Leaked documents, screenshots and email communication chains reveal that the Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) lobbies on behalf of the Israeli government and its Zionist policies across Australian university campuses.
These written sources are compiled in a folder, dating between 2015 and 2017, which includes documents stipulating AUJS’ constitution, its members’ code of conduct, and the state of support amongst student factions in Sydney for the Israeli government.
AUJS On-Campus
AUJS publicly presents itself as a “federation of Jewish student societies” to deliver “Jewish & Community Engagement, advocacy, leadership & development, international programs and social events”. It is primarily advertised to Jewish students as an ethnocultural space “to develop and strengthen their sense of Jewish identity and Jewish Leadership”.
At the University of Sydney Union (USU), AUJS is treated as a club due to its participation in “regular social events” and “educational events/leadership training.” Similar listings currently operate at the University of NSW, University of Technology Sydney, Macquarie University and the University of Wollongong.
Crucially, AUJS does not claim to be an apolitical organisation, nor does it deny any affiliations with Israel. In AUJS’ national constitution, it details “four pillars” upon which AUJS is founded, the last of which is Zionism, with the explicit aim “to promote a positive image of Israel on campus”. It is publicly connected to the World Zionist Organisation’s Jerusalem Program, which advocates “settling the country [Israel] as an expression of practical Zionism”. AUJS also endorses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which has been used to silence Palestinian advocacy and criticism of the State of Israel by conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism.
In April 2023, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch signed a letter among over 100 human rights and civil rights organisations, raising concerns about the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of “antisemitism”.
The signatories said antisemitism “poses real harm to Jewish communities around the world” but that the IHRA’s use of the word could “inadvertently embolden or endorse policies and laws that undermine… the right to speak and organise in favour of Palestinian rights and to criticise Israeli government policies”. Since its adoption at five universities around Australia at the beginning of the year, staff and students have expressed concerns over the intimidation and silencing of those who speak out publicly against Zionism.
Anti-Zionist Students On-Campus
An anonymous Jewish student at the University of Sydney approached AUJS President Alissa Foster in an email on September 11, 2023 about “opening up to diverse views” — namely, to the “richness of Jewish life outside of Zionism”. In the email, the student makes their position clear as an Australian Jew who “condemns the violence of the Israeli state and wants Zionism to take no part in my Jewish identity; one that strongly stands behind Palestinians” and calls for “Palestinian liberation just as I would call for the liberation of any other oppressed class.”
At the end of the email, the student asks: “how would you as the president of a Jewish representative body treat a Jew like myself?” The President of AUJS failed to respond.
Impact on Student Life
The University of Sydney’s Student Representative Council
Part of AUJS’ strategy towards “political ‘pro-activism’”, coined in a 2015 document titled It’s Time To Update How We Deal With BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) to replace what members called “status quo ‘re-activism’” at the time, revolves around engagement with student unions and politicians on Australian university campuses. Its focus here is on maintaining connections with student representatives who are sympathetic to Israel and Zionism.
In a leaked document from 2015 titled Sydney University Political Landscape, AUJS considers the history, strengths and weaknesses, leaders and stance on Israel of six student factions. Most factions are considered unworthy of approaching, with Sydney Labor Students (SLS) and Independents marked with a “don’t bother” label due to their “fluctuating influence and membership.”
Grassroots is criticised for being a “group of fundamentalist hard-left nutjobs that care more about queer and identity politics than student welfare”, and should therefore “be avoided as much as possible”. Socialist Alternative is similarly considered an “extremist, revolutionary organisation” and should be negotiated with “never in a million years”.
The Liberals are the only on-campus faction “well worth [AUJS’] time to talk to and negotiate with” due to their “staunchly pro-Israel” position and willingness “to remove BDS motions”. AUJS also considered Student Unity (Labor Right) “our most experienced and usable allies”, and support should be afforded “unless they fuck up badly”.
National Labor Students (NLS), identified as owing all their success to their “high proportion of attractive girls who are the best campaigners”, may also be supported “only if they are with more solidly pro-Israel factions”.
