Antisemitism probe sets up campus free speech battle

Jewish groups have welcomed the establishment of an antisemitism education task force to root out the source of anti-Jewish hate, but want stronger action on university culture.

Led by David Gonski, a prominent member of the Jewish community who penned a landmark review of school funding, the task force will look at how the education system can prevent antisemitic views from taking root in society.

It forms part of a broader government response to a plan by Anti-Semitism Envoy Jillian Segal, which also included toughening legal protections against hate speech, unveiled by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday.

After not formally responding to Ms Segal’s report since it was published in July, the government rushed together a plan following the horrific Bondi Hanukkah attack on Sunday.

The policy announcements were welcomed by the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein, but he said the government needed to do more to push back against the “obsessive hatred of Israel and Zionists that emanates from progressive and Islamist spaces”.

“The campuses have been a scene of tremendous harassment, intimidation and worse,” he told AAP.

“And the failure of most universities, with some honourable exceptions, to curtail the incitement, intimidation and harassment are nothing short of deplorable.”

The education task force will accelerate work already being done by Ms Segal to tackle anti-Semitism in schools, such as examining Holocaust education in the curriculum and adopting better teacher training materials.

Independent Schools Australia chief executive Graham Catt said the task force was an important step against anti-Semitism and in strengthening social cohesion.

“Education plays a critical role in confronting hatred early, building understanding, and strengthening social cohesion across our communities,” he said.

But the government has been reluctant to endorse a more controversial proposal by Ms Segal to defund universities found to have failed to provide a safe space for Jewish students.

The universities watchdog already has powers to deregister institutions, but this nuclear option, which would have a similar effect to defunding them, is seen as being too severe and impractical to actually use.

Strengthening penalties could be one option to force universities into stronger action that the task force could consider at its first meeting on Friday.

It sets up a potential battle with student groups and pro-Palestinian advocates, who see universities as bastions of free speech.

The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network slammed the plan, calling it a profound threat to Australian democracy, civil liberties and the right to peaceful protest.

“Universities central to movements opposing war, apartheid, and colonial violence are being transformed into enforcement sites of ideological compliance,” the network said in a statement.

“Migrants and international students face a two-tier political system where dissent can cost them their right to remain in the country. Online spaces are further narrowed, accelerating the censorship of Palestine advocacy already widespread across digital platforms.”

By: Jacob Shteyman/AAP