Jewish professor says 'intimidating' protest changed his life on campus

Jewish professor tells of 'intimidating', 'disruptive' Melbourne University protest Tue 14 Jul 2026 at 5:08am In short: In 2024, University of Melbourne professor Steven Prawer's office was taken over by campus protesters, some masked, who targeted him because of a partnership with Hebrew University. Professor Prawer said he now lives with security measures that have changed his experience of campus life. What's next: The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion will today continue hearing evidence of lived experiences of antisemitism ahead of appearances by some of Australia's most high-profile university leaders later this week. A University of Melbourne professor says an "antisemitic" campus protest that saw participants invade his office left him intimidated and subject to tough new security measures. In 2024, protesters, some masked and wearing keffiyehs, entered physics professor Steven Prawer's office as part of a demonstration against the war, refusing to leave until police were called. "They screamed after me as I was trying to leave the office, 'Prawer, Prawer, you can't hide you're guilty of genocide'," Professor Prawer said. "It certainly was highly intimidating and very disruptive, not just to me, but to the staff that were in the office and even the staff that were outside of the office." Professor Prawer said the protest was a betrayal of one of the core promises of university life. "It's just beneath contempt, it's just not the way that you that we want to behave at university, even if we have very strong disagreements, we treat each other with respect," he said. "And I think that the students broke all the rules of academic discourse that we treasure in the university." Professor Prawer will today appear before the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion to give evidence about the protest and the measures he believes are necessary to make Jewish students and staff feel welcome on campus again. "I've had to install cameras in my house and my family are aware that we are now under certain amount of scrutiny and have to take sensible security precautions," he said. Professor Prawer said he needed extra security at work too, permanently changing his life on campus and robbing him of the spontaneous exchanges he'd once treasured. "That's the price we pay for having security and not being able to have free discussions, but rather discussions that have to be orchestrated," he said. "The free flow of discussion, information has been severely curtailed." Professor calls for greater action from university Professor Prawer said the response from the broader university community left him "truly horrified". "Even more disappointing was that a petition appeared a couple of days after this, 150 of my colleagues at the university signed a petition in Overland [magazine] saying that this sort of protest was acceptable and the students should not be disciplined," he said. The letter said the staff didn't see the protest as "antisemitic" and supported the students in highlighting the university's partnership with Hebrew University. Professor Prawer said he remained disappointed the students weren't named and wanted greater action from the University of Melbourne in tackling antisemitism. Initially, two students were expelled and two were suspended. Professor Prawer said these penalties were reduced after an appeal, but he wasn't told what the new penalty was. "My disappointment is the university still won't make a statement about what the penalties were, what the findings were," Professor Prawer said. "It won't release to me or anybody else, the identities of the students." The University of Melbourne declined to comment, but at the time of the protest then Vice-Chancellor Duncan Maskell condemned the students' actions. "When I heard about what happened I was shocked and appalled. This type of behaviour is completely and utterly unacceptable and stands in direct opposition to the values we hold as a university,"Professor Maskell said. Interim Vice-Chancellor Professor Glyn Davis will appear before the commission tomorrow. University leaders expected to appear before commission this week Yesterday's hearings focusing on the lived experiences of staff and students the commission heard testimony of students being spat on and called Nazis and baby killers. It also heard from Yasmine Johnson, a Jewish student from Students for Palestine who defended the protests as being "anti-racist" demonstrations. Professor Prawer is now active in the Australian Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism (5A) and said he hopes his advocacy will mean Jewish staff and students are once again "welcome" on campus. "What I hope that will come out of this is a deep commitment to getting rid of antisemitism on campus or at least pushing it to the extremes," he said. "It's not just about safety, it's the idea of being welcome." Other high profile vice-chancellors from the University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, Australian National University and Monash University are expected to appear in coming days.