Melbourne University students face expulsion over Gaza protest

Two University of Melbourne students face expulsion and another two could be suspended after they helped take over and occupy the office of a prominent Jewish academic last year.

Student groups have reacted with anger after a committee recommended the disciplinary action last week over a sit-in at an academic’s office on the university’s main campus in Parkville in October.

A protest inside the University of Melbourne arts building in May 2024.Credit: Eamon Gallagher

Vice chancellor Emma Johnston, who is expected to sign off on the expulsions this week, said the university was committed to using disciplinary processes to “respond to any actions that may intimidate or threaten the safety of students and staff on our campuses”.

The four students are accused of – and deny – harassing and intimidating university workers during the occupation by about 20 protesters, some of them masked, of the office of Jewish professor Steven Prawer, who had been outspoken in the previous months about antisemitism on campus.

The protest groups said Prawer had been targeted as a key figure in the institution’s official relationship with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with which Prewar works on research on bird behaviour and new drugs.

After the group was asked to leave by Prawer and refused, they spent about 90 minutes in and around the office, chanting slogans and putting up stickers and posters before police arrived at the campus to evict the protesters.

In the wake of the incident, Prewar and then-vice chancellor Duncan Maskell called for serious disciplinary action against the protesters.

Students for Palestine co-convenor Bella Beiraghi said the subsequent disciplinary process had been opaque and the committee was a “kangaroo court”.

The Australian National University’s expulsion of student Beatrice Tucker last year – after she expressed support for Hamas on ABC radio – was overturned on appeal.

The University of Melbourne did not follow through on its threats to expel or suspend up to 20 students who helped occupy a campus building in May last year.

If Johnston – in her first year in the position – proceeds with the expulsions, the student activists will have 30 days to appeal.

Beiraghi said expelling the pair would set a precedent as the first students kicked out of an Australian tertiary institution for protesting against the war. The decision would also have serious implications for free speech across the nation’s campuses.

“It does set a precedent, for them to expel and suspend pro-Palestine activists on campus, and one that I think other university administrations would emboldened by,” Beiraghi said. “That’s something that, as pro-Palestine activists, we really want to push back on.”

Johnston told The Age on Monday that the university respected the right to protest, but that the safety of staff and students had to be protected.

“It’s our responsibility to respond to any actions that may intimidate or threaten the safety of students and staff on our campuses,” Johnston said. “These matters are taken seriously and addressed under the appropriate policy, which may include disciplinary procedures.”

Activist group Unimelb for Palestine launched a campaign on Monday aimed at pressuring Johnston, herself a former student activist who led her university’s student union in the 1990s, to not expel or suspend the students.

“We are calling on all groups and individuals to URGENTLY contact the VC ... to demand that the student misconduct be repealed, and echo our call for Unimelb to cut ties with universities in Israel,” the group told its social media followers.

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