Activist reveals targeting of pro-Palestine students at Melbourne University

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

Alshaer is one of the founders and lead organizers of UniMelb for Palestine, a collective of students, staff and alumni of the University of Melbourne that was established last November.

They have organized protests and used every avenue possible to take a stand for Palestine and force the university to cut ties with arms manufacturers, divest from Israeli companies and, as Alshaer puts it, “end its complicity in genocide in Gaza”.

The movement had an impact, successfully prompting the university to disclose in June its ties to weapons makers Lockheed Martin, Boeing and BAE Systems, as well as more than $15 million in research partnerships and investments with the U.S. Department of Defense, said the Alshaer in Anatolia.

This came after a month-long solidarity camp in Gaza and a sit-in protest staged at Mahmoud’s Hall, an arts building renamed by students to honor Mahmoud Alnaouq, a Palestinian student killed in Gaza who was about to join the University of Melbourne.

For their activism, Alshaer and 20 other students now face “grossly unfounded” allegations of misconduct by the university and the threat of expulsion.

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

“These allegations of misconduct are a punishment … for students who have defied the university’s ties to arms manufacturers … and questioned the university’s continued complicity in the genocide in Gaza. The university punishes students who resist the genocide.”

Unlawful monitoring and the right to protest

The University of Melbourne brought two main charges against the protesters, the first being breaching health and safety regulations and the second being improper use of the building by staging a sit-in.

“There were no safety concerns, no entrances or exits, blocked off or any obstructions in the building,” Alshaer said.

“All these allegations breach our rights as students under the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities. We have a right to peaceful protest and it is protected by this charter, and we protested peacefully.”

The very nature of these allegations of misconduct is “extremely political,” he argued.

The university’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters 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 allegations of misconduct, the university included as evidence CCTV footage and Wi-Fi location tracking … so there was use of surveillance technologies against students,” Alshaer explained.

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

“However, what we have seen in the allegations and in the documents sent to us is that Wi-Fi tracking has been used to track students,” he said.

“With the CCTV footage, there are extremely large concerns about the possible and potential use of facial recognition programs by the university.”

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

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

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

Futures are at stake

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

“They will definitely affect the lives of our students if they are not removed immediately… When they make us stand against genocide and complicity in genocide as an act that required disciplinary measures, it means that they consider the students as bad characters,” he said.

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

He reiterated that students remain aware of the responsibility they shoulder and the reality that their work is far from done.

“There is no disinvestment yet. It is only revelation. This is definitely just the first step,” Alshaer said.

“Our ultimate goal is complete divestment from all arms manufacturers, all companies and entities complicit in the genocide and oppression of the Palestinian people, and complete divestment from the Israeli apartheid regime.”