Aussie schoolkids as young as five chanting anti-Israel slogans horrified the world. Now the woman egging them on has been revealed as a Muslim scholar with a history of controversy

A controversial Muslim scholar who receives an $802,000 taxpayer-funded grant spearheaded a protest which saw children chanting anti-Israel slogans.

Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah, a researcher at Macquarie University, held a 'Gaza Solidarity Encampment' 'all ages' event at Sydney University on Friday to 'inspire' children to 'stand up for justice and solidarity'.

Footage shows Dr Abdel-Fattah clapping and encouraging children as they chanted slogans including 'from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free', 'Israel is a terrorist state' and 'intifada' - a Palestinian term calling for civil uprising.

Photos of the event posted online by the University of Sydney Welfare 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 the children were free to chant whatever they wanted. 

According to the student organisation, the protest featured a 'teach-in' by Dr Abdel-Fattah, face painting and a Tatreez workshop, and ended with an 'amazing mini rally'.

In another post, The University of Sydney SRC organisation said students were also addressed by anti-Zionist speakers. 

'In the afternoon the independent journalist and author of the Palestine Laboratory Antony Loewenstein visited the encampment to give a speech on anti-Zionism and the ongoing institutional support universities provide to Israel,' the statement said.

'Students then held a rally at the encampment 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 thrust Dr Abdel-Fattah - who was granted the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship in 2022, which provides four-year salary and project funding to mid-career researchers - into the spotlight.

Her research - which focuses on 'Arab/Muslim Australian social movements since the 1970s' - will be funded until the 2025/26 financial year, for a total cost of $802,000 to taxpayers.

But critics are now calling for Dr Abdel-Fattah - who is no stranger to controversy - to be stripped of her grant. 

Shadow Minister for Education Sarah Henderson has slammed Friday's event as 'appalling' and has called for her Labor counterpart, Jason Clare, to axe Dr Abdel-Fattah's grant immediately.

'Abhorrent behaviour where pro-Palestinian activists are indoctrinating children,' she wrote on X.

'How can this be allowed to happen? What sort of country have we become? As can be seen in videos posted on social media, some of the children attending this so-called “children’s excursion” were barely five years old. 

'Minister Clare must immediately cancel this grant. No ifs, no buts. There is no justification for the Albanese Government continuing to fund a person engaged in conduct which puts the well-being of children at risk.' 

Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said encouraging children to chant the anti-Israel slogans only added to cultural division within Australia.

'Our country faces the very real threat of religiously and racially motivated violence,' Mr Ryvchin said. 

'This incident should be closely examined by government and law enforcement.

'The organisers of this horrific spectacle want to split our country apart. We cannot allow this to occur.

'Sydney University must remove and ban those involved from its campus before its reputation suffers permanent damage.' 

Commentator Andrew Bolt also echoed calls for Dr Abdel-Fattah's funding to be stripped, arguing that the academic has made worse comments in the past. 

In 2018, Dr Abdel-Fattah wrote an opinion piece, stating she 'refused to condemn' the murder of 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.

'To ask me to condemn is to strip me of my basic humanity.'

Last year, she 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 the gathering on Friday offered 'children a space of comfort, healing and community'. 

Dr Abdel-Fattah said Palestinian children have been distressed by images coming out of Gaza and kids were given the microphone on Friday to 'lead chants of their choosing' in hope of 'giving them a sense of agency in a moment of distress'. 

'The ones who jumped at the opportunity had been to the weekly rallies for over seven months, observing and participating in chants and calls for justice, freedom and an end to the slaughter,' she wrote.

'Our children refuse to accept that their siblings must be condemned to be killed by Israel.' 

Dr Abdel Fattah slammed the ECAJ, claiming their comments about the kids' excursion were 'defamatory ... as concerns me, a Palestinian Egyptian Muslim woman.

She also claimed the ECAJ were launching a campaign to try and have her booted from her job. 

'Macquarie has policies in place to protect me from “improper pressures” aimed at restricting my academic freedom,' she said. 

'Yet the ECAJ flaunts its calls on my employer, aided by its stenographer, the Murdoch press. If it can do this publicly, what undue influence does it exert behind closed doors?'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Dr Abdel-Fattah and Macquarie University for comment.