ANU under national scrutiny after former student details campus antisemitism
The Australian National University has been drawn directly into the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion after a former student described an accumulation of alleged antisemitic incidents, social exclusion and institutional inaction during her years on the Canberra campus.
Giving evidence in Melbourne under the pseudonym “Liat”, the former student told the Commission that Jewish students had been left to navigate an increasingly hostile environment while the university’s responses were, in her experience, delayed, opaque or ineffectual.
Her evidence carries particular significance for Canberra and the Commonwealth. The ANU is not simply one university among many: it is Australia’s only university established by the Federal Parliament and remains deeply embedded in the intellectual and institutional life of the national capital.
Created in 1946 as an ambitious postwar national institution, the university will mark its 80th anniversary on 1 August. Its founding mission encompassed national unity, Australia’s understanding of itself and its neighbours, economic development and social cohesion.
The current Australian National University Act 1991 continues the ANU as a statutory body and stipulates that, in performing its functions, it must attend to “its national and international roles” and the needs of the Australian Capital Territory and surrounding regions.
Consequently, allegations concerning institutional culture at the ANU extend beyond the customary boundaries of campus politics. The university sits within Canberra’s federal ecosystem, educating future public servants, political advisers, diplomats, lawyers and policymakers while supplying research and expertise across government.
From belonging to concealment
Liat told the Commission she moved from Sydney to Canberra in 2022, aged 18, to study at the ANU. She described herself as Jewish, proudly Zionist and the granddaughter and great-granddaughter of Holocaust survivors.
She alleged that, during her first orientation week, a representative at a Middle Eastern society stall told her the organisation was not for her because she was Jewish. Later that year, she said fellow members of a theatre society responded to her election as treasurer with jokes invoking stereotypes about Jewish people and money.
Although she initially regarded those comments as unsavoury attempts at humour, Liat said they reflected a background level of antisemitism that became markedly more pronounced after the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023.
With much of her extended family living in Israel, she recalled exchanging messages with relatives sheltering from the attack and anticipating that Jewish students would soon face a difficult climate on campus.
Over the remainder of 2023, she said she lost most of her non-Jewish university friends. One person allegedly told her at a theatre function that they could no longer be friends because she was a Zionist.
The pressure intensified during the Gaza solidarity encampment established in Kambri in April 2024. The camp occupied the principal social and commercial precinct of the ANU for approximately 110 days, placing it in a thoroughfare used by students attending classes, visiting cafés and accessing university services.
Liat accepted that Palestinian flags, keffiyehs and advocacy for Palestinian rights were not inherently antisemitic. Her concern, she said, arose from their combination with rhetoric that Jewish students interpreted as threatening, including “There is only one solution, intifada revolution” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.
She alleged that people associated with the encampment called her a “baby killer” and “genocide supporter”. She was visibly identifiable as Jewish at the time, sometimes wearing a Star of David and a hostage pin.
“Every single day when I would make the walk into uni, I would have to pick,” she told the Commission. “Am I Jewish Liat today, or am I regular Liat?”
She said she sometimes concealed her necklace and avoided using her Hebrew name when ordering coffee, apprehensive that a conversation about its origin might expose her to hostility.
Contentious student meeting
The Commission also examined a May 2024 annual general meeting of the Australian National University Students’ Association, attended online by about 650 people.
Liat seconded a motion entitled “Jewish students have a right to belong to the ANU community”. It sought, among other measures, condemnation of Hamas, support for a two-state solution, rejection of calls for an intifada and recognition that systemic action was required to address antisemitism.
Official ANUSA minutes show an amendment was carried removing most of those provisions while retaining affirmations that Jewish students had a right to participate in the association and belong to the university community.
The original movers then withdrew the motion. A revised version was subsequently taken up by other students, further amended and passed.
The minutes reflect the intensity and complexity of the debate. Supporters of the amendment argued that the original motion conflated antisemitism with legitimate Palestinian advocacy and threatened freedom of expression. Opponents contended that removing the condemnation of Hamas and disputed slogans amounted to a refusal to listen to Jewish students.
ANUSA’s records also show that an earlier motion passed that evening reaffirmed its opposition to antisemitism and its commitment to Jewish students participating without discrimination. The association noted during debate that it had previously condemned Hamas.
Allegations that students performed a Nazi salute and mimicked a Hitler moustache during the meeting later became the subject of an ANU investigation. Liat acknowledged that she did not personally see those gestures and had been told about them by others.
The university subsequently told a 2025 parliamentary inquiry that its review concluded the students had not performed Nazi gestures, despite conceding that footage could appear that way “on a superficial level”. ANUSA said at the time that it did not tolerate antisemitic conduct and removed participants when alleged discriminatory behaviour was reported.
Classroom encounter and complaints
In another incident, Liat alleged that a tutor responded to her account of feeling intimidated by the encampment by referring to Israeli bombing in Gaza.
When she identified herself as Australian-Israeli, the tutor allegedly replied: “Well, that’s a shame.”
The alleged exchange has not been independently tested, and the tutor was not identified in the public evidence.
Liat said Jewish student representatives repeatedly attempted to use the university’s formal processes but often received responses too late to provide protection or meaningful resolution. On other occasions, she alleged, concerns raised informally with university executives were not converted into documented complaints, leaving students unable to trace their progress.
She characterised the institutional pattern as comprising “delayed or absent action”, deflection and the management of “optics over substance”.
“In my opinion, an institution that doesn’t want to name antisemitism in public has already decided not to really respond to it in private,” she said.
ANU says antisemitism has no place on campus
The allegations are evidence before the Royal Commission and are not findings against the university. Institutions will have an opportunity to present evidence concerning their policies and responses as the hearings progress.
The ANU has consistently maintained that it condemns antisemitism, racism, discrimination and vilification. In evidence to the parliamentary inquiry in January 2025, the university said it had received 34 disclosures of racism during 2024, of which ten were determined to relate to antisemitism.
It said the incidents were taken seriously and investigated under university policies, while acknowledging the need to continue reviewing its procedures.
Following the establishment of the Royal Commission, the ANU declared that antisemitism and racism had “no place” at the university and committed to participating fully and constructively in the inquiry.
The campus evidence is also arriving as the Commonwealth introduces a more prescriptive regulatory framework. From 1 January 2027, amended national higher-education standards will require universities to define antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of racism, embed those definitions in policies and complaints processes, and provide clearer safety guidance to students and staff.
For the ANU, the scrutiny is especially consequential. A university established to contribute to national unity, identity and social cohesion is now being asked to demonstrate whether those principles were sufficiently evident in the daily experiences of students on its own Canberra campus.
The Royal Commission’s university hearings continue in Melbourne this week. The video of this session reference is embedded below.