Students and their hangers-on at the pro-Palestinian ‘glamping’ protest camps at our Group of 8 (G8) universities reveal an underlying falsehood that has grabbed the hearts and minds of our young people. This is a deliberate strategy of Hamas, the proscribed terrorist organisation that is a puppet of Iran, to weaken not only the support for Israel’s fight for survival since October 7 last year but also the West in general. Our young people have fallen hook, line, and sinker for the cognitive warfare that is intensifying as terrorists’ confidence grows as a direct result of student protests in the West.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, offered his support to student protesters in the US in a recent tweet:
‘You are standing on the right side of history.’
Imam Khamenei's letter to American university students:
"You are standing on the right side of history"Watch the full video?
⏬ https://t.co/bhrUHcDz3C#LetterFromLeader#United4Palestine pic.twitter.com/uvAseCB7SD— Khamenei Media (@Khamenei_m) May 30, 2024
This message of support by the Supreme Leader of Iran, a state which is a notorious violator of human and women’s rights (including gender apartheid) and a global sponsor of international terrorism, is a clear testament to the folly and cognitive dissonance evident in these protests.
In Australia, the situation has been exacerbated by G8 academic ‘leaders’ who appear to have pandered to activists by prioritising their right to protest over the protection of students who are otherwise at university to learn. The so-called ‘right to protest’ free-for-all has allegedly enabled anti-Semitism, intimidation of Jewish students, disruption to classes, and disruption of access to public funded campuses to go unchecked.
When university leaders adopt political positions, it also calls into question their ability to support academic freedom. This has been a growing global trend in Western universities and the media that encourages radical left viewpoints to be heard while denying debate or discussion from conservatives.
This encouragement has led to extreme views becoming commonplace in the classroom.
For example, a Sydney University professor allegedly told their students that the mass rape of Israelis on October 7 was fake news.
And students have fallen for this propaganda and have become emboldened in their anti-Israel stance.
One Sydney University student went so far as to say:
‘…the fact the university had allowed their protest showed management was afraid of what students were capable of.’
Yet the outcomes of the protests have had no impact in alleviating the humanitarian crisis that is occurring in Gaza that resulted from the terrorist attacks on innocent Israeli civilians conducted by Hamas on October 7 last year.
It is also unlikely that the activists are aware that they can make a real difference if they undertake training and join the humanitarian roster to be deployed on humanitarian missions sanctioned by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Instead, these uninformed activists have appropriated every Woke trope with what is happening in Gaza, all from the comfort of their distant campuses.
And it is not a new thing.
According to Honi Soit, the University of Sydney’s weekly student newspaper, Queers for Palestine existed in 2018, well before the current conflict, and referred to Israel as an ‘apartheid state’ back then.
This reference is not only factually incorrect, given that Israel does not discriminate against its citizens on the basis of religion today, Arab citizens of Israel have the same legal rights as Jewish citizens. Socio-economic disadvantages and even instances of individual discrimination do not qualify as ‘apartheid’ as established under international law in 1973 in response to the abhorrent racial discrimination in existence in white minority’s South Africa until 1994.
What makes this ‘Queers for Palestine’ support for Hamas and a Free Palestine so tragic and even satirical is that Israel is the only country in the Middle East where LGBT rights are protected with over half of the population in favour for LGBT rights, a positive attitude which is even unrivalled in many other democratic states.
Allegedly, Hamas and Iran on the other hand, regularly murder gay men for their sexuality as being forbidden under Shari’a law. The murder of gay Palestinians in the West Bank, while not official Palestinian Authority policy, allegedly happens frequently and has been a topic for discussion before the EU European Parliament.
‘Queers for Palestine’ is like ‘Chickens for KFC’. It is identity politics gone mad given ‘Islam’s jihad against homosexuals’.
Many argue over the ‘correct’ way to understand history in the current crisis. But how many are aware that not only was Sydney University pondering ‘Queers for Palestine’ in 2018, but that Sydney University students were involved in the desecration of the Cenotaph in Martin Place in 1929?
Clippings from https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/101228/199/Page185a.pdf
The difference is that back then, Sydney University cancelled associated events and apologised to the public for the actions of their students. Today, an apology from university ‘leaders’ would be little more than a pipe dream.
What we see among our G8 pro-Palestine and pro-Hamas supporters, both academics and students, with the support of the Greens and Labor’s hard-left, is groupthink and in essence, cognitive dissonance that is detrimental to our national security.
The effects are tangible for Australia and its social cohesion.
To make matters worse, hundreds of public servants allegedly signed a letter making four ‘demands’ of the government to stop indirect military support for Israel.
The Westminster system relies upon unelected public servants supporting the government of the day, not making demands and influencing policy through public lobbying.
The unfettered and inherently one-sided abuse of the idea of freedom of speech has enabled hate-fuelled attacks on the Jewish community, including school children, in Australia. Elites in politics, education, and the media share some of the blame for emboldening pro-Palestinian supporters.
It is time these same elites stood up for those who are the real victims of anti-Semitism which is at a level not seen in living memory in Australia.
