A “concerted campaign” calling for University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott’s resignation is “dangerous” and conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism, the Jewish Council of Australia says.
Scott is facing calls to resign over the university’s handling of a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus. He has apologised and conceded the university must do better.
In the wake of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack, protest camps were set up in university campuses in Australia and the United States. As the camps grew, so did claims of antisemitism, and the University of Sydney has been repeatedly singled out.
The Australasian Union of Jewish Students has demanded Scott’s resignation.
The Australian reported this week about 60 former and current staff from the university were calling for his resignation. The chief executive of the Zionist Federation of Australia, Alon Cassuto, said a change in leadership was needed.
The JCA executive officer, Sarah Schwartz, said the council was concerned about the rise in antisemitism, and that it had no place on university campuses, but that it was also concerned about the targeting of Scott.
“There seems to be a really concerted campaign against him, and to locate the anti-war student encampments as the locus of antisemitism on campus,” she said.
“We think it would set a really dangerous precedent for all universities and would essentially mean that universities are able to be politicised.
“This campaign against him is aimed at sending a clear warning to other universities to not allow Palestinian solidarity, discourse, or events.”
Schwartz said students had a right to protest without criticism of Israel being conflated with antisemitism.
A Senate committee is looking into a bill that aims to establish an independent review into antisemitism at Australian universities.
On Friday, Scott told a committee hearing there was “no doubt” antisemitism was rising in the wake of “the horrific events of October 7 and the ongoing conflict in Gaza”. He said he had heard firsthand stories of Jewish staff, student, alumni and community experiences of antisemitism.
“The testimonials are heartbreaking and unacceptable, and for that I am sorry,” he said.
“No one should feel at risk, unsafe or unwelcome at any place of learning, and no one should feel the need to hide their identity or stay away from classrooms or campuses.”
The university has taken many actions including establishing an independent review of its policies and processes, Scott said, “but clearly we have more to do”.
He said the university “prioritised engagement, nonviolence and peaceful resolution” in managing the encampment in a “complex, fast-moving environment”.
Under questioning from the Liberal senator Sarah Henderson, Scott said the university was “deeply sorry” and there were things “in hindsight” they would have done differently. But he repeatedly rejected assertions there was a lack of action against the encampment, saying when they talked to police about clearing it they were told the police would do so “with fully equipped riot police”.
“We felt that the risk of the violence that would ensue from that, the destruction of property, the other forces would be unleashed, would be a dramatic escalation, as we were trying to de-escalate the encampment and peaceably resolve it,” he said.
He also said the protest was legitimate and did not breach the university’s code of conduct (which has since been changed).
If students were left feeling unsafe or unwelcome then “I have failed them and the university has failed them”, he said.
One criticism is that members of the radical organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir were on campus. Scott said they came in with rallies from outside. He said they had discussed the situation with police and there was no risk of extremist violence or radicalised behaviour.
A University of Sydney spokesperson said its governing authority, the Senate, was actively working with Scott to ensure the university was a safe place for staff and students, with the best governance possible.
“We appreciate the time and consideration that our students, staff and broader community have taken as they shared their experiences and feedback with us,” the spokesperson said.
The university’s complaints handling process will also be assessed.
The executive director of Australia Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, Colin Rubenstein, said a commission of inquiry should be established to assess the actions and inactions of university administrations to “determine whether they have fulfilled their duty of care to staff and students and their legal and moral responsibilities in addressing antisemitism”. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has called for a judicial review as a crucial “first step”.
The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network said in a submission to the inquiry that “subjective feelings of discomfort or unease” were “being wrongly equated with objective threats to physical safety, often leading to false accusations of antisemitism”.
“Furthermore, these accusations often mask underlying anti-Palestinian racism,” APAN said.
Schwartz said no one should be made to feel unsafe, but added that in one case a mother said her son had been subjected to antisemitism because he’d been handed a flyer.
“I don’t doubt that individual students feel discomfort around that,” she said.
“But if university administration, politicians and the media continue to fuel this discourse, calling those things antisemitic, those students feel legitimised saying it’s racism when it’s political discomfort, the dislike of a political message.
“We have to be really clear that political discomfort is something that is a fact of life in a democracy.”
