War of words over anti-Semitism and university protests
Whether these sites remained places of legitimate protest or hotbeds for anti-Semitic activity is due to be explored on Monday.
The University of Sydney, UNSW, academics and student groups are among scores of stakeholders weighing into a NSW parliamentary inquiry examining anti-Semitism on university campuses.
It will also examine anti-Semitic attacks in recent months, including graffiti sprayed on cars and homes and a firebombing of a childcare centre near a synagogue.
In its submission, the Australasian Union of Jewish Students said universities had become "flashpoints for anti-Semitic activity."
The union pointed to the proportion of Jewish-Australians who identify as Zionist.
Zionism is widely understood as a political movement that called for the founding of the state of Israel, but the union said it was much more than that.
"Jewish students may not consider themselves politically Zionist but may still have strong emotional or religious connection to Israel," it said.
"Given that the majority of Jewish Australians identify as Zionist, it is not credible to claim that threats or acts of hostility directed at 'Zionists' cannot also be acts of anti-Semitism."
Conservative Jewish groups have lambasted chants heard at weekly demonstrations and on uni campuses as anti-Semitic, most notably "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."
But many submissions by Jewish Australians disputed the conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.
The stance feeds "into a politicised and divisive discourse which seeks to label any criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic," the progressive Jewish Council of Australia said.
Civil libertarians warned about its impact on political communication.
"Conflating legitimate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism at a time when Israel is justifiably being criticised for failing to meet international human rights standards ... is dangerous," the NSW Council for Civil Liberties said.
"(It) treats Jewish people as having monolithic political beliefs, a view that is itself anti-Semitic."
Australia's 39 universities unanimously endorsed a new definition of anti-Semitism in February.
The definition, which includes harassment that impedes Jews' ability to participate as equals in educational and social life, has been contested by human rights groups as curbing political speech.
A Senate inquiry has also examined the student encampments that sprang up in 2023 in response to Israel's bombing and ground assault on Gaza.
More than 52,000 Palestinians, including about 18,000 children, have been killed so far in Gaza, according to the United Nations.
It was sparked by Hamas, a militant group in the blockaded enclave, killing more than 1200 Israelis and capturing 250 hostages in a cross-border attack on October 7, 2023.
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Pro-Palestinian protesters will march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge after a court authorised a rally, as police scramble to ensure they have the resources to monitor the event. Thousands of protesters are expected at the demonstration to highlight what the United Nations has described as "worsening famine conditions" in Gaza. NSW Police on Saturday urged all protesters to act peacefully and respectfully, warning the rally would be watched closely. Supreme Court Justice Belinda Rigg rejected a police application to shut down the Sunday march on public safety grounds. Organised by the Palestinian Action Group Sydney, the protest has garnered support from activists nationwide, human rights and civil liberties groups as well as several MPs and public figures such as former Socceroo Craig Foster. Justice Rigg in her judgment said arguments the rally would cause disruption on the bridge were not sufficient to bar the protest. 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Pro-Palestinian protesters will march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge after a court authorised a rally, as police scramble to ensure they have the resources to monitor the event. Thousands of protesters are expected at the demonstration to highlight what the United Nations has described as "worsening famine conditions" in Gaza. NSW Police on Saturday urged all protesters to act peacefully and respectfully, warning the rally would be watched closely. Supreme Court Justice Belinda Rigg rejected a police application to shut down the Sunday march on public safety grounds. Organised by the Palestinian Action Group Sydney, the protest has garnered support from activists nationwide, human rights and civil liberties groups as well as several MPs and public figures such as former Socceroo Craig Foster. Justice Rigg in her judgment said arguments the rally would cause disruption on the bridge were not sufficient to bar the protest. 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Pro-Palestinian protesters will march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge after a court authorised a rally, as police scramble to ensure they have the resources to monitor the event. Thousands of protesters are expected at the demonstration to highlight what the United Nations has described as "worsening famine conditions" in Gaza. NSW Police on Saturday urged all protesters to act peacefully and respectfully, warning the rally would be watched closely. Supreme Court Justice Belinda Rigg rejected a police application to shut down the Sunday march on public safety grounds. Organised by the Palestinian Action Group Sydney, the protest has garnered support from activists nationwide, human rights and civil liberties groups as well as several MPs and public figures such as former Socceroo Craig Foster. Justice Rigg in her judgment said arguments the rally would cause disruption on the bridge were not sufficient to bar the protest. 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Premier Chris Minns also refused to grant the group permission to march across the bridge, and said police were not given enough time to safely organise resources for the protest, prompting organisers to launch a last-ditch attempt to save the Sydney protest after NSW Police filed Supreme Court action seeking an order to block the protest. Justice Belinda Rigg on Saturday found any inconvenience caused by the march to commuters across the Sydney Harbour Bridge was not a reason to refuse it on legal grounds. 'The application by the commissioner should be refused,' Rigg said in her judgment on Saturday. 'It is in the very nature of the right of peaceful protest that disruption will be caused to others. If matters such as this were to be determinative, no assembly involving inconvenience to others would be permitted.' The court's decision means protesters will now have the legal right to occupy the bridge and streets surrounding the route of the march from the streets surrounding Wynyard Station in the Sydney CBD to North Sydney. NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley said the public should prepare for 'massive, massive disruption'. Palestine Action Group organiser Josh Lees said the iconic bridge was essential to the planned march as it would send 'an urgent and massive response' to the crisis in Gaza. The Israeli government has denied claims of genocide and says the war in Gaza is an act of self-defence. Loading It has also denied claims that there is starvation in Gaza after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accused it of breaching international law by stopping food from being delivered into the 13-kilometre-wide strip, which has 2.1 million people squeezed into an area half the size of Canberra. The World Health Organisation said there had been 63 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza last month, including 24 children under the age of five – up from 11 deaths total the previous six months of the year. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claims 82 people died last month of malnutrition-related causes, including 24 children and 58 adults, taking Gaza's death toll from the war, which began in 2023 after Hamas militants killed more than 700 civilians in southern Israel, to more than 60,000. Albanese has also called on Hamas to release the Israeli hostages taken as part of the attacks on October 7, as Jewish-Australian leaders raise fears the protests will fuel antisemitism. In Melbourne on Friday, Victoria Police warned the Melbourne demonstration – which plans to shut down the busy King Street Bridge – would require hundreds of its officers to be redeployed from other policing duties across the state. Rally organisers have vowed to let emergency services vehicles through, but police warned it was not enough to mitigate the risk.
