The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has compared chants at pro-Palestine university protests to the ideology of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, in comments labelled “deeply offensive” by a prominent Jewish group.
Tensions are brewing over pro-Palestine encampments at universities across Australia, with leading universities writing to the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, for legal advice on whether protesters’ chants were in breach of federal law.
The education minister, Jason Clare, has come under fire from opponents of the pro-Palestine demonstrations after saying the chants “from the river to the sea” and “intifada” meant different things to various groups. Opponents of the rallies characterise the chants as calls for the destruction of Israel, while pro-Palestine demonstrators use it as a call for Palestinian freedom and security.
In his weekly 2GB interview, the opposition leader was scathing of Clare’s comments.
“I just don’t understand how somebody like … Jason Clare, who would have a clear understanding of history, how they distinguish a comment like ‘river to the sea’ from what Hitler chanted in the 1930s. This is about elimination, annihilation, extermination of the race of people of the Jewish faith – it’s as simple as that,” Dutton claimed.
“If they’re trying to make some sort of headroom for another interpretation that would be against what we know in the western world for that dreadful chant to be … are they doing it for political reasons? Are they willing to sacrifice the safety of the Jewish community and to try and encourage some of these lunatics that we’re seeing at university campuses at the moment?”
Max Kaiser, the executive officer of the Jewish Council of Australia, a newly-formed group of progressive Jewish academics, teachers, writers and lawyers, claimed the negative interpretation advanced by Dutton on 2GB was “a very bad faith” reading of the chant. He was also strongly critical of the comparison to Hitler.
He believes there are legitimate differing interpretations of the “river to the sea” chant.
“In our interpretation, and as it’s explained by Palestinian people the world over, is it’s a call for freedom and equality for all people, Jewish and Palestinian. Palestinian leaders in Australia have been very clear when they say freedom from the river to the sea, it extends to all people,” he said.
“It’s definitely not something that should be construed as a threat to Jewish people or Israelis,” Kaiser said.
“It’s really overblown. The rhetoric is offensive to the memories of the victims of the Holocaust. My grandfather and his family fled Germany after Kristallnacht, in that period in the late 30s, so to suggest this is anything remotely similar, I think is deeply offensive.”
Anthony Albanese also rebuffed Clare’s comments on the chants this week, branding the “river to the sea” chant as “opposition to a two-state solution”.
“The slogan that you refer to dismisses that, which is not in the interests of Israelis, but is also not in the interests of Palestinians,” the prime minister told a press conference.
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Dreyfus on Thursday urged universities to consider section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act in its responses to the growing campus demonstrations against Israel’s bombing of Gaza.
In a response to the University of Sydney’s Prof Mark Scott and Adelaide University’s ProfPeter Høj, the chair and deputy of the Group of Eight, Dreyfus said “no one in Australia should be targeted because of their race or religion”.
The attorney general pointed to the Racial Discrimination Act’s provisions making it an offence to act in a way that is reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate people because of their race, colour or national or ethnic origins.
“I do not provide legal advice, and note your members are seeking their own legal advice,” Dreyfus added, a response indicating the federal government wouldn’t make a ruling and instead leave it to universities to make their own decisions about the growing protest movement.
The opposition education spokesperson, Sarah Henderson, has called for a Senate inquiry into antisemitism on campus. Clare said in a statement that universities should enforce their codes of conduct and ensure the safety of students and staff.
“Peaceful protests are fundamental to our democracy, but they must be peaceful,” he said.
Clare noted the government would soon respond to a recommendation from the Universities Accord for an inquiry into racism in higher education.