Pro-Palestinian protests at a leading university hampered the ability of Jewish staff and students to teach and study, a royal commission has heard.
An academic described how her son was targeted after “gathering evidence” of children taking part in pro-Palestinian chants.
The 2024 excursion to the University of Sydney’s Palestine solidarity encampment included children aged under 10 and was organised by Families for Palestine.
Giving evidence to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, speech pathologist and lecturer Andy Smidt described an incident involving her son, who was studying at the university where she worked at the time.
She said he recorded audio and filmed the backs of people chanting slogans including “five, six, seven, eight, Israel is a terrorist state.” She stated he deliberately avoided filming the children.
Images of the 21-year-old, whose face was blurred, were later posted on social media by people associated with the encampment, with comments describing him as a “Zio” and a paedophile.
Around the same time, he was offered a security guard to escort him between classes.
“I want to get on with it and be an excellent teacher. My child wants to be an excellent student. That’s what the university is for,” Dr Smidt said, arguing that protests in public areas of the campus had interfered with teaching and study.
Dr Smidt has since left the University of Sydney and sought a SafeWork NSW investigation into the institution’s treatment of Jewish staff.
Earlier in the hearing, a Jewish student described losing friends and being taunted on campus, including being called a “baby killer” because she identified as a Zionist.
The woman, known by the pseudonym Liat, began studying at the Australian National University in 2022.
She said she had been afraid to speak openly about being a Zionist and felt uncomfortable whenever she walked past a pro-Palestinian encampment that remained in the centre of the Canberra campus for more than 100 days.
While she said she was “sure it was possible” to criticise Israel’s actions without being antisemitic, she said she had not seen examples of that at her university.
She referred to an article published in a magazine distributed by the university’s student association that described Zionism as a far-right political project and Israel as a state run by supporters of genocide.
“It plays on the very classical antisemitic trope that Jews are particularly murderous,” she said.
Liat said many of her friends stopped speaking to her after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed, because she was a Zionist and both of her parents were born in Israel.
The commission is examining the experiences of Jewish students and academics and the responses of universities during hearings in Melbourne.
Pro-Palestinian encampments were established at several Australian universities in 2024 before some were closed, prompting competing claims that Jewish students felt unsafe and that pro-Palestinian views were being suppressed.
Education Minister Jason Clare said universities had been “caught flat-footed” by antisemitism on their campuses and that more needed to be done.
The federal government announced stronger university governance standards on Monday, including a legally enforceable anti-racism standard requiring institutions to adopt definitions of antisemitism, Islamophobia and racism towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The anti-racism requirements are due to apply from January 1, 2027.
By Lucinda Garbutt-Young and Emily Woods/AAP