MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian universities would lose government funding unless they address attacks on Jewish students and potential immigrants would be screened for political affiliations under recommendations to the government made public on Thursday aimed at curbing antisemitism.
Antisemitic incidents including assaults, vandalism, threats and intimidation had surged more than threefold in Australia in the year after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal reported.
Synagogues and cars have been torched, businesses and homes have been graffitied and Jews have been attacked in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia’s two largest cities where 85% of the nation’s Jewish population live.
A year after the Jewish lawyer and Sydney-based business executive was appointed envoy, Segal provided the government with a range of recommendations in her report.
‘We cannot hope to abolish antisemitism’
“Given its age-old heritage, we cannot hope to really abolish antisemitism, but we can push it to the margins of society,” Segal told reporters.
A major priority of the report was to ensure public institutions, particularly universities, were held accountable for addressing antisemitism.
Australian universities have been the center of several pro-Palestinian protests.
Segal would work with government to withhold funding from universities that fail to act against antisemitism, the report said.
More broadly, public funding would be denied to cultural institutions, artists, broadcasters and individuals that “implicitly endorse antisemitic themes or narratives,” the report said.
People living in Australia who were not citizens and were involved in antisemitism should be deported. Potential immigrants should be screened for antisemitic views or affiliations, the report said.
Prime minister to carefully consider recommendations
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government would “carefully consider” the report’s recommendations.
“There are Jewish students who have been attacked, vilified, abused because of their identification by someone — by a perpetrator — for being Jewish,” Albanese said.
“That has no place in Australia. It undermines out multiculturalism. And one of the things that I regard as Australia’s strength is that we can be a microcosm for the world,” he added.
More than half Australia’s population were born overseas or have an immigrant parent.
Luke Sheehy, chief executive of Universities Australia, which represents the nation’s 39 universities, said he was looking forward to the government’s response.
“Racism has absolutely no place in Australia’s universities and our sector condemns it in all forms,” Sheehy said in a statement.
“Academic freedom and freedom of expression are core to the university mission, but they must be exercised with responsibility and never as a cover for hate or harassment,” he added.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the peak advocate for the nation’s Jewish community, welcomed the report.
Jewish group describes report as ‘dangerous’
But Max Kaiser, executive officer of the Jewish Council of Australia, said community groups such as his that supported human rights in Gaza had not been consulted by Segal.
Kaiser described the threat of withholding university funding over antisemitism as dangerous.
“It becomes this real way of cracking down on political dissent and cracking down on the protest movement. And we actually think that that’s a really dangerous way to put it, because there are many Jews in Australia, including in the Jewish Council of Australia, who have been active parts of the protest movement,” Kaiser told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“This is a movement that is against the genocide ongoing in Gaza. And it’s a completely legitimate part of democratic political activity. And to suggest that somehow this is related to antisemitism really does a disservice to the cause of fighting antisemitism,” Kaiser added.
The report comes after three high-profile attacks on Jewish targets in Melbourne over the weekend.
Suspects charged over attacks on Jewish targets
The front door of the East Melbourne Synagogue was set alight with ban accelerant on Friday night, and a suspect has been charged.
Soon after, 20 masked protesters harassed diners at a nearby restaurant owned by an Israeli businessman. A window was broken, tables were flipped and chairs thrown as chanting protesters called for the death of the Israel Defense Forces.
Four people have been charged with offenses including assault, riotous behavior and criminal damage.
Police are also investigating the spray-painting of a business in Melbourne’s northern suburbs and an arson attack on three vehicles attached to the business before dawn Saturday. The vehicles had also been graffitied.
Police said there were antisemitic “inferences” at the scene. The business had also been the target of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the past year.