Leaked screenshots of a post from the private Facebook group for AUJS’ National Political Affairs Council dated to February 23, 2015 demonstrate that this document was circulated widely throughout AUJS, and was called “fantastic” and “brilliant work” by its members.
A leaked document from the NPAC Monitoring Officer in July 2017 also provides details about AUJS’ surveillance of “far-left leaning media” for “anti-Zionist, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic speech”. This includes “looking for articles that mention Israel, Jews or AUJS”. Honi Soit is listed in this document as the fourth media site to be monitored, alongside Marxist and student media outlets like Red Flag, New Matilda, Green Left Weekly, Farrago, Lot’s Wife and Tharunka.
The National Union of Students (NUS)
The information pertaining to Student Unity is of particular interest following the National Union of Students’ 2023 National Conference (NatCon). While Unity voted to support a bloc of five motions standing in solidarity with a free Palestine at NatCon, the faction reportedly attempted to amend a platform to “recognise that Zionists can and have been used as a euphemism for Jewishness”, as well as to amend any mention of “the state of Israel” to “the Israeli government.”
Interfaith Events
Jewish students undoubtedly have a right to organise in ethnocultural and religious spaces. AUJS’ on-campus image represents an effort to conflate Judaism and Zionism. This rhetoric culminates in the weaponisation of antisemitism, expressed in the 2016 AUJS Guide: Responding to Anti-Semitic/Anti-Zionist Incidents, where members were encouraged to report any incidents “even if you are unsure whether or not the incident was anti-Semitic in nature”. In the same document, this advice aimed at conflating antisemitism with anti-Zionism was accompanied by an instruction to not “engage in an argument” with “the Socialist Alternative or other groups that protest AUJS events and hand out anti-Israel material”.
In the AUJS Interfaith Guide created in 2017, intended only for training Executive members, it is made clear that initiating interfaith networks “is not a public event, just a meeting between representatives.” The document includes a warning from the National Political Affairs Director to “approach the other faith clubs with the message that you want to primarily learn about their other club and their faith background, as opposed to teach them about AUJS”.
The purpose of these interfaith events is primarily to grow support for AUJS on university campuses. This mostly occurs through AUJS’ National Political Affairs Committee (NPAC), advertised internally as a “new leadership scheme” to coordinate “projects, campaigns and events” with “community and professional partners.”
However, in another document detailing The Interfaith Co-Ops on Campuses dating back to 2017, these relationships were also perceived as important “as a pre-emptive defence for clubs if issues arise”, in particular if “Israel related harassment arises on campus.” In its 2017 Document of Recognition Between Inter-Faith or Inter-Cultural Groups at Macquarie University, AUJS also makes clear that other religious groups “will show (public) support in case of incidents.”
In addition to securing protection from other on-campus religious groups, AUJS’ primary concern as a Zionist group is to lobby local politics. While this is presented in the same leaked NPAC Meeting document from March 11, 2015 as getting “Jewish students [who are] active in politics [to become] more involved in AUJS”, it operates in practice as the inverse. The leaked minutes disclose plans for networking “cocktail/panel/mingling” events with the Young Liberals, Labor and Greens, as well as the long-term goal of having “at least one AUJS related/trained person on student representative bodies.”
Plans to “bring Israeli social activists to Australia to help with training and lobbying” during this meeting on March 11, 2015 provide further evidence of political cooperation.
Anti-BDS Lobbying
AUJS’ pro-Israeli lobby is accompanied by explicit anti-Palestinianism. In a document published in 2015 by the same name, the primary purpose of the NPAC Campus Liaison Officer Role was to “defeat BDS and other anti-Israel motions passed by student organisations”. In the 2015 document titled It’s Time To Update How We Deal With BDS, AUJS referred to itself as a “pro-Israel group” that must “play the political game far more effectively” than its pro-BDS counterparts.
This document makes it clear that AUJS views pro-BDS motions as leading “the demonisation of Israel by Student Government representatives.” This is because the BDS motions “empower student politicians to feel like they are part of a “solution”, providing them “with a strong sense of membership to the BDS movement” that will “influence their perspectives… into any future political careers.”
