Submission To Australian People’s Inquiry into University Restrictions on Free Speech on Palestine

Australia’s 39 taxpayer-funded universities have endorsed a highly controversial new definition of antisemitism that is expected to be enforced on all campuses. It is likely that the several  private Australian universities will follow suit. This Action threatens the free speech of academics and students that is the core ethos of decent universities. Key Australian pro-Palestinian human rights organizations have set up a People’s Inquiry into University Restrictions on Free Speech on Palestine.

The essence of  the highly flawed, intimidatory and dangerous definition adopted by Australia’s universities is as follows: “Antisemitism is discrimination, prejudice, harassment, exclusion, vilification, intimidation or violence that impedes Jews’ ability to participate as equals in educational, political, religious, cultural, economic or social life. Criticism of Israel can be antisemitic when it is grounded in harmful tropes, stereotypes or assumptions and when it calls for the elimination of the State of Israel or all Jews or when it holds Jewish individuals or communities responsible for Israel’s actions. For most, but not all Jewish Australians, Zionism is a core part of their Jewish identity. Substituting the word ‘Zionist’ for ‘Jew’ does not eliminate the possibility of speech being antisemitic” (Conor Duffy, “Australian universities agree to antisemitism definition that bans calling for Israel’s elimination”, ABC News, 26 February 2025: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-26/universities-to-enforce-joint-antisemitism-position-on-campuses/104980836 ).

The Australian Palestinian Advocacy Network (APAN), the National Union of Students (NUS), the anti-racist Jewish Council of Australia (JCA) and “Students for Palestine”  have set up an Australian  People’s Inquiry into University Restrictions on Free Speech on Palestine: “Since 7 October 2023, the question of Palestine-related activism and speech on university campuses in Australia has become increasingly controversial. The purpose of this inquiry is to establish: (1). whether the human rights of student and staff supporters of Palestine have been violated by governments and University administrations; and (2). whether Australian universities are upholding their obligations to staff and students regarding freedom of  speech and expression, and  therefore academic freedom as it relates to Palestine. The inquiry also seeks recommendations on how the rights of free speech, inquiry and assembly be best protected on university campuses” (Palestine Inquiry, “Terms of Reference”: https://www.palestineinquiry.com/terms-of-reference ).

The People’s Inquiry: “The deadline for submissions is Monday, 31 March 2025… The People’s Inquiry will receive submissions via [email protected]. Submissions can be made by individuals or organisations. At the discretion of the Panel and the People’s Inquiry Administration Committee (PIAC), submissions can be made public online via our website. Submissions can be made by individuals or organisations. At the discretion of the Panel and the People’s Inquiry Administration Committee (PIAC), submissions can be made public online via our website” (Palestine Inquiry, “How to make a submission”: https://www.palestineinquiry.com/submission-details ).

Free speech is the key ethos of universities and I would urge people to make Submissions to this People’s Inquiry. Set out below is my Submission. I am happy for it to be made public with attribution. 

Submission from Dr Gideon Polya to the People’s Inquiry into University Restrictions on Free Speech on Palestine.

(1). Introduction.

I am an anti-racist Ashkenazi Jewish Australian scientist, scholar, author, Humanist  and humanitarian writer with a sole national allegiance to the country of my birth, Australia. Like most Jews I am  Ashkenazi Jewish (Eastern and Central European Jewish) i.e. I descend  from non-Semitic Turkic Khazar converts to Judaism in about the 9th century CE. Indeed DNA analysis has shown that I am mostly Ashkenazi Jewish but with zero (0) Middle Eastern (i.e. Semitic) contribution, this being confirmed by several centuries of recorded family history. More specifically I come from a very famous Ashkenazi Jewish Hungarian family (ask any surgeon or mathematician) with a long and continuing scholarly tradition for successive generations.  Thus my great grandfather Jakab Polya (née Pollack) was a lawyer, economist and academician (who wrote books on cooperatives and translated Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” into Hungarian) and my children are all university graduates and I now have grandchildren studying at Australian universities.

 In 1944-1945 Jewish Hungarians were decimated in the WW2 Jewish Holocaust in Nazi Germany-occupied Hungary, this occurring about 4 years before the 1948 Nakba (Catastrophe) in which British-armed and British- trained Zionist settler colonialists expelled 800,000 Indigenous Palestinians from Palestine (60% of the Indigenous Palestinian population expelled, 15,000 killed, 530 villages emptied, 120 mosques destroyed in part of a century-long Palestinian Genocide that is continuing). Expert assessments published in the leading medical journal The Lancet indicate 553,000 Gazan deaths from violence and imposed deprivation in the period 7 October 2023 – 20 January 2025 or 24% of the pre-Gaza Massacre Gaza population – by way of comparison, in WW2  28% of the pre-war Jewish Hungarian population was killed by the Nazis.

