A controversial Muslim scholar receiving an $802,000 taxpayer-funded grant led a protest in which children chanted anti-Israel slogans.
Macquarie University researcher Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah hosted an “all-ages” event called “Gaza Solidarity Camp” at the University of Sydney on Friday to “inspire” children to “stand up for justice and solidarity”.
Footage shows Dr. Abdel-Fattah applauding and cheering on the children as they chanted slogans such as “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” “Israel is a terrorist state” and “intifada,” a Palestinian term calling for an uprising. civil.
Photos of the event posted online by the University of Sydney’s Wellbeing Action Group show children, who appear to be as young as five, being urged to speak into the detachable microphone of a megaphone.
Dr. Abdel-Fattah later insisted that the children were free to sing whatever they wanted.
According to the student organization, the protest featured a “teaching” from Dr. Abdel-Fattah, face painting and a workshop from Tatreez, and ended with an “incredible mini demonstration.”
In another post, the University of Sydney’s SRC organization said anti-Zionist speakers also addressed students.
Footage posted online showing children chanting pro-Palestine slogans at a protest (pictured) at the University of Sydney has sparked outrage.
“In the afternoon, Palestinian Lab independent journalist and author Antony Loewenstein visited the camp to give a speech about anti-Zionism and the continued institutional support that universities provide to Israel,” the statement said.
“Students then staged a demonstration at the camp before taking to the streets, disrupting traffic and reiterating our demand that the University of Sydney cut ties with Thales and Israeli institutions.”
The incident made headlines around the world and has put Dr Abdel-Fattah, who was awarded the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship in 2022, which provides a four-year salary and project funding to researchers in mid- career, in the spotlight.
Their research, which focuses on “Australian Arab and Muslim social movements since the 1970s”, will be funded until the 2025/26 financial year, at a total cost to taxpayers of $802,000.
But critics are now calling for Dr Abdel-Fattah, who is no stranger to controversy, to have her grant withdrawn.
Shadow Education Minister Sarah Henderson called Friday’s event “appalling” and called on her Labor counterpart Jason Clare to immediately scrap Dr Abdel-Fattah’s grant.
“Abhorrent behavior in which pro-Palestinian activists are indoctrinating children,” he wrote on X.
‘How can this be allowed to happen? What kind of country have we become? As can be seen in videos published on social networks, some of the children who attended this so-called “children’s excursion” were barely five years old.
‘Minister Clare must immediately cancel this grant. No ifs or buts. There is no justification for the Albanian Government to continue funding a person who engages in conduct that puts the well-being of children at risk.’
The rally was organized by controversial Muslim scholar Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah (pictured)
Executive Council of Australian Jews (ECAJ) co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said encouraging children to chant anti-Israel slogans only increased the cultural divide within Australia.
“Our country faces the very real threat of religiously and racially motivated violence,” said Mr Ryvchin.
‘This incident should be closely examined by the government and authorities.
‘The organizers of this horrible show want to divide our country. We cannot allow this to happen.
“The University of Sydney must expel and expel those involved from its campus before its reputation suffers permanent damage.”
Commentator Andrew Bolt also echoed calls for Dr Abdel-Fattah to be defunded, arguing that the academic has made worse comments in the past.
In 2018, Dr Abdel-Fattah wrote an op-ed saying she “refused to condemn” the murder of a Melbourne cafe owner by Islamist terrorist Hassan Khalif Shire Ali.
“I, an Australian Muslim, refuse to condemn the violence that took place on Bourke Street,” she wrote in The Age.
“Asking me to condemn is stripping me of my basic humanity.”
Dr. Abdel-Fattah is shown smiling at a girl, who appeared to be as young as four, as he spoke into a microphone at Friday’s event.
Last year, he also clashed with Sky News Australia reporter Erin Molan during an on-air interview after Dr Abdel-Fattah said she “did not see Hamas as a terrorist organisation”.
Addressing the uproar, Dr. Abdel-Fattah issued a statement on X on Monday, saying that Friday’s meeting offered “children a space of comfort, healing and community.”
Dr. Abdel-Fattah said Palestinian children have been distressed by the images coming out of Gaza and on Friday were given the microphone to “lead chants of their choice” in the hope of “giving them a sense of agency in a moment of anguish.”
“Those who took advantage of the opportunity had been at the weekly demonstrations for more than seven months, observing and participating in chants and calls for justice, freedom and an end to the massacre,” he wrote.
“Our children refuse to accept that their brothers should be sentenced to be killed by Israel.”
Dr Abdel Fattah slammed the European Court of Justice, saying its comments about the children’s outing were “defamatory… as far as I, a Palestinian Egyptian Muslim woman, are concerned”.
She also claimed that the ECAJ was launching a campaign to try to get her kicked out of her job.
“Macquarie has policies in place to protect me from ‘undue pressure’ aimed at restricting my academic freedom,” he said.
‘Yet the ECAJ parades its appeals to my employer, aided by its stenographer, the Murdoch press. If he can do this publicly, what undue influence does he wield behind closed doors?
WhatsNew2Day Australia has contacted Dr Abdel-Fattah and Macquarie University for comment.