Two University of Sydney (USyd) academics have spoken out against racial vilification proceedings brought in the Federal Court of Australia.
The class action was filed by a small group of current and former Jewish staff and one former student at USyd, after their complaint at the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) was terminated.
The three staff plaintiffs bringing the case are Joseph Toltz, an ethnomusicologist specialising in Jewish music, Yaniv Levy, an administrator in the Faculty of Medicine and Health, and Professor Emeritus Suzanne Rutland, a scholar of Australian Jewish history who is one of Australia’s delegates to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and a recipient of the Order of Australia Medal for her contributions to the field.
They are joined by recent architecture graduate Ariel Eisner, a current member of the USyd Academic Board and national representative of the Australian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS).
The action is brought against the University of Sydney, and two individual defendants – Nick Riemer and John Keane – who are vocal advocates for the Palestinian cause.
Riemer is a senior lecturer in the Discipline of English and Writing, and academic vice-president of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) at USyd.
A longstanding proponent of the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement in academia, he often speaks at Palestine rallies and was present at a “Staff for Palestine” meeting where attendees voted to oppose the controversial Universities Australia definition of antisemitism adopted by USyd in March.
John Keane is a prolific political theorist and Professor of Politics at the University of Sydney.
In a joint statement posted on X (formerly Twitter), Keane and Riemer said that the allegations of antisemitism levelled against them are “confected and false.”
“We are appalled at the complainants’ desire, at this dark moment in world affairs, to portray themselves as victims and to attempt to silence opposition to genocide Israel is committing in Gaza, where two million dispossessed and bereaved survivors are currently being deliberately starved,” the statement said.
“In this context, specious claims by a handful of Zionist Australian university staff that our opposition to a genocide constitutes antisemitism, and redressing their alleged victimhood should be a priority for the courts, should not be entertained.”
Over 50 Jewish staff, students, and alumni have joined Keane and Riemer in rejecting what they see as “vexatious” allegations, by signing their names to an open letter.
18 of the undersigned are affiliated with USyd, including seven staff members and four students.
Among the University of Sydney alumni is Sara Dowse, famed “femocrat” of the 1970s Whitlam government, and author of the 2017 novel As the Lonely Fly, which portrays the forced migrations of persecuted Russian Jews to Palestine and the United States in the early 19th century. The novel is drawn from archival and oral history research, and from Dowse’s own family history.
Several members of the Jewish Council of Australia are listed, such as human rights lawyer Sarah Schwartz and two academics specialising in the history of Israel and Palestine and the Jewish diaspora, Naama Blatman and Jordana Silverstein.
Silverstein’s most recent project brings together the oral histories of Jewish and Palestinian immigrants in Australia.
American Jewish academic Mark LeVine, who spoke at a USyd encampment rally last year and whose son was a part of the UCLA counterpart of the global Gaza solidarity movement among university students.
Keane and Riemer will be represented by Marque Lawyers.
The plaintiffs, formerly represented by the law firm Levitt Robinson, will now be represented by Rotstein Commercial Lawyers.
Managing Partner Hamish Rotstein told Sky News: “the legal action seeks to differentiate hate speech from free speech and to protect Jewish, Israeli and Zionist students, academics and staff from antisemitic rhetoric that has contributed to an unsafe university environment.”
Barrister Adam Butt will remain at the helm of the case, alongside Saul Holt KC.
In 2023, Butt successfully represented a group of school boys in a case against the Victorian state government and public school Brighton Secondary College after they had suffered antisemitic bullying from their peers.
A SafeWork NSW Inspectors’ Report obtained earlier this month by The Australian suggested that “Jewish workers and students experienced antisemitism daily” at the University of Sydney last year, and that they “became frightened and intimidated arriving and leaving the campus and walking past the encampment.”
The investigator who drafted the report in February 2025 (after a preliminary workplace inspection conducted in September 2024) recommended that SafeWork pursue a full investigation.
The body’s panel decided not to proceed with an investigation.
