Jewish academic’s office occupied by demonstrators

Professor Steven Prawer, a physicist at the University of Melbourne, has called for the expulsion of pro-Palestinian students who recently occupied his office.

The incident, which occurred when Prof Prawer arrived at his office around 12:30 pm on Wednesday, saw approximately 20 students putting up posters.

“Stephen Prawer, you can’t hide. You’re guilty of genocide,” they shouted as he attempted to enter.

Prof Prawer, who oversees a joint PhD programme between the University of Melbourne and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, believes the students should face severe consequences.

“I think they should be expelled,” he stated firmly.

“They’re guilty of criminal trespass. It’s chilling that they would actually invade the private office of an academic,” he said.

The professor emphasised the distinction between this incident and previous protests in public spaces.

“There’s a huge difference between occupying public spaces and occupying the spaces of individual academics,” he explained.

The occupation has forced Prof Prawer to abandon his 35-year-old open-door policy.

“Now, of course, the doors are locked and I am behind swipe card access. It’s not very spontaneous anymore,” he said.

Prof Prawer expressed disappointment in the students’ behaviour and their calls for the university to sever ties with Israeli academic institutions.

“I think that’s short-sighted, counterproductive, outrageous, uneducated [and] ignorant,” he said.

Prawer said he has received literally hundreds of emails and calls, and each and every one of them has expressed both support and outrage.

“Outrage because I’ve been targeted as an individual who has been performing the task that I’ve been tasked with by the University. And the fact that the students have targeted me, I think, is recognised by many of my colleagues as a consequence of the fact that I’m Jewish and I wear a kippa,” he said.

University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Duncan Maskell has criticised the protesters and promised “full disciplinary actions” against them.

Alon Cassuto, CEO of the Zionist Federation of Australia, condemned the incident and called for stronger action against incidents like this.

“It’s clear business as usual is not going to cut it to stamp out the blatant antisemitism and targeting of Jewish students and academics on campus; the Government must reconsider the urgent need for a judicial inquiry, anything less will not stop the scourge on campuses,” he said.

Prof Prawer has called for the reintroduction of respectful debate into university culture.

“We’ve got to try to introduce some Jewish values in terms of the value of debate, reason, respectful debate, back into the university culture,” he said.

University of Melbourne students occupying a Jewish professor’s office.