By Danuta Kozaki
Copyright abc
A University of Sydney staff member has been suspended following an incident on campus where a group of Jewish students were called “depraved” and “disgusting”.
A video taken by one of the students showed the group being verbally abused and intimidated by the female staff member, before she was moved along by security.
The incident occurred on Thursday at a stall set up by the university’s Australasian Union of Jewish Students, who were celebrating the religious festival of Sukkot.
The video showed the female staff member walking past the stall and then returning.
“A Zionist is the lowest form of rubbish … [a Zionist] are the most disgusting thing to ever walk this earth … I am an Indigenous Palestinian,” the woman could be heard saying.
“They’re shredding children … you should be making it stop,” the woman told the group, who repeatedly urged her to “move on”.
“You are disgusting … Look at this rubbish … you are depraved,” the woman said.
The verbal altercation went on for about five minutes.
NSW Police confirmed the incident was being investigated.
‘Very upsetting but not surprising’
The president of Sydney University’s Australasian Union of Jewish Students, Dror Liraz, was one of the students present at Thursday’s incident.
“It was honestly a really, really good event for most of yesterday with people coming up and talking to us,” she said.
“Then this woman walked past around half an hour before we were going to pack up saying ‘Free Palestine’ and turned back towards us.
Ms Lirat said the incident left her deeply hurt but not surprised.
“She was millimetres away from all of our faces at various points, yelling abuse and it was very upsetting but not surprising.
“Shocking yet not shocking because this is not the first time this has happened … You can see we are quite collected in the video despite yelling at her, ‘Please move on’.”
Antisemitism has no place on campus, says uni
In a statement, the University of Sydney said it was “disturbed and appalled” by the verbal altercation depicted in the video.
“Such conduct is utterly unacceptable, and we are taking immediate action under our codes of conduct, including suspending a staff member involved pending further assessment.”
The university said there was no space for hate speech.
“Hate speech, antisemitism and verbal harassment have no place on campus, online or in our wider community,” the spokesperson added.
“We deeply apologise to any staff, students or visitors who are distressed or impacted by this incident in any way.”
Ms Lirat said the Australasian Union of Jewish Students had paid for security at the event.
“Despite us paying for security and us alerting them, it was woefully inadequate,” she said of the university’s response.
Ms Lirat said not enough had been done to stamp out antisemitism and race hate on campus.
“I really want to see a complete change in the way the university handles campus culture. We have been telling the university — especially since the war in Gaza, what has been going on and the threats against us on campus.”