PETER WERTHEIM
The evidence coming out of the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion this week, where Jewish students and academics at Australian universities have given evidence of being at the receiving end of hostile and at times vicious behaviour, should not come as a surprise.
Some students have described how, after being identified as Jewish by their clothing or ornamental symbols, or by participating in Jewish cultural or religious events, they have been harangued, vilified, doxed, threatened and spat at, to the point where many have chosen to do their courses online or to change universities.
Two parliamentary inquiries in 2024 and 2025, internal inquiries conducted by individual universities and a scathing assessment of antisemitism at Australian universities by Emeritus Professor Craven AO, a constitutional lawyer and former vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University, have all told a similar story.
Some universities have already taken steps to address these problems, and the Federal Minister for Education has announced measures to strengthen regulatory oversight of the sector.
Yet the problems persist, and the reason is not hard to fathom. Incidents of antisemitism on campus cannot properly be understood, let alone dealt with, as individual events. They are part of a pattern, and their effect is cumulative.
Rewriting policies, sharpening codes of conduct and improving complaints procedures can have little impact if the underlying toxic culture from which the conduct emerges is not addressed. Culture eats policy for breakfast.
Here are three things the government can do to go to the heart of the problem.
First, require universities to make full disclosure of all grants and donations they receive from foreign governments.
Second, protect universities from endless litigation of they do the right thing and discipline academics who have breached the university’s duty of care to students.
Third, stop giving research grants to academics who misuse the funds to promote their personal political views.
That would be a useful start.
Peter Wertheim AM is the co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. This article was published in The Daily Telegraph
