{"id":821358,"date":"2026-07-24T18:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T18:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/821358\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T18:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T18:09:16","slug":"university-courses-covering-israel-palestine-should-be-audited-julian-leeser-tells-royal-commission-royal-commission-on-antisemitism-and-social-cohesion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/821358\/","title":{"rendered":"University courses covering Israel-Palestine should be audited, Julian Leeser tells royal commission | Royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The shadow education minister, Julian Leeser, has called for universities to undertake an audit of any classes that teach about the Jewish community, Israel or Palestine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Appearing before the royal commission<\/a> into antisemitism and social cohesion on Friday, Leeser said he had been \u201cvery concerned\u201d about antisemitism on university campuses and was not satisfied with how vice-chancellors had addressed the issue after the 7 October 2023 Hamas terrorist attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been particularly unhappy with the responses that I\u2019ve received [from vice-chancellors] in relation to their failure to \u2026 audit courses dealing with the Israel-Palestine conflict to ensure that both sides are presented in the best way possible so that students are best prepared to make their own mind up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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This week, the inquiry focused on security for the Jewish community, hearing a broad consensus that the risk had risen post 7 October.<\/p>\n

Leeser put a series of recommendations to the commissioner, including for the government to legislate that all universities adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition<\/a> of antisemitism, instead of their own definitions, as the federal government recently mandated<\/a>. The IHRA definition is contentious because of concerns it could be used to shut down criticism of Israel.<\/p>\n

Last year, the chief executive of the Group of Eight, Vicki Thomson, said members had advised that the IHRA definition was \u201cnot workable\u201d in an Australian context as it may limit academic freedom.<\/p>\n

Leeser said all universities should also undertake \u201can audit of what\u2019s being taught about Jews and Israel in their classrooms\u201d and remove any \u201cantisemitic materials\u201d. He said universities that taught about the Israel-Palestine conflict should make sure their course materials came from \u201ccredible sources\u201d that were \u201cbalanced\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked how to ensure classroom content was \u201cbalanced\u201d, he said people believed they had shown both sides if they had a Palestinian and Israeli perspective, \u201cbut one of those perspectives is a full-throated defence by advocates\u201d and \u201cthe other perspective is not at all\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Last week, the inquiry heard from vice-chancellors of Australia\u2019s largest universities who said they had sharply changed<\/a> their protest policies since 2023, prompting warnings<\/a> of restricted academic freedom.<\/p>\n

Leeser said antisemitism was apparent in \u201cthree main vectors\u201d today: \u201cthe far right among neo-Nazis, among radical Islamists, and among the academic and cultural left\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Dor Foundation\u2019s inaugural CEO Tahli Blicblau agreed that \u201cIslamic extremism\u201d and the \u201cextreme-far right\u201d were the most dangerous radical ideologies perpetuating antisemitism, but also took aim at \u201cfringe elements of the far-left and conspiracy movements\u201d. The foundation was launched to combat antisemitism last year.<\/p>\n

She said the pro-Palestine movement may have some similar ideological drivers as the \u201cradical far left threat\u201d but \u201cthe vast majority\u201d of pro-Palestine protesters weren\u2019t motivated by violence towards Jewish people.<\/p>\n

Blicblau said in an \u201cunprecedented\u201d environment of elevated security risk towards the Jewish community following the Bondi terror attack, greater integration was needed between New South Wales law enforcement and Jewish groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you accept the level of threat is severe \u2026 then it follows that the level of integration and engagement between the Jewish community and the law enforcement and intelligence agencies needs to be sufficiently mature to meet the scale of the threat,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Leeser also gave emotional evidence of his experience on 14 December 2025, the day of Bondi terror attack, when he was attending a Hanukkah event in northern Sydney at the time news broke of the fatal shootings. He said his seven-year-old son \u201ccried inconsolably\u201d and asked him \u201cDad, are we going to be safe?\u201d<\/p>\n

Leeser said since then, his son had been afraid to attend synagogues and outdoor communal events.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat sort of Australia are we setting up that a seven-year-old child doesn\u2019t feel safe going to a place of worship?\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s not the Australia I know and love and it\u2019s not the Australia I want for my children or anyone\u2019s children.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The shadow education minister, Julian Leeser, has called for universities to undertake an audit of any classes that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-821358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}