From 1962 onwards I was associated with universities for half a century, variously as a student, researcher and  teacher. In addition in the last 3 decades I have been researching and writing about avoidable deaths from deprivation imposed by war, colonialism, neo-colonialism, imperialism  and hegemony, with my findings published in about 1,000 mostly huge and exhaustively referenced articles and 9 huge books (including massively updated editions). This “second career” as a humanitarian scholar commenced in 1995 with my being introduced to the WW2 Bengal Famine by the film “Distant Thunder” directed by the marvellous Bengali film-maker Satyajit  Ray and which concluded that 5 million Bengalis had perished.

My dear late wife of 52 years , Zareena née Lateef, was Fiji Indian, all her grandparents  being “5 year slaves” (indentured labourers) in Fiji from Bengal and Bihar, but  her British colonial and Australian  high school and university education  left her utterly unaware of this atrocity. This man-made and “forgotten” WW2 Bengali Holocaust  occurred at the same time as the WW2 Jewish Holocaust but was largely white-washed from British history  by successive generations of holocaust-ignoring British academic historiographers. You can understand my indignation and I  commenced researching and writing about this aided by the marvellous Indian collection of the Dietrich Borchardt Library of La Trobe University. I published various detailed accounts: one account was the subject of a speech and tabled in the Australian Senate by Greens Senator Christobal Chamarette (1995), a detailed account entitled ”The Famine of History: Bengal 1943” was published in a genocide journal (1995),  and in 1998 I published the first edition of “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability” to be followed by extensively updated 2008 and 2022 editions. 

The “forgotten” WW2 Bengali Holocaust (WW2 Indian Holocaust, WW2 Bengal Famine) was the first WW2 atrocity to have been described as a “holocaust” (by N.G. Jog, in “Churchill’s Blind-Spot: India”, 1944) and  involved the deliberate starving to death of 6-7 million Indians in 1942-1945 for strategic reasons in Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Assam by the British with food-denying Australian complicity. Inspired by Polish hero Jan Karski who tried to tell the world about the WW2 Jewish Holocaust as it was happening, I have been researching post-WW2 genocides and holocausts for 3 decades, and in particular the century-long Palestinian Genocide and Palestinian Holocaust (deaths now totalling 2.5 million from violence, 0.1 million, and from imposed deprivation, the remainder). As a Jewish Holocaust-impacted, anti-racist Jewish Australian humanitarian I have been inescapably bound by the key imperatives from the WW2 Jewish Holocaust and indeed from some 70 genocides and holocausts, to whit “zero tolerance for racism”,  “zero tolerance for lying”, “bear witness” and “never again to anyone” (this including  Indigenous People and Indigenous Australians and Indigenous Palestinians in particular).

My Submission is in 2 further parts as set out below, (2) an extensive,  detailed and exhaustively referenced account entitled Gideon Polya, “Australia’s Universities Embrace Lying & Censorship For Genocidal & Neo-Nazi Apartheid Israel”, Countercurrents, 2 March 2025: https://countercurrents.org/2025/03/australias-universities-embrace-lying-censorship-for-genocidal-neo-nazi-apartheid-israel/ , and (3) a Summary of this entitled “Australia’s universities lie and censor for Apartheid Israel”that is reproduced below and has been sent to virtually all Australian Federal MPs and Victorian State MPs and to a huge number of journalists, editors, academics and activists in Australia and around the world. 

(2). Detailed and documented account. My  extensive,  detailed and exhaustively referenced account has been published here for your convenience: Gideon Polya, “Australia’s Universities Embrace Lying & Censorship For Genocidal & Neo-Nazi Apartheid Israel”, Countercurrents, 2 March 2025: https://countercurrents.org/2025/03/australias-universities-embrace-lying-censorship-for-genocidal-neo-nazi-apartheid-israel/ . Please feel free to quote and disseminate this detailed account with attribution.

(3).  Summary:  Australia’s universities lie and censor for Apartheid Israel.

Australia’s 39 taxpayer-funded universities have endorsed a highly controversial new definition of antisemitism that was drafted by leaders from the Group of Eight (GoE), Australia’s top  universities, and is expected to be enforced on all campuses. It is likely that the several  private Australian universities will follow suit. This despicable Action threatens the free speech of academics and students that is the core ethos of decent universities. 

