OP article: 17 May 2025

Alternate article- Student general meeting demands USyd drop specious definition of antisemitism, cut ties with Israel - 18 May 2025

USyd response statement - University of Sydney does not condone student resolution: statement: 21 May 2025

Selected paragraphs:

Over 200 students packed a Student General Meeting at the University of Sydney this week, overwhelmingly rejecting the university’s new definition of antisemitism, designed to smear supporters of Palestine, and standing up to a crackdown on the right to protest.

The new Universities Australia definition of antisemitism, adopted by nearly all Australian universities, states that criticism of Israel can be antisemitic “when it calls for the elimination of the State of Israel”. It draws heavily on the widely-condemned International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition which has been opposed by organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

In the end, only two students voted against any of the motions. It was an incredibly important moment for the movement on campus in a context where the right to support Palestine is under serious attack.

When two Zionist students spoke against the motions, calling pro-Palestine protesters antisemitic and condemning Hamas, the entire auditorium turned their backs on them. In response to their claims, an anti-Zionist student from a Jewish family spoke in support of the motion to support the one-state solution, telling the crowd: “I’m tired of being represented by Jewish people that think defending the state of Israel is valid, so I decided to come and speak for myself.”

In the lead-up to the meeting, the University had also threatened to cancel the room booking for the SGM unless the meeting was recorded and every student who wanted to attend presented their identification to security. These demands were dropped after opposition from the SRC.

A low-hanging fruit on YouTube/etc. is "[Nationality] TRIES [nationality] FOOD FOR THE FIRST TIME!!", you know the type, but a few of them are actually entertaining or have novel commentary and not just vapid "i lieked this/i didnt like vegemite" reaction filler.

Bonus points for any that involve actual recipes (e.g. a pavlova) instead of just packaged lollies, biscuits and spreads.

I love putting things in boxes, it's my hobby you see, so I'd like to hear other people's thoughts and perspectives on this.

But my point is pretty straightforward: there is an overarching aussie.zone community, and as long as the sidebars are well-connected to aid discovery (and they're already pretty good), there's no point in having news and politics spread across three different communities, and we just end up with redundant crossposting creating parallel conversations.

It would be great to clarify the relationship between /c/australia, /c/news and /c/australianpolitics.

I'm headed for the MUA march in town, it's great having a yarn with all the other workers in the pub afterwards.

This interview is notable for asking some questions from a different perspective to most opinions I've seen. The questions include: (paraphrased)

• What are the aims of the tarrifs, and will they achieve it? (spoiler: lol no)
• Do the US mega-rich support Trump’s tariffs?
• How do they fit into Trump's broader foreign policy?
• Do these tarrifs spell the end of globalisation?
• Will these lead to further decoupling from the Global South, allowing them to pursue more autonomous development strategies?
• What position should working-class forces take towards these tariffs and talk of retaliatory tariffs from other countries, whether in the Global North or South?

https://aussie.zone/post/18782079

This post is for voting on /c/rage's Lemmyvision 2 song nomination.

Over the past few weeks, our community has submitted nominations, and we have until April 1 to pick a winner. Our Lemmyvision representative, @Gorgritch_umie_killa, has delegated our election to an independent agency, the Aussie.zone Eureka Commission (AEC).

Anyone who has recently commented a few times on aussie.zone before today is allowed to vote. (This includes, for example, some quokk.au users and various Australian Lemmy users on other instances)

This election uses preferential Instant-Runoff Voting^[wiki]^ just like our federal elections. Put simply, this means that if your [1] choice has no chance of election, your vote then runs over to your [2] choice, and so on, so there's no disadvantage in picking an unpopular song you love for your first votes, your vote is not 'wasted' at all. Vote sincerely.

A couple of the nominations weren't released during 2024, we've received confirmation from the organiser that they're allowed!

Here are the entries. Please listen to them all before voting:

• Tanzer - International
• TISM - '70s Football
• Budjera - Is It Ever Gonna Make Sense
• San Cisco - Under The Light (released 2023)
• Amyl and the Sniffers - U Should Not Be Doing That
• Gurridyula - From the river to the sea
• Tom Cardy - Transcendental Cha Cha Cha
• The Wiggles - Friends of Dorothy (released 2025)
• MUDRAT - I HATE RICH CUNTS ^+^ ^live^ ^performance^
• Heleina Zara - Boundaries

Here is the ballot template for you to fill in. Copy and paste it as a new reply to this post, and number ALL boxes from 1 to 10 in order of your choice. [1] is your first preference, [10] is your last preference.

___
**LemmyVision 2 /c/rage Nomination Ballot**

Place a number inside the box next to ALL songs, ranking them from 1 to 10 in order of preference.
```java
[]  Tanzer - International
[]  TISM - ʹ70s Football
[]  Budjera - Is It Ever Gonna Make Sense
[]  San Cisco - Under The Light
[]  Amyl and the Sniffers - U Should Not Be Doing That
[]  Gurridyula - From the river to the sea
[]  Tom Cardy - Transcendental Cha Cha Cha
[]  The Wiggles - Friends of Dorothy
[]  MUDRAT - I HATE RICH CUNTS
[]  Heleina Zara - Boundaries
```
___

The "Nicole" spammer is annoying, but it's a great test of our anti-spam capabilities.

Spam is a real threat. efore this instance was made, there was a right-wing troll using open-registration instances to spam shock porn on every post they could until they were banned, then come back the next day. And with the increased popularity of Lemmy, commercial spam is more and more likely to begin.

If you have the capability to block text, could you try to block the Nicole spam messages?

Bewildered by our wildlife? Curious about our cuisine? Perplexed by our perspectives? Fascinated by the social implications of compulsory, preferential run-off voting?

Well don't bother with search engines, nah, just Ask an Aussie!

Link: [email protected]

This is the B-plot of Utopia (2014) Season 4 Episode 8.

Summary:

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. They did so without meaningful consultation with Palestinian groups or diverse Jewish groups who are critical of Israel.

The Jewish Council of Australia strongly opposes the antisemitism definition developed by the Group of Eight (Go8) universities and adopted by Universities Australia. By categorising Palestinian political expression as inherently antisemitic, it will be unworkable and unenforceable, and stifle critical political debate, which is at the heart of any democratic society.

The definition dangerously conflates Jewish identities with support for the state of Israel and the political ideology of Zionism.

I was going to include some key dot points, but this statement is succinct enough that you should just read it, or at least skim it.