The Student General Meeting (SGM) to reject USyd’s new definition of antisemitism is happening next week. On Wednesday, May 14 at 4:30pm, in New Law Auditorium 101, students can vote against adopting a dangerous new antisemitism definition designed to silence the Palestine movement. We need at least 200 undergraduates and 25 postgraduates to attend. Bring yourself, your classmates and your friends and show USyd management we won’t be silent on genocide.
A Dangerous New Definition of Antisemitism
USyd’s new antisemitism definition is the latest attack on the Palestine movement, aimed at stifling support and silencing criticism of Israel’s apartheid state. Pushed by Universities Australia (UA), a coalition of 39 universities nationwide, it is modelled on the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition. This has been condemned by scholars across several universities and human rights organisations like Amnesty International for “dangerously conflat[ing] legitimate criticism of… Zionism with antisemitism.”
Criticising Israel is Not Antisemitic
The UA definition claims “criticism of Israel can be antisemitic … when it calls for the elimination of the State of Israel.” It is not antisemitic to oppose Israel’s system of apartheid, demand justice for Palestinians, or reject the idea of Israel as a Jewish supremacist state. These are widely held political views among millions globally, including Palestinians, progressive Jews and anti-racist activists.
Amnesty International called the definition a “direct attack on fundamental freedoms,” warning that it stifles freedom of speech, protest and academic debate. The National Tertiary Education Union also opposed it for its “likely… effect of suppressing academic and intellectual freedom.”
Management’s new definition is not about protecting Jewish students. It is about shielding the Israeli terror state from accountability, and protecting USyd’s own ties to this genocidal regime. In fact, by equating Jewish identity with Zionism and support for the Israeli state, the definition risks promoting antisemitism by implying all Jews are responsible for Israel’s war crimes and acts of genocide.
Blood on USyd’s Hands: Complicity in Genocide
USyd holds student exchange programs with Israeli universities deeply complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. USyd maintains a medical exchange program with the Technion, the institution that designs remote-controlled D9 bulldozers demolishing Palestinian homes in the West Bank. USyd sends students to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJ), which trains IDF officers now assaulting Gaza.
Since breaking the ceasefire on 18 March, Israel has unleashed a new wave of airstrikes, killing over 2,000 people — over a third of whom are children — targeting hospitals and civilian infrastructure. Israel is enforcing a total blockade of food, fuel and humanitarian aid, deliberately starving Gaza’s population. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have concluded that the IDF is committing war crimes and genocide in Gaza. The International Court of Justice has ruled it plausible that Israel is committing genocide, and the International Criminal Court is investigating Israeli officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Since October 2023, over 61,000 Palestinians have been killed and Israel is now intent on forcibly evicting all Palestinians from Gaza.
Free Speech and Activism Under Attack
While Israel rains down bombs on Gaza and slaughters tens of thousands of Palestinians, USyd is cracking down on Palestine activism on campus. Over the past 18 months, management has escalated efforts of repression — threatening students with disciplinary proceedings under the Campus Access Policy (CAP) for speaking at protests and setting up stalls. USyd even threatened to suspend transgender asylum seeker Luna simply for writing “From the river to the sea” on a whiteboard — a suspension that could have had her deported or placed in immigration detention.
Voting at the SGM sends management a message: we will not be silenced by their antisemitism definition. Despite their attempts at repression, we will keep organising, protesting and demanding that USyd cut all ties with genocide.
Power in Growing Resistance
Collective resistance works. Last year’s 800-strong SGM and persistent pressure from staff and students forced USyd to drop its exchange program with Bezalel — an Israeli art school that sewed IDF soldiers’ uniforms. Management has been forced to walk back some of the CAP’s protest restrictions. Across the country, the tide is turning — University of Technology Sydney (UTS) management have agreed to not implement the UA antisemitism definition and University of Western Australia (UWA) has cut ties with HUJ.
Student and workers’ power extends globally. In Serbia, after the deadly collapse of the Novi Sad railway station in November 2024 killed 16 people, students launched a wave of organised resistance — occupying six universities, staging huge protests, and holding mass student meetings to direct the campaign. Their action forced universities to suspend classes for four months, won a 20% increase in university funding and mobilised workers to join them in demonstrations — ultimately forcing the prime minister to resign.
Their victories show what student organising can achieve. We need that same bold, united movement here to fight against the rotten agenda of university managements and the Labor government’s complicity in genocide.
What is an SGM and Why It Matters
An SGM is a powerful tool of student democracy — a forum where students vote en masse on motions around important issues facing the student body.
In August 2024, over 800 students packed out the first SGM in solidarity with Palestine, voting to demand USyd cut all ties with Israel and weapons companies, affirming the right of Palestinians to resist Israel’s occupation, and calling for a single, secular, democratic Palestinian state.
What We’re Voting On
At the SGM, students will vote on key motions to defend our right to protest and stand with Palestine:
- Reject the UA antisemitism definition adopted by USyd, which aims to silence criticism of Israel’s war crimes.
- Reaffirm support for a single, secular, democratic state from the river to the sea, where all people live in freedom and equality.
- Scrap the anti-protest CAP and drop disciplinary charges against students, including Luna, for standing with Palestine.
- Cut ties with apartheid — end all exchange and research partnerships with Israeli universities and weapons companies profiting from genocide in Gaza.
- Commit the SRC to support the campaign financially and materially to defend protest rights and divestment.
We must stand united and show USyd that we will not be silenced while Israel escalates its bloody assault on Gaza and demolishes homes across the West Bank. We will not be treated like criminals or smeared as antisemitic for demanding a free Palestine. The real criminals are USyd management, who enable genocide through their ties to Israeli institutions and weapons companies. We will continue to fight for a free Palestine — on our own terms and in growing numbers. Come to the SGM to reject the new antisemitism definition and demand USyd cuts ties with genocide.