The essence of  the definition adopted by Australia’s universities is as follows: “Antisemitism is discrimination, prejudice, harassment, exclusion, vilification, intimidation or violence that impedes Jews’ ability to participate as equals in educational, political, religious, cultural, economic or social life. Criticism of Israel can be antisemitic when it is grounded in harmful tropes, stereotypes or assumptions and when it calls for the elimination of the State of Israel or all Jews or when it holds Jewish individuals or communities responsible for Israel’s actions. For most, but not all Jewish Australians, Zionism is a core part of their Jewish identity. Substituting the word ‘Zionist’ for ‘Jew’ does not eliminate the possibility of speech being antisemitic”.

This false, censoring and intimidating Action threatens the free speech of academics and students, and impacts negatively on the reputations of all past, present and future staff and students of Australia’s 39 taxpayer-funded universities. Indeed it threatens Australia’s A$40 billion per annum Education Export Industry that is crucial for the funding of Australia’s universities.

(A). Condemnation of the Action by some anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish Australians.

(1). The Jewish Council  of Australia (JCA): “Today, Australia’s 39 Universities endorsed a dangerous and politicised definition of antisemitism which threatens academic freedom, will have a chilling effect on legitimate criticism of Israel, and risks institutionalising anti-Palestinian racism”.

(2). Sarah Schwartz (JCA): “It degrades the very real fight against antisemitism for it to be weaponised to silence legitimate criticism of the Israeli state and Palestinian political expressions. It also risks fomenting division between communities and institutionalising anti-Palestinian racism”.

(3). Naama Blatman (JCA): “As a Jewish-Israeli academic who researches and teaches in the area of settler-colonialism and Israel/Palestine, this definition will have a chilling effect on scholarly work criticising the state of Israel and the political ideology and impacts of Zionism. This definition could very well be weaponised to silence the crucial work of academics in this area, including my own”.

(4). The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN): “[APAN] unequivocally condemns the adoption by Universities Australia and its 39 universities of a new definition of antisemitism that dangerously conflates criticism of Israel with discrimination against Jewish people. This move manipulates genuine concern about antisemitism to silence political dissent, shield Israel from accountability and shut down Palestinians and their allies”.

(5). Nasser Mashni (APAN President):“By adopting this definition of antisemitism, Australian universities have sacrificed their integrity, turning institutions of higher learning into obedient tools for political censorship and the shielding of genocide and apartheid”.

(6). Sawsan Madina (formerly Head of Australia’s multicultural SBS Television): “Now it would be helpful to have a prescriptive list of what one can say about Israel without being smeared as an anti-Semite… it would be greatly appreciated by all those who are morally caught between the need to speak up against a genocide and the fear of losing their livelihoods and reputations… “Once, an ‘antisemite’ was someone who hated Jews. Today, an ‘antisemite’ is someone the Jews hate””.

(B). Summarized below are 25 key objections to this false, authoritarian, anti-intellectual and dangerous Action by Australian  universities that threatens academic and student free speech and scholarship.  

(1). The Action is intrinsically racist by singling out alleged verbal abuse towards one group (Jewish Zionists) thereby ignoring real racism against many other Australian groups (notably Indigenous Australians, Muslims, Chinese and non-Europeans).

(2).  The Action arose to counter opposition to the Gaza Genocide, assist Zionist lying and hide the horrific genocide.

(3). The Action ignored the opinions of eminent anti-racist Jews and non-Jews opposed to racist Zionism, instead taking advice from genocidally racist Zionists.

(4). The Action entrenches real anti-Jewish anti-Semitism  in Australia through false conflation of Apartheid Israel and its awful crimes with all Jews including anti-racist  Jews (the very best of Jews).

(5). The Action contributes to the racist Zionist trashing of the 3 millennium humanitarian Jewish tradition from the Ten Commandments and Jesus’ “love thy neighbour as thyself” to wonderful present era humanitarians.

(6). The Action ignores the reality that anti-Semitism occurs in 2 equally repugnant forms, anti-Jewish anti-Semitism and anti-Arab anti-Semitism (including Islamophobia).

(7). The Action ignores the reality that most Jews are non-Semitic Ashkenazi Jews (like me) who as attested by DNA analysis descend from non-Semitic Turkic Khazar converts to Judaism in about the 9th century CE.

(8). The Action is anti-Jewish anti-Semitic and anti-Arab anti-Semitic by falsely smearing anti-racist Jewish, Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim critics of Apartheid Israel as assertedly “antisemitic”.

(9). The Action robs decent, anti-racist Jews and non-Jews of agency in protesting horrific Zionist crimes such as the Jewish Israeli-imposed Gaza Genocide. Silence is complicity.

(10). The Action’s Zionist proponents preferred adoption of the anti-Semitic and holocaust-denying International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Definition of Antisemitism rejected by over 40 anti-racist Jewish organizations.

