The head of Australian National University has issued a formal apology for the institution’s failure to protect the psychological safety of Jewish students and staff during aggressive pro-Palestinian encampments in 2024.
Appearing before the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion last week interim Vice Chancellor Rebekah Brown acknowledged that Jewish members of the Canberra campus community were subjected to targeted harassment, including being labelled “baby killers” and “genocide supporters.”
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.
Brown was quoted by ABC News Australia as saying “that all Jewish students and staff and their colleagues and friends ... have an absolute right to feel safe, respected and heard on our campus. I’m sorry that they didn’t and I’ve committed in my role, as long as I am the interim vice chancellor, to do better.”
Brown assumed the interim vice chancellor role late last year but served as provost – the university’s top academic officer – during the encampments, which ran from April to August 2024.
The inquiry also heard testimony regarding Monash University in Melbourne, where Vice Chancellor Sharon Pickering detailed an increasingly hostile campus climate.
Pickering noted that Jewish students and staff reported facing abuse so severe that many avoided campus entirely, forcing the university to intervene after organisers posted social media content declaring that “Zionists were not welcome on campus.”
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