Melbourne vice-chancellor undermines his own attempt to slander the Palestine movement

At the time, May 2024, deputy vice-chancellor Michael Wesley, who was tasked with addressing the media and issuing threats of discipline to the protesters, told Radio National that “there is antisemitism on campus”. He condemned the student occupation of the Arts West building as “intimidating” and said he could “only imagine how our students, particularly our Jewish students, would feel having to make their way to class through that”. University Council member Mark Leibler went further in an Australian article the same month, demanding recognition of a “crisis” of antisemitism on the campus.

Yet on Wednesday, under questioning by Rachel Doyle, counsel for the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, Davis confirmed that not a single disciplinary process against any student Palestine solidarity activist related to the university’s anti-racism policy. When Davis was asked which university rules protesters had broken, the following exchange took place: 

Davis: “They are student behaviour questions and they’re about heckling and harassment and treatment of individuals. They’re not necessarily antisemitic and they’re not claimed to be antisemitic”. 

Doyle: “Indeed you point to no instance, wherein either the encampment on the South Lawn or the protest activity and encampment in the Arts West Building was found to have constituted a breach of the university’s racism policy. There’s no such instance is there?”

Davis: (After some waffling) “I’m not aware of any complaint of antisemitism in either event”. 

So the biggest issues stemming from the encampment were related to behaviour like “heckling”. This is proof that the accusations of antisemitism levelled at the encampment had no factual basis. They were attempts to smear and marginalise critics of university and government policy, rather than protect students from racism.