“Our duty to make Jews uncomfortable”

Honorary Associate Professor in Philosophy Dr Peter Slezak quoted anti-Zionist Macquarie academic Randa Abdel-Fattah when addressing a single pro-Israel supporter at a pro-Palestine meeting at the University of Technology in Sydney yesterday.

He told the meeting: “I agree with Randa when she says ‘Jews SHOULD feel uncomfortable’. It is our DUTY to make them uncomfortable.and that includes “a fellow” over there…a man holding an Israeli flag,

The Chief Executive of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies Michele Goldman commented: “The comments captured in this video make plain what we already knew, activists are working hard to make Jews uncomfortable on campus.

That anyone thinks saying this out loud is acceptable demonstrates just how big the problem is on our university campuses.

Calls for one group of Australians to target another undermine social cohesion and attack the Australian values we all hold dear.

Jewish students and staff have a right to study and work without being harassed and targeted.

We have sought urgent advice from UTS about why this hate is being allowed to be preached on campus.”

She added: We’ve seen some recent progress on university campuses, but this shows just how much further this needs to go.

Jewish students and staff have been living with this kind of hatred for months, they are exhausted.

University administrators can’t let this kind of hatred fester like it has in the past and we’ll be expecting UTS to take action quickly.

Liberal MP Julian Leeser said: “Another academic year has started, and yet again Jewish students are facing intimidation on campus.

Universities who claim to have cleaned up their act, obviously still haven’t.

It’s extraordinary that at the University of Technology Sydney yesterday an academic said that Jews “deserve to feel uncomfortable and it is our duty to make them uncomfortable”.

It beggars belief that this Government is still failing to call a judicial inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian universities.

How much more do Jewish students and staff have to bear before this government takes action?

Peter Slezak is the son of Holocaust survivors.