A top university has been blasted after a speaker at an ‘anti-racism’ conference allegedly mocked Jewish supporters of Peter Dutton.
Sarah Schwartz, executive officer of the pro-Palestinian Jewish Council of Australia, addressed the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) ‘National Symposium on Unifying Anti-Racist Research and Action’ on Wednesday.
The Jewish human rights lawyer accused the Opposition Leader of ‘exploiting the rise in antisemitism for political gain’.
In a leaked recording of her talk, published by prominent activist and China hawk Drew Pavlou, Ms Shcwartz shared a slide showing a mocked-up superhero called ‘Dutton’s Jew’.
‘The reality is that for Dutton and his ilk, us Jews are the perfect avatars for peddling racism, Islamophobia, anti-immigrant sentiment,’ Ms Schwartz told the audience.
She added, to laughter from the audience: ‘Dutton’s Jew has really helpfully provided a human shield for him to talk about some of his favourite topics: hating on migrants by arguing that Palestinian refugees are a threat to Jews, just generally hating on Muslims, protecting everyday Aussies from left-wing anti-war protesters, and, of course, bolstering support for Israel as it commits a genocide.
‘His party no longer needs to defend the right to be bigots because Dutton’s Jew can do this for him.’
Another slide showed a collage of pro-Israel figures including Mr Dutton, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, US President Donald Trump and Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, alongside the caption ‘with friends like these, who needs enemies…’
Mr Pavlou described the lecture’s contents as ‘legitimately insane’.
‘They are now complaining that Elon Musk and Trump are too friendly with the Jews,’ he added.
The lecture has sparked uproar, with President of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies David Ossip telling Daily Mail Australia ‘the presentation would not have been out of place in antisemitic gatherings throughout the ages’.
‘Jews were characterised as being hateful, racist and xenophobic – malevolently working with politicians for nefarious purposes,’ Mr Ossip said.
‘It contained it all – laughter as Jews were the subject of public mockery, images of Rabbis as the subject of ridicule and the baseless demonisation of a community which has done nothing to warrant such hatred.
‘We are loathe to ever make comparisons with pre-war Germany, but these are scenes which would not have been out of place in Nazi propaganda or a 1930s Bavarian Beer Hall.’
Mr Ossip, who branded the lecture ‘perverse and disturbing’, has called on Education Minister Jason Clare to sanction the university.
‘Serious questions must be asked about whether taxpayer funds should continue to be provided to the Queensland University of Technology which facilitated this hateful forum or any other university which fails to take antisemitism seriously,’ he added.
Daniel Aghion KC, President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), said they had ‘forwarded details of the incident to the Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, which is currently conducting an Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian universities’.
‘The image is clearly intended to stigmatise as evil and racist any Jewish person who might support the Coalition’, Mr Aghion said.
‘It is ironic that such an obvious and disgraceful racist trope has been used at an event that billed itself as an anti-racism symposium.’
He revealed that the ECAJ had warned the university about possible antisemtisim in advance of the lecture series.
‘(but) QUT leaders responded with a combination of astonishing ignorance, reckless indifference to consequence, and the usual vacuous platitudes about freedom of expression,’ Mr Aghion added.
The conservative Australian Jewish Association accused the Albanese government of refusing ‘to hold an independent judicial inquiry into antisemitism on university campuses’.
‘It is clear that the universities cannot govern themselves,’ the organisation wrote on X.
‘This revolting antisemitic display occurred at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Anthony Albanese, enough with the talking. Start doing something.’
Daily Mail Australia has approached QUT for comment.
Ms Schwartz shared a long statement responding to the criticism, claiming her slideshow was taken out of context and misrepresented by ‘far-right social media accounts’.
‘I pilloried Peter Dutton’s racist, ignorant and monolithic conception of Jewish people. I argued that he uses this conception to promote division, attack the ALP and push an anti-immigration agenda,’ she said.
‘In my presentation, I referred to Dutton’s racist conception of Jewish people as “Dutton’s Jew” – Dutton’s racist conception of Jews, not actual Jewish people.
‘Against this conception, I spoke about how Jewish people are diverse and about how the Jewish community is not a monolith.’
Ms Schwartz accused ‘opportunists’ of misrepresenting her primary point, ‘which is that Peter Dutton is exploiting the rise in antisemitism for political gain.
‘Dutton has a long history of racism, including against the African community, against First Nations peoples — including walking out of Parliament’s formal apology to the Stolen Generations — and against migrants and refugees,’ she added.
‘Now, for political gain, he is claiming to be an anti-racism warrior in support of the Jewish community. To that end, he has falsely painted all Jews as having particular attitudes and characteristics.
She added: ‘Dutton’s reduction of the Jewish community into a single stereotype, and silencing Jews who don’t fit that typology, only serves to make Jews less safe. This is particularly grotesque amidst a very real rise in antisemitism.’
Daily Mail Australia approached Mr Dutton’s office for comment.
