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EXCLUSIVE: Jewish students at a university in Australia are afraid to attend classes since the institution’s student magazine published an anti-Semitic article calling for “death to Israel.” The student council refused to withdraw it at a public event in which it humiliated and mocked the Jewish student body.
The act of anti-Semitism took place at the University of Adelaide, the country’s third-oldest public institution, located in the South Australian city of Adelaide.
Habibah Jaghoori, one of the editors of the university magazine, called On Dit, published an article entitled “For Palestine, there is no ceasefire,” in which they speak of Zionism as a “colonial project” and a “Western capitalist endeavour” that is executing an “ethnic cleansing.”
In the last words of the article, Jaghoori suggests that the “solution” to the conflict with Palestine is to “demand the abolition of Israel.”
Explicitly, the text ends with the phrase: “Free Palestine and Death to Israel.”
Although the piece was removed by the platform, where On Dit shares its content, for violating the rules, the university authorities refused to remove it. In fact, images with the full content continue to be posted on its Facebook profile.
A meeting of the Student Representative Council (SRC), the faculty’s internal authority for student affairs, was called following the publication of the anti-Semitic article. A non-Jewish student filed a motion requesting that the text be removed from the Internet, a public apology, and that On Dit review the author’s position on its editorial board.
According to a source consulted by El American, SRC members are mostly leftists
The SRC meeting was streamed live on Facebook, and the images are outrageous. Jaghoori can be heard repeating the phrase “death to Israel” on several occasions, and council members and other participants mock Jewish students.
Natalie Gunn, leader of the Federation of Jewish student societies at universities in Australia and New Zealand, the Australasian Union of Jewish Students participated in the meeting in support of the motion to withdraw the article. Student council members scoffed when Gunn spoke of anti-Semitism.
The SRC leaders denied the motion. Immediately, those present publicly ridiculed one of the Jewish students who expressed his displeasure. “It’s very sad for the Jewish students,” the young man pointed out, while another shouted at him, “Oh, cry about it!”
Empty response from university authorities
Despite the outrageous display of anti-Semitism and the public humiliation to which the Jewish students were exposed, the university authorities did nothing more than issue an e-mail statement distancing themselves from the content of the article.
In the email, to which El American had access, the institution’s vice-chancellor, Professor Anton Middelberg, said that “the views expressed in the article are not the views of the university,” without expressly condemning its abusive language or calling attention to the publication.
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- Mensaje del vice-rector sobre incidente antisemita en el campus (El American)
“On Dit is a student publication controlled by elected student editors who have independent editorial responsibility for its content,” reads the statement from Middelberg, who does not commit to taking any action either on the article or on the humiliation of Jewish students during the SRC meeting. It goes on to state: “the University deplores religious and racial discrimination such as anti-semitism.”
Beyond that, Middelberg says that the institution’s authorities are “supportive of concerns raised about the article, and will raise these directly with the On Dit editorial team with a view to establishing better editorial practices in the future.”
Terrified Jewish students
Australian Jewish News, an Australian media outlet dedicated exclusively to the Jewish community, contacted students and victims of the anti-Semitic event at the university. Most of them expressed fear of returning to campus.
Student Jonathan Iadarola, who attended the SRC meeting, said neither the students nor the council members listened to them. “Everyone laughed and ridiculed us when we were trying to explain how we actually felt.”
Iadarola claims to have suffered panic attacks after what would have been his first anti-Semitic experience. “It really shook me to my core,” he confessed. “On Dit‘s article remains available on its Facebook page, the editorial board has not retracted it and its anti-Semitic act has had no consequences.”
Tomás Lugo, journalist and writer. Born in Venezuela and graduated in Social Communication. Has written for international media outlets. Currently living in Colombia // Tomás Lugo, periodista y articulista. Nacido en Venezuela y graduado en Comunicación Social. Ha escrito para medios internacionales. Actualmente reside en Colombia.