Activist reveals targeting of pro-Palestine students at University of Melbourne

For several months now, Dana Alshaer and hundreds of others at a top Australian university have been raising their voices for Palestinians suffering through Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza.

Alshaer is one of the founders and main organizers of UniMelb for Palestine, a collective of students, staff and alumni of the University of Melbourne set up last November.

They have staged protests and used all possible avenues to take a stand for Palestine and to force the university to cut ties with weapons manufacturers, divest from Israeli firms and, as Alshaer puts it, “end its complicity in the genocide in Gaza.”

The movement has made an impact, successfully pushing the university to disclose in June its links with weapons manufacturers Lockheed Martin, Boeing and BAE Systems, as well as over $15 million in research partnerships and investments with the US Department of Defense, Alshaer told Anadolu.

That happened after their month-long Gaza solidarity encampment and a sit-in staged at Mahmoud’s Hall, an arts building renamed by the students to honor Mahmoud Alnaouq, a Palestinian student killed in Gaza who was due to join the University of Melbourne.

For their activism, Alshaer and 20 other students are now facing “extremely baseless” allegations of misconduct from the university and the threat of expulsion.

“They targeted five main organizers of UniMelb for Palestine, and they also targeted some prominent students who have been very visibly present during rallies and protests on campus,” said Alshaer.

“These misconduct allegations are a punishment … for students who defied the university’s ties with weapons manufacturers … and challenged the university’s ongoing complicity in the genocide in Gaza. The university is punishing students for standing up against genocide.”

Illegal tracking and right to protest

The University of Melbourne has leveled two main charges against the protesters, the first being violation of health and safety regulations and the second that they used the building improperly by staging a sit-in.

“There were no safety concerns, there was no entries or exits, blockaded, or any obstacles present in the building,” said Alshaer.

“All of these allegations violate our rights as students under the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities. We have a right to peaceful protest and it’s protected by that charter, and we were peacefully protesting.”

The very nature of these charges of misconduct is “extremely political,” she asserted.

The university’s action against pro-Palestine protesters has also brought to light another critical issue, with students and rights groups raising concerns that illegal surveillance methods were used by the administration.

“In the misconduct allegations, the university included CCTV footage and Wi-Fi location tracking as evidence … so there’s been a use of surveillance technologies against students,” Alshaer explained.

She pointed out that the university, back in 2016, specifically said that “their Wi-Fi tracking cannot and will not be used to identify students.”

“However, what we saw in the misconduct allegations and documents that were sent to us is that Wi-Fi tracking has been used to track students,” she said.

“With the CCTV footage, there’s extremely big concerns over the university’s possible and potential use of facial recognition programs.”

This has even drawn concerns from prominent human rights organizations such as Amnesty International Australia, Human Rights Law Center and Digital Rights Watch, she said.

There have also been more statements of support for students and condemnation of the university from other bodies such as the Jewish Council of Australia, she said.

The University of Melbourne is also “under investigation by the Victorian Commissioner’s Office of Information,” she added.

Futures at stake

Despite being targeted by the university, Alshaer said the students are determined to continue their activism for Palestine, but emphasized that the “false allegations” are jeopardizing their futures.

“They will most definitely affect our students’ life if they are not dropped immediately … When they frame us standing up against genocide and complicity in genocide as an act that required disciplinary action, it means that they are framing the students as being bad in character,” she said.

“This is not the case, so if the university does not drop these allegations, it will affect every single student and will affect our professional future … These allegations will have catastrophic consequences.”

She reiterated that the students remain aware of the responsibility they are shouldering and the reality that their work is far from done.

“There’s no divestment yet. It’s only disclosure. This is definitely only the first step,” said Alshaer.

“Our end goal is full divestment from all weapons’ manufacturers, from all companies and entities complicit in the genocide and oppression of the Palestinian people, and full divestment from the Israeli apartheid regime.”