Wednesday, 15 May 2024

 Paul HAMER (Box Hill) (10:13): The right to a peaceful protest is a fundamental tenet of our democracy, especially on our university campuses. Universities are places where critical thinking, tolerance of difference and constructive debate should flourish and where every student should feel safe to study regardless of their religious or cultural identity. But the growing antisemitism on our university campuses is achieving exactly the opposite effect. Far from being the peaceful vigils opposing the actions of a foreign government that some in this chamber would have us believe, these protests have been used to vilify Jews simply for supporting Israel’s right to exist. Demands for globalised intifada, support for Hamas, Nazi salutes and calls for the destruction of the state of Israel, as well as slurs such as ‘Eff off Zionist scum’ and ‘Zionists are not welcome’, cannot be dismissed as merely differences of political opinion. We would not accept this behaviour targeting any other cultural or ethnic group, and we cannot accept this targeting of the Jewish community. Every day Jewish students are threatened with intimidation, harassment and the endorsement of terror organisations. Jewish students are being made to feel unsafe walking on campuses and attending their university classes. In response many Jewish students have felt the need to remove any sign of their Jewishness for fear of being targeted, and some no longer feel safe to attend classes in person. Universities have a responsibility to ensure dangerous extremism and hate are not being tolerated on their campuses, including from non-student actors who are pursuing their own political agendas. We all hope to see a swift and peaceful resolution to the war that has tragically gone on too long, but I implore our universities to stipulate, implement and enforce clear policies that prohibit hate speech.