Masked protesters targeted my professor colleague this week because he is Jewish

On Wednesday, numerous protesters (many masked) entered the office of my colleague and friend, Professor Steven Prawer, in the physics building at the University of Melbourne, and refused to leave when he requested. Instead, they chanted offensive slogans at him, and left stickers and signs all over his office. The university was forced to call the police to expel the protesters.

Prawer is an observant Jew who wears a kippah. His supposed “crime” is an association with a joint PhD program between the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Melbourne. Currently, the program is assisting PhD students researching how birds navigate and new drug treatments. Of the many people associated with the program, only Prawer was singled out for attention by the protesters. It is astonishingly hypocritical for self-proclaimed “anti-racist” protesters to insult and intimidate a person, apparently on the basis of his race or national or ethnic origin.

Pro-Palestine protesters occupy Professor Steven Prawer’s office at the University of Melbourne on Wednesday.Credit: Instagram via Jewish News

More worryingly, this incident has been brewing for weeks. It began more than a month ago when posters appeared naming Prawer and encouraging people to contact him, before it escalated to a rally outside the physics building, and culminated in the “occupation” of his office.

There must be adverse consequences for the perpetrators of this behaviour; otherwise, protesters will be incentivised to target and intimidate individual academics as an easier way to achieve their demands. Moreover, a handful of aggressive protesters should not dictate whom Australian academics choose to collaborate with, regardless of the issue they are protesting against. This is inimical to notions of academic freedom.

Freedom of speech and the right to protest must be protected – reasoned criticism of the Israeli government policy is important – but conduct of the kind directed towards Prawer is utterly unacceptable. Protesters who participated in this incident have potentially committed both civil and criminal wrongs.

That the protesters seem to believe they could take such an action with impunity is illustrative of deeper issues and reflective of a broader atmosphere on campuses where such behaviour often only results in a warning. Academic freedom and freedom of speech will not be promoted if a vocal minority dictate what we can and can’t say; if students and staff belonging to a particular group are too afraid to come onto campus, or they cannot speak on any topic without aggressive protests. Firm lines must be drawn to prevent intimidation.

Professor Steven Prawer at a rally opposing antisemitism at the University of Melbourne in May.Credit: Darrian Traynor

Unfortunately, since the October 7 attack on Israel last year and the subsequent escalation of violence, Jewish and Israeli staff have become accustomed to incidents such as this. Campuses have been covered with posters and graffiti, some violent and displaying racial or ethnic hatred. At the University of Melbourne, as with many other campuses in Australia, a month-long protest encampment was established. For nine days in May, protesters (both students and staff) occupied the Arts West building, which they renamed “Mahmoud’s Hall”.

In June, a militant anti-Israel group, calling themselves “the Lion’s Den”, the name used by a Palestinian militant group, broke into the Baillieu Library on the Parkville Campus, smashed windows, defaced it with red paint and broke computers. Several speakers with either Israeli or Jewish heritage were forced to either cancel presentations at the University of Melbourne’s Parkville campus or move the presentations to a hybrid format because of threats from protesters, even though the topics had nothing to do with the tragic conflict in the Middle East.

An Instagram post of the University of Melbourne protest.Credit:

University disciplinary procedures are designed to protect students and to treat people in an even-handed manner – unfortunately, these procedures have been weaponised and cynically exploited by protesters. Now individual academics are being placed at risk.

Universities are risk and publicity-averse – they tend to tread lightly where student discipline is concerned – but by failing to draw a clear line and deter conduct such as the storming of Prawer’s office, they expose their staff to risk and suffer severe reputational risk.

Polarised and binary thinking which demands absolute loyalty to radical propositions has penetrated our society on many issues. This is not just a “Jewish issue”. It reflects a broader concern about how we have conversations on campus about contentious topics and balance the rights of staff and students from diverse backgrounds.

I hope Australian universities, including my own, take firm steps to prevent any further intimidatory behaviour in future, including by changing policies to ensure individual staff cannot be targeted in this way, and to allow for the discipline of protesters who step over the line and harass individuals.

I never thought I would see an incident like this in my country, much less my university.

Katy Barnett is a professor at Melbourne Law School and a member of the Australian Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism and the Free Speech Union of Australia.

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