Yesterday I posted how the UMSU tabled a new, antisemitic motion that is even worse than the original from earlier this year. Besides numerous falsehoods contained within, the motion denies the existence and legitimacy of the entire state of Israel and supports terrorism.
Today UMSU approved the motion 13 to 3 with one abstention, as reported by News.com.au, whose report on this is quite excellent and points out what I have been asking Jewish and Zionist organizations in Australia to do (without success) – highlight the motion’s support for terrorism.
A Jewish student at the University of Melbourne says he is ashamed of his identity on campus and fears attending classes due to a series of anti-Israel motions passed by the student union.
Despite rescinding a motion earlier this year that condemned Zionism as a “racist colonial ideology” and urged the university to endorse an academic boycott, the University of Melbourne Student Union passed an almost identical motion on Monday.
The motion, which condemns the “ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians” and the “use of Zionism to justify the illegal occupation of Palestine as racist and colonial,” stated support for Palestinians to “engage in self-defence against their occupiers”.
It passed 13 to three, with one abstention on Monday, despite further legal threats, ignoring calls by students and Jewish groups not to proceed.
Over the weekend, eight people, including a pregnant woman, were wounded after a Palestinian gunman opened fire at a bus carrying Jewish worshippers.
The attack followed three days of deadly fighting at the Gaza Strip that claimed the lives of 47 Palestinians, including 17 children, as Israeli forces targeted leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and militants who fired more than 1000 rockets into Israel.
It is believed, however, that up to one-third of those killed were struck by Islamic Jihad-fired rockets that fell short.
One Jewish student at the university, who wanted to remain anonymous due to fear of being “targeted,” said he no longer felt safe on campus and tried to hide his Jewish identity due to the student union’s actions.
With posters such as “Why we should oppose the Israeli apartheid” plastered around campus, the student said he was ashamed of being Jewish and Israeli at university.
“I feel as if people are after me in the sense that I am not allowed to be who I am, and if certain people found out that I am Israeli and Jewish, I feel as if I would be targeted, discriminated against and attacked,” he wrote in an email to the Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC).
The student, who said he was hesitant to say his own name while in class in fear of his peers recognising he was Israeli, claimed the student union was not representative of many students.
“I remember walking past Union House and ironically saw that on the building it said “For students, by students”. That is not the case whatsoever,” he said.
“It is not fair that I had to hide who I am.”
After the original motion passed in early May, a University of Melbourne spokesperson condemned the student union, labelling the motion “anti-Semitic,” adding that it was “not the position of the University of Melbourne”.
Despite a clear stance from leadership, the union has renewed calls for the university to “participate in an academic boycott and cut ties with Israeli institutions, researchers, and academics”.
Rather than hiding who they are, I encourage Jews on campus to show their pride in being Jewish and love of their homeland Israel even more, all while highlighting the moral depravity and historical revisionism of those who support this motion. That is one of the ways to fight back.
