Bizarre “anti-racism” conference at QUT slammed
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies said the symposium featured presentations that characterised Jews as "hateful, racist and xenophobic.
There’s been outrage from the Jewish community over a controversial presentation at an “Anti-racism” conference hosted by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).
The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) has issued a scathing statement following presentations at the National Symposium on Unifying Anti-Racist Research and Action.
The NSW JBD said the symposium featured presentations that characterised Jews as “hateful, racist and xenophobic – malevolently working with politicians for nefarious purposes”.
“The presentation would not have been out of place in antisemitic gatherings throughout the ages. It contained it all – laughter as Jews were the subject of public mockery, images of Rabbis as the subject of ridicule and the baseless demonisation of a community which has done nothing to warrant such hatred,” said NSW JBD.
They say serious questions must be asked about whether taxpayer funds should continue to be provided to the Queensland University of Technology and have called for Federal Education Minister Jason Clare to intervene and severely sanction QUT.
“If he is unwilling or unable to do so – as has been the case for the past 15 months – then the Prime Minister must himself demonstrate his commitment to stamping out antisemitism by first dealing with QUT and by then addressing rampant antisemitism across the university sector.”
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) president Daniel Aghion has described the image of ‘Dutton’s Jew’ as overtly antisemitic.
He said the fact that the display was presented as part of a so-called anti-racism symposium is bizarre.
“The image is clearly intended to stigmatise as evil and racist any Jewish person who might support the Coalition”, said Aghion.
“It is ironic that such an obvious and disgraceful racist trope has been used at an event that billed itself as an anti-racism symposium”.
Zionist Federation of Australia President Jeremy Leibler has written to Education Minister Jason Clare urging an investigation of what he calls “this festival or hatred” hosted by QUT.
“This kind of rhetoric is recklessly dangerous following multiple domestic terror attacks targeted against Jewish Australians – and in a university ecosystem that over the past year has repeatedly endangered its Jewish students”, Leibler said.
He called the Vice-Chancellors’ statement that QUT is “deeply committed to cultural diversity and anti-racism” as utterly unconvincing.
Leibler wants the Minister to publicly condemn the antisemitic rhetoric spread by this symposium and publicly rebuke the Vice-Chancellor for her dismissive and unacceptable responses.
The incident may end up seeing QUT summoned to appear before the joint parliamentary inquiry on campus anti-Semitism.
Josh Burns, Federal Labor member for Macnamara who is Jewish and chairs the the inquiry said while he can’t discuss what happens with the parliamentary committee, he can say that inquiry is ongoing and that there will be potential for further hearings
“Personally, the material used was completely irresponsible and one of the stupidest things I’ve seen in the past 18 months,” he said.
Julian Leeser, the only Jewish member of the Parliamentary Liberal Party, described the conference as “further proof of why we need a judicial inquiry into antisemitism on campus”.
He emphasised his pride in his party’s stance against antisemitism.
Liberal MP for Fisher, Andrew Wallace, has called on the Education Minister to without Federal funding from QUT until it investigates this matter and acs decisively ti end antisemitism on its campus.
One of the presentations act the event was by Sarah Schwartz from the far-left pro-Palestinian Jewish Council of Australia, who gave a speech featuring a slide presentation showing a figure described as ‘Dutton’s Jew’.
She has defended her presentation, which she said was part of a comedy debate criticising Peter Dutton’s political approach to the Jewish community.
She argued that her speech was intended to challenge monolithic representations of Jewish people and highlight political exploitation of antisemitism.
“Far right social media accounts have been sharing the slide of my speech title ‘Dutton’s Jew’ without any of the context. These groups promote dangerous disinformation which no one should take at face value,” she said.
“My speech was part of a comedy event making fun of racists. If we didn’t laugh we’d cry.”
Prior to the event, QUT had been warned about potential antisemitic content in the conference.
The Australian Academic Alliance Against antisemitism (5A) wrote to the university expressing concerns about speakers with a history of what they termed “anti-Jewish racism”.
The Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies specifically requested that the university “show leadership and ensure there is no hate speech” at the symposium.
However, QUT’s deputy vice-chancellor for Indigenous Australians, Angela Leitch, maintained that the university had taken “reasonable steps” to ensure a “culturally safe and supportive symposium”.
The symposium, hosted by QUT’s Carumba Institute, included several controversial speakers, including Senator Lidia Thorpe and Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah.
QUT and the Jewish Council of Australia have been contacted for comment.
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