A royal commission heard on Tuesday that Melbourne University physics academic Steven Prawer was targeted in 2024 over his facilitation of a joint PhD program with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The institution then received a letter from the deputy commissioner of Victoria Police asking for careful consideration of the risks in allowing a related pro-Palestine encampment to continue on campus, interim vice-chancellor Glyn Davis said on Wednesday.
More than 20 tents containing 50 protesters were erected on campus the day the letter was received. They were ordered to leave by then-vice chancellor Duncan Maskell. They refused, and a lengthy negotiation process ensured.
In one incident, it took four police officers to remove one protester, Professor Davis said.
The university then changed its by-laws to disallow camping on campus.
Separately, Professor Prawer, who was one of the more junior staff on the joint PhD program, said that the university had not kept him abreast of an investigation into the incident. He was not told the identities of protesters and therefore could not avoid them on campus.
But Professor Davis pushed back against that on Wednesday, saying that while he understood his colleague's concerns, it was important the process was confidential, given it was "dealing with young adults at (the) start of their life, their professional career".
"The way (the process) is structured is to try not to make a stain on the rest of their lives by an adverse decision by the university," he said.
Protesters were only able to occupy the office because a door was left open as a new security swipe system was installed in response to earlier targeting of Professor Prawer.
"Life is full of ironies," Professor Davis said.
The Royal Commission on Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion is spending a week hearing from university staff and students about their experiences of hatred, as it also tries to untangle hate speech from criticism of Israel.
It heard on Tuesday that a former Israeli soldier told the inquiry he had been "rushed" at during university protests when he tried to speak with students.
Yotam Barazani, a 29-year-old cybersecurity professional attended a pro-Palestine encampment at Deakin University in May 2024, holding a sign that read: "I want peace for all. Let's talk".
He said he was pushed to the ground and had his sign taken.
"I thought I'd be clever and there was a sign of theirs (the protesters) next to me," he said.
"I picked it up with the hope to say: 'Hey, give me back my sign and I'll give you back yours, but that could not come to fruition because the moment I touched the signed, I got rushed by what seemed to be 20 to 30 protesters."
Mr Barazani grew up in Israel and spent two years as a paratrooper for the Israeli military before he was employed as a sessional tutor in Australia.
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