Adjournment- anti-Semitism on University campuses

Mr SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) -- I rise tonight to raise a matter for the Minister for Higher Education and Skills. The matter I wish to raise is the growing problem of anti-Semitic behaviour on university campuses in Victoria. I call on the minister to meet with representatives of the Jewish community to hear their concerns so he can learn what problems they are experiencing and what can be done to halt these incredibly concerning developments. I have spoken in the house previously about the increasing problem of BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) protests and the intimidation and bullying tactics used by protesters. It should come as no shock to the house to learn that many of these protesters on campuses are in fact not students but the same types of ring-ins that we see at the BDS protests and, more recently, at the Occupy Melbourne protests.

Earlier this year I attended events at Monash University, Deakin University and the University of Melbourne to celebrate Israel's Independence Day. These events were peaceful and fun, involving dancing, singing and a joyful celebration of Israel. Unfortunately a group protesters -- some students, some not -- were calling themselves Students for Palestine and saw fit to protest this event, calling it a day of Zionist celebration of apartheid. While initially held back by campus security, one demonstrator managed to get to the speakers where the Israeli music was playing and cut the wires. When the Melbourne University Jewish Students Society president Dori Meron tried to stop him, he was physically attacked with wire cutters. A stall at Monash University was also set upon by many of these protesters, who hurled abuse at other students.

Time and again we are seeing supposedly anti-Israel protests become nothing more than expressions of anti-Semitism.

Data collected by the Anti-Defamation Commission show regular occurrences of lectures being disrupted by anti-Israel groups, often using violent swastika imagery, and male students having reported having their skullcaps pulled from their heads while being verbally abused. These messages of Israeli apartheid and anti-Semitism where the left try to associate Israel with the racist former governments of South Africa are found too often on university campuses such as Melbourne, Monash, La Trobe and Deakin. A Deakin University car park was recently graffitied with anti-Semitic messages, and the response of the administration was to just clean it off and not attempt to find the offenders.

Posters distort images of Israel, and actions on bollards across universities create a culture where Jewish students feel threatened and unwelcome. There can be no place for these messages of hatred and racism that are peddled by Israel's enemies, let alone at university campuses, which should be places of truth and learning. I repeat my call for the minister to meet with representatives of the Jewish community and to investigate what can be done to stop the intimidation of Jewish students and supporters of Israel.