A pro-Palestine encampment at the Australian National University left Jewish students feeling unsafe, the antisemitism royal commission has heard.
A Jewish student has told the commission she lost most of her non-Jewish friends and was regularly called a “baby killer” and “genocide supporter” because she identified as a Zionist.
The woman, giving evidence under the pseudonym Liat, moved to Canberra in 2022 to study at the Australian National University.
She said she became afraid to speak openly about being a Zionist and felt unsafe when walking past the pro-Palestine encampment, which remained in the centre of the campus for 110 days.
Liat said she believed it was possible to criticise the actions of Israel without being antisemitic but had not seen such criticism at her university without the use of antisemitic ideas or language.
She referred to an article in a magazine distributed by the university’s student association that described Zionism as a far-right political project and Israel as being 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 Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion is examining the experiences of Jewish students and academics and the responses of universities during hearings in Melbourne this week.
The hearing block, which runs from Monday to Friday, will also examine reports and studies on the prevalence and impact of antisemitism at universities and other educational institutions.
Opening the hearing on Monday, Commissioner Virginia Bell said some Jewish witnesses had been subjected to “ugly antisemitic attacks” after appearing before the commission.
Former University of Sydney academic Andy Smidt and Australian Human Rights Commission president Hugh de Kretser were among those listed to give evidence on Monday.
Smidt led a SafeWork NSW complaint alleging the University of Sydney had failed to protect Jewish staff.
The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network said it had been granted a limited role in the university hearings after previously being refused permission to appear during an earlier hearing block.
Students for Palestine national co-convener Yasmine Johnson, a Jewish student at the University of Technology Sydney, was also listed to appear on Monday.
Johnson said she would reject claims that the group’s activism was antisemitic.
“We have seen the royal commission extensively smear the pro-Palestine campaign as inherently antisemitic,” she told AAP.
“I’m appearing before the royal commission in order to defend the pro-Palestine movement as a movement for justice.”
Johnson said freedom of expression was being restricted across higher education, including at her university.
“We were told we couldn’t use the word ‘genocide’ on a leaflet we produced, and that’s the kind of atmosphere that we’ve seen extended across campuses nationally,” she said.
Pro-Palestine encampments were established at several Australian universities in 2024. Their closure prompted claims from activists that political expression was being restricted, while Jewish students and staff said the camps made them feel intimidated or unsafe.
Education Minister Jason Clare said universities had been “caught flat-footed” by antisemitism and had not done enough to protect Jewish students and staff.
New federal standards that took effect on Monday require higher education providers to maintain safe and inclusive campuses, establish transparent complaints processes and adopt definitions of antisemitism, Islamophobia and racism against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
By Lucinda Garbutt-Young and Emily Woods/AAP