(11). The Action was impelled by Zionists assertedly suffering  “fear” and “intimidation” from  on-campus and other pro-Palestinian human rights demonstrations, yet anti-racist Jews are warmly welcomed participants in such humanitarian events.

(12). The Action in seeking to constrain and punish expression of humanitarian views represents an attack on informed democracy and on both Kindness and Truth that constitute  the core ethos of decent Humanity.

(13). The Action violates the core academic ethos of unfettered free speech. Censorship is antithetical to scholarship, teaching and communication of ideas. Gideon Polya in “Current Academic Censorship and Self-Censorship in Australian Universities” (2001): “Finally, we should publicly insist that universities that constrain free speech are not fit for our children”.

(14). The Action violates Kindness and Truth that represent the core ethos of decent Humanity and pressures academics and indeed students to lie by omission and commission to students, academics and the public under dire threat.

(15). The Action unforgivably oppresses anti-racist Jews inescapably bound by the key WW2 imperatives of “zero tolerance for lying”, “zero tolerance for racism”, “bear witness” and “never again to anyone”.

(16). The Action hides 553,000 Gaza deaths, including 111,000 violent deaths, 443,000 dying  indirectly from imposed deprivation, and the deaths of 393,000 children, 51,000 women and 113,000 men (The Lancet).

(17). The Action silences anti-racist  Jews and non-Jews  protesting the century-long Palestinian Genocide and Palestinian Holocaust (2.5 million Palestinians killed by violence, 0.1 million, and imposed deprivation, the remainder).

(18). The Action threatens that science-informed reportage on the horrendous death toll in the Gaza Genocide  may be punished as asserted “hate speech” and “antisemitism” directed against Zionist Jews.

(19). The Action represents a fundamental neoliberal and corporatist rejection of the collegiate idea of the university as its past, present, and future academics and students.

(20). The Action by Australian universities  in the interests of Zionists and of Australia-violating Apartheid Israel tarnishes the achievements and integrity of all Australian university graduates past, present and future (notably at job interviews).

(21). The Action comes on top of and lends university weight to existing Australian Federal laws that punish alleged “terrorism” and “antisemitism” offences with mandatory imprisonment  for 6 years and 1 year respectively.

(22). The Action ignores Australian complicity in horrendous US Alliance and Apartheid Israeli crimes and instead uses “antisemitism hysteria”  to threaten anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish truth-tellers.

(23). The Action as a party to Zionist “antisemitism hysteria” hides the  horrific Gaza Genocide,  threatens  those exposing it, ignores real antisemitism directed by Zionists against  anti-racist Jews, and ignores horrific violence  against women.

(24). The Action commits Australia’s universities, staff and students to egregious lying by commission and omission in gross violation of the core academic ethos of Truth.

(25). The Action may well deter, ban or  severely punish numerous sensible, humane and informed commentaries and conclusions e.g.  pro-Apartheid Israel means pro-Apartheid and unfitness for public life and public office, and Gideon Polya, “Free Palestine. End Apartheid Israel, Human Rights Denial, Gaza Massacre, Child Killing, Occupation and Palestinian Genocide” (761 pages, 2024).

In summary, the core ethos of academia is free speech but this has been grossly violated by Australian universities threatening anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish students and academics critical of the appalling crimes of genocidal Apartheid Israel. This Action damages all past, present and future academics and students associated with Australian universities,  threatens Australia’s A$40 billion per year Education Export Industry, and trashes Australia’s reputation. This Action must be urgently reversed by universities, governments and the people, and the perpetrators of this national sabotage held to account.

This has been written in the public interest. Please disseminate this to everyone you can with attribution. Silence is complicity. For details and documentation see  Gideon Polya, “Australia’s Universities Embrace Lying & Censorship For Genocidal & Neo-Nazi Apartheid Israel”, Countercurrents, 2 March 2025: https://countercurrents.org/2025/03/australias-universities-embrace-lying-censorship-for-genocidal-neo-nazi-apartheid-israel/ .

Yours sincerely, Dr Gideon Polya, Melbourne.

Dr Gideon Polya taught science students at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia over 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, notably a huge pharmacological reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds” (2003). He has also published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (2007, 2021), “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (1998, 2008, 2022), “US-imposed Post-9-11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide” (2020), “Climate Crisis, Climate Genocide & Solutions” (2020), “Free Palestine. End Apartheid Israel, Human Rights Denial, Gaza Massacre, Child Killing, Occupation and Palestinian Genocide” (2024), and contributed to Soren Korsgaard (editor) “The Most Dangerous Book Ever Published – Dangerous Deception Exposed!” (2020). For images of Gideon Polya’s huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/  .