The University of Sydney’s vice-chancellor says he failed ‘Jewish students’ who have been subjected to anti-semitism on campus. A ‘federal parliamentary inquiry’ into anti-semitism at Australian Universities has heard students and staff felt unsafe, with some leaving study as a result.
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00:00As pro-Palestinian protests filled University of Sydney lawns for two months earlier this
00:10year, the Vice-Chancellor has conceded he could have done more to make Jewish students
00:15feel safer.
00:17In a movement mirroring that in the US, encampments sprung up at campuses around the country.
00:23Protesters demanding universities disclose and cut ties with weapons manufacturers they
00:29accused of supplying arms to Israel.
00:32He says Jewish students there have been doxed, staff have been afraid to leave their offices
00:38and university infrastructure graffitied with swastikas for two weeks.
00:43While I accept that the university is now conducting a review, it is too little, too
00:48late.
00:49I think it's a good start.
00:50It's also important to recognise that the university has not taken the concerns of Muslim
00:54students or Palestinian students or Arab students, the concerns about their safety,
01:00very seriously at all.
01:01Universities are places where you're supposed to be able to protest and have those nuanced
01:05discussions and find common ground.
01:08Vice-Chancellors from the University of Melbourne, Australian National University and Monash
01:13University also fronted the inquiry.
01:15And while the University of Sydney insists it's made significant changes, students, academics
01:21and the Coalition say a broader inquiry is needed.