Chris Peterson & Simon Cunich
Melbourne's Age newspaper carried an article on September 4 titled "An Unholy Alliance" that accused anti-war and socialist students of causing a rise in anti-Semitism on university campuses. The article quotes Australian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) member Daniel Wyner saying, "The problems, the anti-Semitism, the vilification we feel as students on campus are coming almost entirely from the left".
With no evidence, journalists Barney Zwartz and Adam Morton launch a full-scale assault on those who have been at the forefront of the campaign against war and racism on campuses. This attack comes at the same time that some university administrations, and even some student unions, are also trying to silence opposition to US-Israeli war crimes, such as Sydney University's recent unsuccessful attempt to ban a Resistance-organised forum about the Lebanese resistance.
In the face of growing opposition to Israel's brutal assaults on Lebanon and Palestine, and Hezbollah's successful resistance to Israel's attack, the Age article aimed to discredit the anti-war movement by arguing that any criticism of Israel is racist. It also attempted to fuel the fiction that socialists and the left are anti-Jewish because they support Palestinians' right to survive.
The article does not even mention the real anti-Semitism and racism on campuses, revealed in a September 4 Herald-Sun article that quotes from a secret recording of a Melbourne University Liberal Club meeting. The full transcript of that meeting includes MULC member Brendan Roswell calling Michael Gubieski (Melbourne University AUJS president) a "little Jewish cunt" and, in reference to the MULC president's recent trip to Africa, has MULC member Adam McKee asking, "Did you bring me a slave?". MULC treasurer Courtney Dixon was recorded, in a comment on the upcoming student elections, as saying that since the returning officer would boot out any ticket that incited tension over Israel and Lebanon, the Liberals therefore "should incite something".
Instead, the Age named Socialist Alternative and other socialist groups as being responsible for creating a climate of anti-Semitism. In an unpublished letter to the Age, Socialist Alternative's Mick Armstrong points out: "On campus after campus, socialists campaigning against Israel's war on Lebanon were physically assaulted, had their stalls overturned, anti-war literature stolen, speak-outs broken up by violent thugs, and received threatening, racist phone calls."
The Age's fictitious "unholy alliance" between the left and anti-Semites is actually an attempt to undermine the real alliance of socialists, anti-war activists, and Muslim and Arab students against the Israeli state's military aggression. Socialists have always opposed any manifestation of anti-Semitism. In a letter to the Age, also unpublished, Resistance activist Azlan McLennan wrote, "As socialists, we denounce all forms of racism and discrimination, including anti-Semitism, which is exactly why we — including our Jewish comrades — oppose the Zionist project". Conflating opposition to Zionism and anti-Semitism is an attempt to shut down legitimate criticisms of the Israeli state's racist policies.
The Age article avoids mention of the growing anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia on campuses. Perhaps that is because media outlets like the Age have played a role in stoking this racism.
Rawan Abdul-Nabi from the Sydney University Arabic Student Association spoke about this at a Stop the War Coalition-sponsored public meeting in Sydney on August 26. She said: "Right now on campus, the right to expression is being threatened by the security and upper echelons of university management. We know that campus security is actively targeting and surveying student activists, and Arab and Muslim students.
"We know that in Melbourne, at Monash University, a Muslim PhD student was questioned by the Australian Federal Police because his library records showed books held on terrorism and suicide bombings. This happened despite this being the topic of the dissertation.
"The security of Muslim and Arab students on campus is always in danger. Girls wearing the hijab are spat on and threatened, murals for Islamic Awareness Week have been sprayed with offensive and derogatory terms, racist slogans are to be found on desks and slurs are openly verbalised in class tutorials and lecture theatres."
Resistance organiser in Melbourne Brianna Pike told Green Left Weekly, "Resistance will continue to campaign against any United States or Israeli aggression in the Middle East. We will continue to work with anyone, no matter what nationality or religion, to oppose those responsible for war — the imperialist governments — and to unconditionally defend the Palestinian people's right to resist the apartheid occupation."