The Exec­u­tive Coun­cil of Aus­tralian Jew­ry (ECAJ), the peak body rep­re­sent­ing the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty nation­al­ly, whole­heart­ed­ly endors­es fed­er­al Lib­er­al MP Julian Leeser’s bill to estab­lish a judi­cial inquiry into the surge in reports of anti­se­mit­ic inci­dents and dis­course on Aus­tralian uni­ver­si­ty cam­pus­es.

Many uni­ver­si­ty admin­is­tra­tions have failed to acknowl­edge, let alone address, the prob­lem. A judi­cial inquiry, as orig­i­nal­ly called for in May by Mr Leeser, would allow Jew­ish stu­dents and staff to give evi­dence in a closed hear­ing, with­out hav­ing to fear reprisals from the fanat­i­cal fringe of anti-Israel or Jew-hat­ing stu­dents, or vic­tim­i­sa­tion from anti-Israel and anti­se­mit­ic fac­ul­ty mem­bers. There would be no oppor­tu­ni­ty for polit­i­cal grand­stand­ing by any par­ty, and the sole focus would be on get­ting to the truth.

We have no doubt from all the reports we and oth­er Jew­ish organ­i­sa­tions have been receiv­ing that the truth will shock the Aus­tralian pub­lic.  The integri­ty and the qual­i­ty of our world-class uni­ver­si­ties is being under­mined by a relent­less infu­sion of anti-demo­c­ra­t­ic, anti-lib­er­al and anti-west­ern val­ues which are com­plete­ly alien to our free, peace­ful and tol­er­ant way of life.

Exec­u­tive Coun­cil of Aus­tralian Jew­ry co-CEO Peter Wertheim AM says, “Every­one in our com­mu­ni­ty should be con­cerned about the preva­lence of anti­se­mit­ic acts and dis­course on Aus­tralian cam­pus­es in recent weeks, which has been out of all pro­por­tion to demon­stra­tions of oth­er forms of racism at Aus­tralian Uni­ver­si­ties.

“A judi­cial inquiry into anti­semitism on Aus­tralian cam­pus­es, and the ade­qua­cy or oth­er­wise of the respons­es of Uni­ver­si­ty admin­is­tra­tions, is urgent­ly need­ed. Only a judi­cial inquiry can have the nec­es­sary focus on anti­semitism and meet the require­ments of impar­tial­i­ty, con­fi­den­tial­i­ty and deco­rum that we would expect to be observed.

“Sad­ly, the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty can­not have con­fi­dence that the inquiry to be con­duct­ed by the Aus­tralian Human Rights Com­mis­sion would meet these require­ments. The AHRC’s record of pub­lic state­ments and action in the face of the unprece­dent­ed surge of anti­semitism that has occurred in Aus­tralia, espe­cial­ly since 7 Octo­ber 2023, has been con­spic­u­ous­ly defi­cient. The recent record of some of the peo­ple asso­ci­at­ed with the Com­mis­sion has also fea­tured a shock­ing lev­el of bias. In addi­tion, the Commission’s study will have a more gener­ic focus.”

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