Students describe abuse and institutional failure

Jewish university students have told the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion they were called “baby killers”, physically assaulted, subjected to Nazi salutes in classrooms and forced to hide their identities on campus, in two days of testimony that painted a picture of systemic failure across the Australian university sector.

The commission’s fourth hearing block, focused on universities, heard from students and staff across Monash, Deakin, the University of Sydney, UQ, ANU, UNSW and the University of Melbourne, describing escalating hostility that worsened sharply after October 7, 2023.

Data presented to the commission underscored the scale of the problem. AHRC president Hugh de Kretser gave evidence that 89.1 per cent of Jewish respondents to a major national university survey reported experiencing racism, among the highest of any group, yet only six per cent who experienced direct racism lodged a formal complaint.

Former Deakin tutor Yotam Barazani told the commission he attended a pro-Palestinian encampment in May 2024 carrying a sign reading, “I want peace for all. Let’s talk.” He was shoved off a stage and injured. Police said there was insufficient evidence to act, and a misconduct committee dismissed all allegations without informing him. He has not returned to campus in more than 18 months.

“The whole point of me being there was to show Jewish students it’s okay to be here,” he said. “And that day just proved the opposite.”

University of Melbourne professor Steven Prawer described up to 20 masked people occupying his office chanting he was “guilty of genocide”. Graffiti reading “Death to Israel, death to USA, death to Steven Prawer” was found at the campus entrance but removed by security without telling him. He learned of the threat only when police made contact weeks later.

Monash law graduate Paris Enten said she was surrounded and chanted at by socialist students after mentioning she was Jewish. Despite identifying the students on CCTV, Monash declined to act. In a later subject on the Middle East, students described Holocaust survivors as “inherently genocidal” while the lecturer did not intervene.

Concealing Jewish identity was a recurring theme. A witness known as Liat described daily calculations at ANU, where she endured a 110-day encampment outside her path to class. “Every single day I would have to pick: am I Jewish Liat today, or am I regular Leah?” she said. A Melbourne law student, witness ACL, said she had to “strip myself of my Jewish identity” before every class.

At UNSW, a PhD candidate identified as ACJ told the commission four students performed Nazi salutes at him while he was teaching. His supervisors told him their role was “to educate, not to reprimand”. Only after he went to police did the university suspend the students.

A non-Jewish interpreter working across Victoria’s tertiary sector, testifying as ACK, said antisemitic comments had become so normalised in classrooms they passed without challenge. A student once said Hitler “didn’t have anything against Jewish people, he just didn’t want them to suffer” and no one reacted. When she reported the incident, she stopped receiving work from that institution.

A witness known as Ms Cohen told the commission a student in her university library had urged peers to watch Hitler’s speeches, saying they “make sense in today’s context”. Her complaint went unanswered for eight months until she threatened to contact media.

StandWithUs executive director Michael Gencher said many Jewish students now refused to lodge complaints, believing the process futile.

“We’ve had students who have stopped attending campuses, simply feeling invisible, unheard, unhelped,” he said.

AUJS president Jeremy Suss said universities acted on antisemitism “only when public pressure reaches a point that they can’t delay any longer”.

The commission also heard from Students for Palestine national co-convener Yasmine Johnson, who said Israel “cannot continue to exist” and confirmed she supported the right of the oppressed to use violence, while declining to condemn the actions of Hamas.