The final message in It’s Time To Update How We Deal With BDS is that these decisions “will one day influence policy on Israel” from “the world’s future leaders”, meaning that pro-Israel students must “influence them from within”. Means to achieving this end include “cutting factions who support BDS out of major positions at university and NUS level”, maintaining a “state-wide group of supporters and campaigners that can be mobilised quickly to deal with threats and campaign for AUJS”, and “lobby state convenors… and inform them of the fallacies of BDS and other anti-Israel campaigns.”
Notably, thorough investigation has found that only two cases in AUJS’ history have prompted AUJS to condemn Israel’s actions. The first instance concerns Israel’s prolonged refusal to deport now-convicted sexual abuser Malka Leifer to Australia for trial. The second instance occurred in 2023, over bigoted intra-Jewish views held by Israel’s Minister For Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chilki. AUJS has never publicly criticised Israel’s actions towards Palestinian people.
Impact on Academic Spaces
This folder of leaked documents also reveals that AUJS’ explicit ties to political parties on- and off-campus, its strong anti-BDS position and explicitly Zionist affiliations, exert significant influence in academic spaces.
One of the most high-profile examples is AUJS’ 2015 accusations of antisemitism against the University of Sydney’s Associate Professor Jake Lynch. Professor Lynch, a known pro-Palestinian academic, had attended a seminar by speaker Richard Kemp, hosted by AUJS at the University. While Lynch was sitting in the audience, a protest organised by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) occupied the lecture hall.
When campus security became physical, Lynch began to film the incident. A woman standing behind Lynch informed him she did not consent to being filmed and then attempted to force his camera phone from his hands. Claiming she kicked him in the groin, Lynch waved money in the woman’s face and told her “this is going to cost you a lot of money” before threatening to sue her. The details of this incident have been widely reported by multiple media outlets including The Sydney Morning Herald and The Guardian.
Lynch was subsequently reported to the university by a student who was a member of AUJS. AUJS also published a photo of Jake Lynch briefly facing a Jewish student while Lynch was holding the money his hand, and erased the middle-aged woman from the narrative. However, leaked screenshots from the private Facebook group for AUJS’ National Political Affairs Council dated to March 15, 2015 reveal that the student was “told to refrain from commenting” on the veracity of “Jake Lynch’s/SJP’s version of the story.” In the same thread, another AUJS member stated that “if Lynch follows through with the police for the assault [in which the middle-aged woman allegedly pushed him and tried to grab his phone], we might just end up looking very stupid”.
Despite AUJS’ claims, there is no evidence that Lynch had any prior knowledge of the protest or that he was involved in organising the sit-in. The woman he interacted with was middle-aged, and was not affiliated with AUJS or any other Jewish organisation.
When questioned on whether they could label Lynch as an antisemite without risk of defamation, more leaked screenshots from a private Facebook thread dated to March 15, 2015 reveal that the AUJS National Political Officer at the time, Julian Kowal, stated there is “no legal reason, but just that they agree using a hard-ish line. It’s a political move to use ‘antisemitism’ and we feel confident enough that the public would be on our side, in order for us to call him on it.”
When other members expressed hesitancy over staging a “flash protest” against Jake Lynch in the same Facebook thread, they were encouraged to “just counter by saying we are for multiculturalism and it isn’t about Israel.”
The University of Sydney commissioned an external investigation by an independent solicitor, which concluded that nothing Lynch had done or said was antisemitic. All allegations against Lynch were refuted and dropped in the same year.
Conclusion
These leaked documents show AUJS’ significant preoccupation with Israeli advocacy. Their refusal to engage with anti-Zionist Jewish voices makes their claim to be a representative body for Jewish students tenuous.
When asked to comment on its involvement in Zionist lobbying at the University of Sydney, including the coordination of pro-Israel activists and current position on BDS, AUJS’ President and Vice-President did not respond.
Given the emphasis placed on Zionism in AUJS’ current constitution, these rules continue to define AUJS today. Although there are no updated files to indicate that AUJS’ structure, views and political positions remain exactly the same, these documents from 2015 to 2017 have never been more relevant amidst the Palestinian genocide currently occuring in 2024.
