Sydney University staff resisting controversial antisemitism rules
University of Sydney academics will hold a meeting this week attempting to thwart the adoption of a definition of antisemitism that aims to protect Jewish and Israeli students on campus which some staff say unreasonably constricts criticism of Israel.
It comes a week after a student meeting to discuss the definition ended in the audience turning their backs on a Jewish speaker while another student effectively called for Israel to cease to exist.
The University of Sydney has been the centre of student protests against Israel since the October 7 attacks – playing host to a sprawling pro-Palestinian encampment of university students and activists as well as long-time supporters of Hizb ut-Tahrir – an organisation banned in Germany and Turkey and labelled a terrorist group in Britain.
After pressure to act on antisemitism, the university spent $441,789 on an external review, which proposed new civility rules which asked students to explain exactly what they meant when using contentious phrases.
Additionally, it adopted the Universities Australia definition of antisemitism, along with more than 30 other institutions, which states criticism of Israel is not in itself antisemitic. 'However, criticism of Israel can be antisemitic when it is grounded in harmful tropes, stereotypes or assumptions and when it calls for the elimination of the State of Israel or all Jews or when it holds Jewish individuals or communities responsible for Israel's actions.'
An email invitation about the meeting on Thursday held by Staff for Palestine says: 'This definition, which has been imposed on the university community unilaterally, treats criticism of Israel and of Zionism as likely to be antisemitic.'
'The definition constitutes a serious obstacle to staff and students' intellectual freedom, and to our ability to campaign for an end to the genocide in Gaza, for the academic boycott of Israeli institutions, and for justice for everyone in the Middle East regardless of their faith, background or ethnicity.
'Our position is that no one kind of racism should be treated as more serious than others, including by being the object of standalone definitions.'
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