{"id":548754,"date":"2026-07-19T08:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T08:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/548754\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T08:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T08:45:09","slug":"australian-university-head-apologizes-for-failing-to-protect-jews-israel-jewish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/548754\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian university head apologizes for failing to protect Jews – Israel & Jewish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

(July 19, 2026 \/ JNS)\n <\/p>\n

The head of Australian National University issued a formal apology on Thursday for the institution\u2019s failure to protect the psychological safety of Jewish students and staff during aggressive pro-Palestinian encampments<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n

Appearing before the Royal Commission<\/a> on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, interim Vice Chancellor Rebekah Brown acknowledged that Jewish members of the Canberra campus community were subjected to targeted harassment, including being labeled \u201cbaby killers\u201d and \u201cgenocide supporters.\u201d<\/p>\n

She admitted the university fell short despite an internal risk assessment identifying a high risk of psychosocial harm, pledging that the administration is committed to doing better.<\/p>\n

Brown was quoted by ABC News Australia as saying \u201cthat all Jewish students and staff and their colleagues and friends … have an absolute right to feel safe, respected and heard on our campus. I\u2019m sorry that they didn\u2019t and I\u2019ve committed in my role, as long as I am the interim vice chancellor, to do better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown assumed the interim vice chancellor role late last year but served as provost\u2014the university\u2019s top academic officer\u2014during the encampments, which ran from April to August 2024.<\/p>\n

The inquiry also heard testimony regarding Monash University in Melbourne, where Vice Chancellor Sharon Pickering detailed an increasingly hostile campus climate.<\/p>\n

Pickering noted that Jewish students and staff reported facing abuse so severe that many avoided campus entirely, forcing the university to intervene after organizers posted social media content declaring that \u201cZionists were not welcome on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(July 19, 2026 \/ JNS) The head of Australian National University issued a formal apology on Thursday for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-548754","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\/548754","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=548754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}