Sydney Uni bows to protester demands to influence policy

Jewish groups are “appalled and deeply concerned” that the University of Sydney has rewarded disruptive protests by allowing pro-Palestinian agitators to influence its investment policy.

The university has entered into an agreement with the Sydney University Muslim Students' Association, giving it a place on its working group to review the university’s investments.

It has also promised to disclose all defence and security-related research and to double its expenditure to support academics under its scholars-at-risk program.

The agreement gives the protesters a seat at the table in return for an end to the encampment protest over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which had disrupted the university for almost two months. The group refused to obey university administration orders to leave until the deal was signed on June 21.

It is the first time an Australian university has made such a deal with protesters.

Six Jewish organisations have released a statement opposing the deal and rejecting a belated offer to participate in the process. They say the university has given power to protesters linked with the extremist Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir, providing an incentive for further and more extreme protests.

The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the Australasian Union of Jewish Students, the Zionist Federation of Australia, the Australian Academic Alliance Against Anti-Semitism, and the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council signed the statement.

“Many of the protesters were from outside the university, yet they were allowed to menace the university community and disturb campus life without challenge. They have now been rewarded for doing so,” the statement said.

“Based on our interactions to date, we have lost confidence in the capacity of the university to provide for the physical, cultural and psycho-social safety of Jewish students and staff members."

Jewish organisations say they will not join the process to review university investments because it would lend credibility to a flawed process, extended after a deal was reached with Muslim students behind the backs of Jewish organisations. “The process is in our view a sham and we will have nothing to do with it".

The University released the following statement on its deal with the protesters.

"These are deeply challenging times, and we recognise the significant distress relating to this conflict and also the way the University has managed the encampment. We deliberately took time to listen and understand our community’s concerns with the intention of coming to a peaceful resolution.

"We are pleased the encampment was resolved without violence. The ending of the encampment is the first step, and we know we need to work hard to rebuild our relationships with some members of our University community. We acknowledge there is much more to do and we are committed to working with our community." 

Some Jewish staff members have notified the university that they intend to leave because of its treatment of the protests and some Jewish students are considering moving to other universities.

Professor Peter Sheldon is based at the University of New South Wales but has had a long history of positive engagement with the University of Sydney as a graduate, donor and visiting professor. He has witten to the university saying he will no longer engage with it because of its appeasement of people who legitimate and support Hamas.

"I have been left profoundly shaken by the moral cowardice and two-faced behaviour of your university's senior leadership in the face of the anti-Israel/anti-Jewish encampment and related activities on your campus grounds. 

"Does your university intend to offer the same consideration to each and every other aggrieved or angry group/mob that wants to threaten and bully the university, its staff and students in a similar vein? Or is this reserved only for instances when the targets are Jewish?" he wrote in a letter to Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Student Life) Professor Susanna Scarparo.

"I won't ever donate anything – money, time or goodwill – to the University of Sydney again, and will encourage my friends in that direction too. That would only change if the university's senior leadership publicly admitted its errors, walked back these terrible decisions and put in concrete initiatives to stamp out antisemitism on campus."

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