University of Melbourne Jewish professor’s office stormed by protesters calling him ‘a war criminal’

Anti-Israel protesters at the University of Melbourne trespassed in a Jewish physics professor’s office, accusing him of being a ‘war criminal’ during a sit-in protest that ended only when police were called.

Anti-Israel students trespass and protest in Jewish University of Melbourne physics professor Steven Prawer’s office. Picture: Instagram

Anti-Israel protesters at the University of Melbourne trespassed in a Jewish physics professor’s office, accusing him of being a “war criminal” during a sit-in protest that ended only when police were called.

University of Melbourne physics professor Steven Prawer had been individually targeted by the protesters for the past few weeks.

He testified before a Senate committee on campus anti-Semitism weeks ago that he had to be evacuated from his office because students marched on his office, and that a security guard was posted outside his door for the next three days.

University of Melbourne physics professor Steven Prawer appears before a Senate committee into campus anti-Semitism. Picture: Martin Ollman / NewsWire

At the latest protest, students affixed stickers in the office that accused Professor Prawer of being a “war criminal” and saying “Zionists are genocidal maniacs” – and then shared the images on social media.

About a dozen protesters appeared to be sitting around his office, some masked and draped in Palestinian keffiyeh scarves, chanting for an end to ties with Israeli universities.

University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Duncan Maskell swiftly slammed the protesters and promised the university’s “full disciplinary actions”.

“This type of behaviour is completely and utterly unacceptable and stands in direct opposition to the values we hold as a university,” he said.

“There are no circumstances where a member of our university community, a highly valued colleague, should be targeted in this way.

“Let me be unequivocally clear: intentional acts of intimidation, violence, vilification or antisemitism against members of our community will not be tolerated. If the people who were involved can be identified as University of Melbourne staff or students, they will be subject to the university’s full disciplinary actions.”

The protesters, in flyers they stuck up on the television, identified Professor Prawer as the academic lead of a joint PhD program between the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Melbourne.

The protesters shared images on social media.

“At present, UniMelb offers scholarships in honour of Zionists and in support of research at ­Israeli universities,” it read.

“No such support exists for Palestinian students and we demand that the university rectifies this.”

They listed their concerns with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, including that it “actively occupies stolen Palestinian land” and its ties to Israel’s security apparatus. The concerns did not go to the specific joint PhD program Professor Prawer helped oversee.

Professor Prawer told The Australian the program had nothing to do with weapons research, saying that current projects were looking into how birds navigate and research into new drugs.

“I think that the university has been almost … bending over backwards, putting itself in knots trying to navigate between its legal responsibilities, and what this has just done is students have just become emboldened,” he said.

“I mean, for students to feel that they could do this without risking their academic future is, I think, inappropriate.

“Most of them were masked, which is also a little bit terrifying to have masked invaders in your office. I don’t want to indicate that they were violent, and I don’t want to indicate that I thought that they were going to do physical violence, but I just don’t think it’s appropriate that my private space can be invaded with impunity.”

The Palestinian flag is displayed by the protesters. Picture: Instagram

He said the protesters were already in his office when he arrived around midday. “They were pleased to see me,” he said. “They invited me in for a chat. I said, you get out of my office now, and you make an appointment to see me.

“I said, ‘this is my private space, and you’re trespassing’. And they told me the Israeli government is trespassing on Palestinian lands.”

Professor Prawer expressed “overwhelming sadness” that his 35-year-old open-door office policy now had to be reversed because the university installed double doors and swipe card access out of security concerns.

He said the incident underlined the need for a judicial inquiry into campus anti-Semitism.

“The universities feel so constrained in their actions – maybe they need the backbone of legislation or the government to give them more backbone to actually do something to stop this,” he said.

Separately, two Western Sydney University students were arrested after allegedly assaulting campus security and police during a pro-Palestine rally on campus.

Opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said the University of Melbourne incident was a “shocking and distressing anti-Semitic attack on a prominent Jewish academic, designed to inflict further trauma at this difficult time for Jewish Australians”.

“This brazen attack underscores the need for an urgent ­judicial inquiry into campus anti-Semitism, and it is time the Prime Minister stopped speaking from both sides of his mouth and accepted the recommendations of his anti-Semitism envoy, Jillian Segal AO.”

Senator Henderson also commended the university for calling police to remove the protesters.

Liberal MP Julian Leeser echoed the call for a judicial inquiry, saying the event showed that “with this spineless group of vice-chancellors and university administrators no Jewish student or staff member is safe on our campuses”.

Additional reporting: Jack Newman