The majority of university staff and students where pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel and anti-Jewish protesters are camped on campus grounds in Australia and the US are becoming increasingly angry and frustrated with the behaviour of the activists.
Respected University of Sydney professor Peter Morgan told The Australian he was left “shaking with anger” and some of his students felt intimidated after a recent lecture was “hijacked” by masked activists who refused to let his class proceed.
He wrote to vice-chancellor Mark Scott urging the university to deal with the “aggression and racism,” explaining he was on the “verge of tears of frustration that after so much warning and so many signs of appalling anti-Semitism, this can still be allowed to happen,” adding that the “university has effectively encouraged this behaviour.” Professor Scott’s office has been communicating with Professor Morgan since the complaint and has asked for help identifying the students involved.
Other similar incidents also took place at the university. The Australian reports: “A Jewish psychology lecturer forcefully and repeatedly asked a group of protesters to leave, with a male demonstrator and the female lecturer standing very close to each other and exchanging tense words. It is understood the university has offered for security personnel to attend her lectures.”
The Group of Eight (Go8) leading universities vowed to back an Australian Human Rights Commission review into racism. “Our universities utterly reject all expressions of hate and prejudice, including anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or any other form of racism or religious intolerance. This is not acceptable in broader Australian society – nor will we accept it on our campuses,” they said in a statement.
The Go8 comprises Australia’s leading research-intensive universities – the University of Melbourne, the Australian National University, the University of Sydney, the University of Queensland, the University of Western Australia, the University of Adelaide, Monash University and UNSW Sydney.
In the US, two Jewish students have told a congressional hearing how they were racially abused on university campuses. One said he was threatened by a machete wielding Harvard University staff member. They have filed lawsuits against both Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) for failing to address hatred of Jews at their institutions. Both said Jewish students don’t feel safe on their campuses.
Shabbos Kestenbaum revealed that on Kristallnacht the Nazis arrested his great-great grandfather after destroying the local synagogue. “Kristallnacht began with a pernicious ideology that swept across German society. Kristallnacht began with the acceptance and normalisation of Jew-hatred,” he pointed out.
He testified how pro-Palestinian groups at Harvard appointed marshals to follow Jewish students — just like the Nazis. The Christian Post reports he added that university managers ignored his complaints. “I am a Jewish student and have thus far been unable to meet with President Alan Garber or my dean, Marla Frederick, to discuss the pervasive anti-Semitism on campus. Only those who call for the ethnic genocide of Jews, violate school policy, and send masked thugs to follow Jews are given the honour of having a seat at the table,” Mr. Kestenbaum observed.
Eyal Yakoby told the congressional hearing how Jewish students were constantly targeted on the Penn campus. “Bigotry, violence, and harassment have become part of Penn’s daily syllabus,” he said
“While students walk to class, they are met with masked individuals screaming at them Go die. You are Hitler’s children. Nazis. This is not just an issue for Jews. It is an issue for all Americans. Israel was physically attacked, but ideologically, every free country has been infiltrated. Because the same people who wave the flags of Hamas are burning the flag of the United States.”
“Unless the university enforces their own rules between now and graduation, then no Jewish student, no one that doesn’t support the pro-terror encampments that are happening, should step foot on Penn’s campus,” Mr. Yakoby concluded.
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