noted they had been raising alarms about antisemitism well before protest movements filled campuses in 2024.

Jeremy Leibler, from the Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA), stated that he began expressing concerns to vice-chancellors about rising campus antisemitism during the pandemic. "I had examples of a gay law student at Melbourne University that was wearing Star of David around his neck and was told that they were not welcome in the LGBTQ+ group because they were a Zionist," Mr Leibler said.

Mr Leibler noted that many of these young students were progressive and were not necessarily hostile to critiques of the state of Israel. "Criticism of Israel is entirely legitimate and, by the way, these kids are very comfortable having Israel as a state criticised," Mr Leibler said. "Most of these Jewish kids are very progressive, you know, left-wing Jews that are critical of the government."

He added that Jewish students felt increasingly isolated, finding it difficult to even report incidents to university administrators. "The word racism is a complex question in terms of antisemitism because Jews are both a religion and a nationality. It doesn't fall squarely into racism; you've black Jews, white Jews," Mr Leibler said. "There wasn't even a drop down in the complaints process to actually describe the conduct as antisemitism."

Quantifying the Problem on Campus

To encourage vice-chancellors to act, the Australian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) commissioned a survey to quantify the scale of antisemitism. The survey found that 64 percent of Jewish students experienced antisemitism and 57 percent reported hiding their identities while on campus.

This week, AUJS president Jeremy Suss told the royal commission that universities had lost sight of student safety. "What we've seen very clearly, is that universities have had a long time to act on this issue and the most part, they really haven't," Mr Suss said. "And university should be a place where every student can get on with their study and not have to face intimidation, not face violence."

Tensions Heighten with University Encampments

In 2024, protest camps set up across various universities became major flashpoints. Pro-Palestine activists campaigned against Israel's sustained military campaign in Gaza, which followed the October 7 Hamas attack against Israeli civilians. Some of these months-long encampments were populated by a mix of students and outside activists.

The royal commission was told that universities had been warned that external actors, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne, would bring their protests from metropolitan CBD locations onto inner-city campuses. In response to these developments, the peak standards body for the tertiary sector wrote to universities in May, urging them to implement measures to block outsiders, restrict non-student access, and contact police if necessary.

"The introduction of outside actors … saw a much more aggressive, heated and personalised expression of protests and ideas," said Dr Mary Russell from the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. Dr Russell added that these expressions were "Particularly personalised against Jewish students on campus and staff."

Mr Leibler stated that this atmosphere turbocharged hostility toward individual Jewish students and staff, leaving many feeling abandoned by university administrations. "There was a very clear view formed as to which parts of society were the oppressed and which parts of society were the oppressor, and you needed to pick a side," Mr Leibler said. "Jewish students were put into the category of the oppressor, either by virtue of their Jewish identity and connection to Israel, but also from classic antisemitic tropes."

Universities Caught Off-Guard

The commission heard that most universities were caught flat-footed by the physical camps, despite similar protests in America dominating global news. "We didn't anticipate an encampment," University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott admitted. "It hadn't been part of the protest movement history."

Both the University of Sydney and the Australian National University apologized for their initial light-touch approaches, which allowed the encampments to continue for months. In contrast, members of the Jewish community highlighted the quick response of Monash University's vice-chancellor Sharon Pickering, who cracked down on an encampment after signs emerged indicating Zionists were not welcome on campus.

"No-one was perfect, but it was a completely different world when the leadership of universities were prepared to very clearly take a stand and send signals to what they considered acceptable and unacceptable behaviour," Mr Leibler remarked.

Similarly, the chancellor of Western Sydney University, Jennifer Westacott, broke ranks with other university leaders, accusing administrations of hiding behind academic freedom to allow placards that called for the deaths of Jews.

Following his appearance at the commission, Professor Scott sent an email to University of Sydney staff stating that the institution "wanted to reaffirm our support for the Jewish community". He wrote: "Since October 2023, we have taken significant steps to deliver meaningful change. We have engaged and consulted deeply with the Jewish community and worked assiduously across the University to ensure we have the right foundations to ensure safety and wellbeing for all,"

Redefining the Boundaries of Free Speech

Institutions are now tasked with redefining the balance between their commitments to academic freedom and ensuring the safety of staff and students. Finding a resolution that satisfies all parties remains difficult, with opposing groups continuing to debate the meaning of key protest slogans.

Yasmine Johnson, a co-convener of Students for Palestine who is Jewish and helped organize the Sydney encampment, rejected the idea that the protests created fear, calling the claim "farcical". She argued that chants such as "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" are not expressions of hate or calls for genocide, despite arguments from Jewish community organizations and statements from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese indicating that the slogan is incompatible with a two-state solution.