{"id":538772,"date":"2026-07-13T06:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T06:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/538772\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T06:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T06:16:14","slug":"unsw-academic-subjected-to-nazi-salutes-in-class-antisemitism-commission-hears-royal-commission-on-antisemitism-and-social-cohesion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/538772\/","title":{"rendered":"UNSW academic subjected to Nazi salutes in class, antisemitism commission hears | Royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion"},"content":{"rendered":"

An academic at UNSW was subjected to Nazi salutes by students in his business class, the royal commission<\/a> into antisemitism and social cohesion has heard.<\/p>\n

The fourth block of hearings, taking place in Melbourne this week, is examining the lived experiences of Jewish students and academics, including the response of universities to combat hate.<\/p>\n

The royal commissioner, Virginia Bell AC SC, noted Jewish witnesses had been subjected to \u201cugly antisemitic attacks\u201d after giving evidence of their experiences of antisemitism in earlier hearings, which has led to an AFP referral and charges<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Four academics and students gave evidence under a pseudonym on Monday. One of them, referred to as ACJ, said four students performed Nazi salutes towards him during a business class for international students in 2024.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

The tutor and PhD candidate at UNSW said \u201cmy grandparents had survived the Holocaust, the Nazis \u2026 murdered a huge proportion of my family \u2026 And so when someone does a Nazi salute at me it feels like they want to kill me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he wasn\u2019t certain the students knew he was Jewish, but that their behaviour seemed clearly directed. The academic reached out to his supervisors, noting it was a crime and that he intended to go to the police. He said students were initially issued a formal warning and later suspended after NSW police carried out an investigation.<\/p>\n

Another witness, appearing as Liat, moved to Canberra in 2022 to study at the Australian National University (ANU) and described herself as proudly Zionist, with both her parents born in Israel.<\/p>\n

After the 7 October 2023 terrorist attack, she said she lost the vast majority of her non-Jewish friends, including being told at a university event \u201cwe\u2019re not friends any more, you\u2019re a Zionist\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very taken aback and deeply hurt \u2026 The majority of the people who were my friends at the time just stopped talking to me entirely,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She described an escalation of antisemitism on campus after 2023, including being called a \u201cbaby killer\u201d and \u201cgenocide supporter\u201d by students who were part of ANU\u2019s pro-Palestine encampment.<\/p>\n

Liat said it was possible to criticise Israel without being antisemitic but she hadn\u2019t seen \u201cexamples that accuse Israel of doing things without playing on those [antisemitic] tropes\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said there was a \u201cpattern of deflection\u201d in ANU\u2019s response to student concerns, whereby when she and others reported instances of antisemitism, including Nazi gestures, the university \u201ceither did nothing or responded so late \u2026 it corrected nothing\u201d.<\/p>\n

A postgraduate Jewish and Israeli student at a Melbourne university, using the pseudonym ACL, told the royal commission she never felt the need to hide her identity until the aftermath of the 7 October attacks. But it brought a new anxiety, and she decided for the first time in her life not to wear her Magen David \u2013 in Hebrew, a \u201cshield\u201d or \u201cprotector\u201d \u2013 on campus.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | When needed<\/p>\n

Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n

Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI just felt like I couldn\u2019t be Jewish on campus. I just felt like I had to hide my identity,\u201d she said between tears. \u201cEvery time I went to class, I would quite literally strip myself of my Jewish identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

In one instance, a lecturer told a small cohort of students, including her, that a scholar was a \u201cgood Jew\u201d because they \u201cweren\u2019t a Zionist\u201d. She said she had no issue with criticism of Israel but was opposed to \u201csweeping statements\u201d on the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Counsel assisting at the royal commission, Zelie Heger SC, said a \u201crecurring theme\u201d was Jewish staff and students being assumed to take a particular position on the Middle East, despite \u201cdiverse views\u201d among the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany Jews are opposed to the actions of the government of Israel,\u201d she said. \u201cNo one doubts the importance of being able to debate the conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I anticipate the evidence will show that there have been instances where protest on these issues has crossed the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australian universities will be required to adopt definitions<\/a> on antisemitism, Islamophobia and racism towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from next year, under a legally enforceable standard designed to stamp out discrimination on campuses.<\/p>\n

Also appearing on Monday were Yasmine Johnson, a co-convener of Students for Palestine and education officer in the National Union of Students; Hugh de Kretser, the president of the Australian Human Rights Commission; and Josh Keller of the Australian Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An academic at UNSW was subjected to Nazi salutes by students in his business class, the royal commission…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-538772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}