Students at one of Australia’s elite universities were pressured to stick with the country’s longest running campus Gaza solidarity encampment, a Royal Commission has heard.
Australian National University’s Gaza solidarity encampment ran the longest of 21-such protests at Australian universities in 2024.
ANU Acting Provost Joan Leach said students protesting were under peer pressure to stick with it.
“We are a small university, and so the security services at the university tend to know many of the students and staff. And they were quite active in interacting with the encampment,” Professor Leach said.
Australian National University Acting Provost Joan Leach gave evidence to the Royal Commission on Thursday.
“ … To ensure they had kept a constant watch on what was going on. And again, to encourage any students who wanted to leave or maybe were feeling peer pressure to stay on to do so.”
Counsel assisting the commission, Zelie Heger, asked why the uni did not just shut down the encampment.
Violent clashes between police and students at US encampments was “front of mind”, Professor Leach said, in evidence echoing management at other elite Australian universities.
“There was media attention on US universities, and some images around students being pulled by police off campuses. I think colleagues were very aware of that, very concerned not to bring violence here to Australia, where the context was perceived to be different.
“From that moment at that time, there was attention to how to bring the encampment to a close peacefully, without violence, and with some agreement with the students.
“In hindsight, that might appear naive or inadequate, but I do believe at the time there was a hope that the encampment could be brought to a peaceful end.”
Australian National University students held a Gaza solidarity encampment from April 29 to August 24, 2024. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman
Three things ended the ANU camp; the electricity was shut off, ANU tightened its screening on links with weapons manufacturers which the protesters were demanding, and thirdly the university effectively banned encampments.
The Royal Commission into anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion resumed hearings in Melbourne on Thursday, in a block of hearings focused on universities.
Earlier in the week, a Jewish ANU student giving evidence under the pseudonym Liat, said she was called a baby killer and genocide supporter on campus.
“Students should be able to walk through campus without that kind of, what I would refer to, as harassment,” Professor Leach said.
A Jewish student being called a baby killer at an Australian university was anti-Semitic, the Provost said.
“Because it was asking her, as a member of the Jewish community, to take responsibility for something very many miles away, and shouted at her in a harassing tone.”
The ANU has brought in mandatory anti-Semitism training and “bystander training” for all students who live on campus.
ANU is also working with the Australasian Union of Jewish Students to create scenarios where the training will be further implemented. Students not living on campus will do the training by video meeting at some point in the future.
