The AJDS made a submission to The Senate Legal And Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee on antisemitism in Australian Universities in August 2024. The AJDS is of the opinion that Inquiry into campus antisemitism, along the lines of that proposed in the Bill, is off-target and politically compromised. We are deeply concerned that the proposed legislation, using the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism and its examples, gives a Commissioner authority and direction under Section 6.3 of the legislation to investigate what is alleged to be antisemitsm on campuses, whether in teaching, student behaviour, or other activity. Since the IHRA definition of antisemitism is so contested, as outlined below, the bill has elements of a McCarthyite form of inquiry with its threat of sanctions against universities (Section 6.4.b.iii). For a Royal Commission type inquiry to use IHRA as its framework is simply dangerous and a threat to free speech and association and prioritizes one narrow interpretation of Israeli/Zionist politics in Australia over all others when historically, there has always been a diversity of opinion in the Jewish community on Israel, Zionism, and the Palestine issue.
The bill, if passed, also has the potential to set the ground for ‘anti-BDS’ legislation of the type that has been used to quash non-violent protest in some states in the US. The AJDS does not support generalized academic boycotts, but to characterize non-violent boycotts as a form of antisemitic activity, as contained in the proposed legislation, is wrong. The AJDS has long supported a lawful boycott of Israeli products and services from the Occupied Territories as do other progressive Jewish organisations, including the Zionist New Israel Fund. Are we also to be regarded as antisemitic?
The full submission can be found here as number 607.