Australian Greens Deputy Leader and spokesperson for Higher Education Senator Mehreen Faruqi has slammed universities for trying to shut down criticism of Israel by adopting a definition of anti-semitism that has been called \u201cdangerous, politicised and unworkable\u201d by the Jewish Council of Australia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
o Senator Faruqi:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShamefully, universities have betrayed their students, their staff and their reputation by shutting down free speech and criticism of Israel. They are weaponising anti-semitism to sanitise campuses of anyone who speaks up for Palestinian human rights or against Israel\u2019s genocide and occupation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve taught in universities for more than a decade, and I\u2019ve never been more ashamed of how far the academic integrity of universities has fallen. Universities should be spaces for critical thought, open debate, and intellectual diversity, not for political censorship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBy adopting a definition of anti-Semitism that threatens academic freedom, silences Palestinian voices, and prevents legitimate criticism of Israel, they have failed their staff, students, and the very mission of higher education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUniversities have shown utter cowardice in succumbing to conservative political forces and the Murdoch media, rather than standing up and defending political debate. They are also taking advantage of this political moment to silence legitimate criticism of their partnerships with companies complicit in genocide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUniversities should be politically active places encouraging critical thinking and debate not quashing it with dangerous censorship. This is all embarrassing and galling at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Australian Greens Deputy Leader and spokesperson for Higher Education Senator Mehreen Faruqi has slammed universities for trying to shut down criticism of Israel by adopting a definition of anti-semitism that has been called \u201cdangerous, politicised and unworkable\u201d by the Jewish Council of Australia. o Senator Faruqi: \u201cShamefully, universities have betrayed their students, their staff and … Continue reading “Universities thinly veiled attempt to shut down criticism of Israel is nothing short of shameful”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31615,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31614\/revisions\/31615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}