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A Greens MP has called out Australian universities for “silencing” staff for their support of Palestine after the release of a “People’s Inquiry”.
A recently released “People’s Inquiry” into “Campus Free Speech on Palestine” has spurred Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi into calling out Australian universities for “trampling” over the free speech of their staff and students regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict.
According to the inquiry, Australian universities have actively restricted the free speech and academic freedom of staff regarding supporting Palestine, as well as targeting staff with surveillance and discipline over their pro-Palestine stance.
“This preliminary report confirms what many students and staff already know – universities have trampled over the values of free speech and academic freedom in their cowardly attempts to shut down support for a free Palestine,” said Faruqi.
“Academic freedom means nothing if it doesn’t extend to the most urgent moral issues of our time. The universities that have punished students and staff for standing with Palestine are revealing themselves not as spaces of free inquiry, but as instruments of political censorship.”
Faruqi’s statement comes shortly after an NSW Safe Work report slammed universities for creating a “hazardous workplace” for Jewish employees.
The report found that Sydney University held a “high-risk psychosocial hazardous workplace” for close to 11 months from 7 October 2023 to September 2024, claiming that inadequate actions were taken to protect Jewish employees for months after the 7 October attacks carried out by Hamas.
“Jewish workers and students experienced anti-Semitism daily while on campus, creating a workplace of fear, anxiousness and a fear of retribution towards Jewish workers and students because they were Jewish people,” said the report via The Australian.
Faruqi claims that the preliminary report shows that universities are allowing their space to morph into “ideological battlegrounds”.
“The preliminary report makes for disturbing reading. This is not just about Palestine – it’s about the death of democratic space,” said Faruqi.
Speaking on the same report, Dr Max Kaiser, executive officer of the Jewish Council of Australia, claimed that the report presented a “chilling reality”.
“This report reveals a chilling reality: universities are surveilling, disciplining, and censoring students and staff who speak up for Palestine. Events cancelled, lectures monitored, students tracked via Wi-Fi – all justified by vague appeals to ‘wellbeing’ and false claims of anti-Semitism,” said Kaiser.
“As a Jewish organisation, we refuse to let our identity be weaponised to shut down legitimate debate. Universities must end these draconian practices and restore the right to speak freely on campus.”
As the contentious terrain derived from the conflict continues to enter the workplace, employers can’t afford to pretend that these discussions are not happening.
“Organisations and HR leaders who can lead with heart and lead with empathy, and look at someone in an organisation who is voicing an opinion that is coming from a place of vulnerability and love and care for people in the world, I think that’s the only way you can approach those situations and those conversations,” said Lucy Piper, corporate climate expert and director at WorkforClimate.
“The rise in both anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic sentiment since the terrorist attacks on October 7, and then the resulting military offence in Gaza, has created deep trauma in so many people witnessing what’s happening around the world that it is something that companies must not turn away from. It’s a very, very challenging space, particularly with that subject in a lot of workplaces.”
Kace O'Neill
Kace O'Neill is a Graduate Journalist for HR Leader. Kace studied Media Communications and Maori studies at the University of Otago, he has a passion for sports and storytelling.
