Fahad Ali, a Nasty Piece of Work Timothy Cootes
https://quadrant.org.au/news-opinions/anti-semitism/fahad-ali-a-nasty-piece-of-work/
Since October 7, the misbehaviour of Australia’s academics has provided excellent and amusing copy for Quadrant, but hasn’t yet effected much improvement in the hiring standards of our universities. This is the topic, you might say, of my thesis-in-progress, which posits that you can get away with the most obscene displays of moral imbecility in this country so long as you brandish your academic title.
A new case study, I’m bound to report, may very well test the credibility of my thesis. Dr Fahad Ali, a casual lecturer at the University of Sydney, set out his preferred foreign policy vision and objectives just as Israeli airstrikes began targeting the greater Tehran area. “F*** sanctions,” Ali advised his social media followers. “I want Zionists executed like we executed Nazis.”
His post, due to an obvious violation of community standards, was removed by X, and a similar decision now falls to his employer. The University of Sydney, according to The Australian, is “appalled” by Ali’s remarks and has promised to conduct a speedy investigation.
The coverage of this incident so far suggests Ali (right), a sensitive plant, is just a well-meaning and passionate advocate for Palestine who let himself become emotionally overwhelmed. On the contrary, this latest hissy-fit, in both content and volume, looks rather similar to many of Ali’s previous outbursts, so the evidence against him is really starting to pile up. In the spirit of cooperation with Quadrant, the University of Sydney, in its review of Ali’s ongoing employment status, might pursue any of the following lines of inquiry.
On October 9, 2023, as Hamas’s pogrom in southern Israel was still underway, Ali’s activist outfit, Palestine Action Group, kicked off a celebratory rally at Sydney Town Hall. To warm up the crowd, he bragged about his lack of sympathy for the Jewish victims, which included—as he must have known—babies, elderly, and raped women: “I’m not going to stand before you and shed tears over the settlers, the terrified settlers.”
He then endorsed Hamas’s overall policy and welcomed the prospect of more bloodshed, barking: “Colonialism will only be overcome with greater violence.” His mob, as they arrived at the Opera House, proceeded to burn Israeli flags, make a pest of themselves in front of supine police, and belt out their favourite chants. The politer ones, the global headlines told us, included “Where’s the Jews?” and “F*** the Jews.”
Ali’s swooning over Hamas’s violence can be compared with his activism against—don’t worry, I’ll explain—dancing Jews. Ali came to public attention in January 2022, when he gave numerous speeches and ABC interviews lambasting the Sydney Festival’s receipt of $20,000 from the Israeli embassy to stage Decadence. This performance, by most accounts, received positive reviews and cheerful applause, which contrasted with Ali’s dark predictions about the apparent dangers of Israeli choreography. In making his case for an urgent boycott, Ali told a rather incurious ABC journalist that hosting this particular dancing routine “created an unsafe environment for Palestinian artists taking part in the festival and for audiences more broadly.” Follow-up questions asking the interviewee to elucidate such a fantastical claim, I don’t really need to add, weren’t exactly forthcoming.
That boycott, readers will be pleased to recall, failed, though I wonder—as Sydney University investigators ought to inquire—if Ali’s professed concerns for safety weren’t all that serious or inclusive, given his later demands for the execution of his political enemies. I wonder, too, in Ali’s view, if dancing Zionists are sufficiently Nazi-like to be added to his kill-list. As it happens, he is rather honest about some of his other inclusions.
We already know, for example, that his contempt for the October 7 victims extended to Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, the soon-to-be-engaged Israeli diplomats assassinated on the streets of Washington DC. Ali, in a series of temper-tantrums, again boasted of his “zero sympathy” for the employees of the “Nazi entity”, and then suggested their murder was a false-flag conspiracy involving the Mossad.
In a similar fashion, right before his let’s-execute-Zionists post, Ali fantasised about throwing a gay Israeli off a rooftop and explained—on account of Ali’s own queer identity—how he would elude the charge of homophobia. Not for the first time, to be honest, I’ve wondered whether his chosen vocation—educating the youth of Sydney —is the best fit.
Should his university contemplate agreement with me, rest assured that Ali has already expressed a desire to become a martyr of sorts. Like other institutions of higher education, the University of Sydney has adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antiSemitism, which suggests, in some circumstances, calling for the genocidal destruction of Israel might prompt an e-mail from your academic department. Ali told the Guardian that he would nobly defy such a restriction to his freedom of speech, and even welcomed any disciplinary and legal repercussions.
That reckoning is well on its way, and Ali has again vowed to face it with mad but steely resolve. Just after his controversial post, he emphasised its sincerity, declaring: “I’m not going to pretend we can coexist with savages and I’m not particular (sic) concerned about the impact on my life for calling it out.” Whether Ali’s academic faculty can coexist with him, a serial enthusiast for the execution of Zionists, is the matter soon to be decided. In this moment of uncertainty, if it’s any comfort to Ali, I’m quite sure there are a number of other academics in the greater Sydney area—names on request—who are privately sharing and repeating his X post in an act of deranged solidarity.
The university’s public criticism of Ali also included an offer of support for any community member who might feel at risk or in need, which is hardly surprising given its embarrassing handling of student and staff complaints about antiSemitism. The statement also brought to mind an earlier post from Ali, which now strikes me as a kind of reworking of the “Where’s the Jews?” chant at the Opera House. In May, Ali posted:
“I’m going to reiterate my offer: if you’re a Jew in Australia who is questioning Zionism but you don’t know where to begin, you can reach out to me for a private chat. If you’re in Sydney we can get a coffee. Taking the first step is scary!”
Well, yeah. That does sound kind of scary, Fahad. You are right about that. So, in the interests of safety, even if the university keeps you on staff, I’d advise your colleagues, students, and anyone on campus to decline any and all coffee meet-ups. It’s probably not worth finding out if moderate or sceptical believers in the existence of the state of Israel also merit execution. There’s still a lesson to be learned from all this, though, and Fahad Ali has even delivered it: he’s the reason, after all, that you may want to call yourself a Zionist in the first place.
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