October 10, 2024
Shadow home affairs minister James Paterson has condemned “alarming” Pro-Palestinian acts at universities in recent times, arguing institutions need to take a “tough approach” amid a rise in extremist behaviour.
It comes after two men were charged for allegedly assaulting campus security staff and resisting arrest during a pro-Palestine protest at Western Sydney University which was organised by student group WSU 4 Palestine Collective.
Footage of the protest published on social media showed officers asking students to disband, before then moving to arrest two people and removing a banner which read "Haniyeh's Building".
Ismail Haniyeh was a former Hamas leader who was assassinated in Iran earlier this year. Israel is widely believed to have been behind the killing due to his involvement in planning the October 7 attacks.
Speaking on Sky News Australia, Mr Paterson slammed the “alarming and concerning displays” on campuses in the past year since Hamas’ October 7 attacks in Israel, saying “extremist students and some non-students have behaved with total impunity”.
“Too many universities have adopted a soft approach to this issue, have tolerated this behaviour,” he said.
However he gave credit to Western Sydney University chancellor Jennifer Westacott, saying she was "one of the most outspoken university leaders on these issues with some real moral clarity very early in the debate around those protests".
Speaking on the WSU protest, he said the fact police were called to deal with the issue showed the gravity of the situation.
“It is quite a step to see police called to campus to deal with protesters, they would not do that lightly. Police, frankly, have been reluctant to go on campuses to deal with these matters. So I suspect they did so under extreme provocation," he said.
At the University of Melbourne, anti-Israel protesters have trespassed a Jewish physics professor’s office and accused him of being a “war criminal”, The Australian reported.
The protesters shared images to social media showing about a dozen students affixing stickers in Professor Steven Prawer’s office, before they reportedly sat around in his office chanting for an end to ties with Israeli universities.
Mr Paterson said he was “particularly concerned” about the incident, slamming it as “totally and utterly unacceptable”.
“But it's not surprising when universities have taken such a soft approach,” he said.
However he noted there was “good news” in that the issues with extremism on campuses only involved a minority of students.
“At the University of Melbourne, for example, there’s 50,000 students and at that sit-in protest earlier this year, there was about 300 students involved. So about 98 per cent of the university campus was going on about their studies in a normal way,” he said.
Despite the small number of students causing disruptions, universities still need to take a tougher stance, Mr Paterson argued.
“It really is a tiny minority, but that's one of the reasons why it's appropriate for universities to take a tough approach here. They're actually disrupting the study and the learning of every other student who have no interest in extremism, and they're taking over university spaces that they're not entitled to," he said.
A NSW Police Statement on Wednesday night confirmed the two men involved in the WSU protest, aged 20 and 23, had been charged after they were taken to Gladesville Police Station.
"During the protest, entry was gained to a restricted building, with two protesters allegedly assaulting security guards," the statement read.
It said the 20 -year-old was charged with "assault, assault police and resist arrest" while the 23-year-old was charged with "assault occasioning actual bodily harm and resist arrest".
"Both were granted conditional bail to appear before Burwood Local Court on Monday 4 November 2024," it said.
Footage posted to social media by WSU 4 Palestine Collective showed multiple officers restraining the men, who both appeared to resist attempts to move them out of the building protesters were occupying.
A WSU spokesperson told SkyNews.com.au on Wednesday it was aware of the incident at the Parramatta South campus and said the university was “committed to free speech, and respectful and civil debate”.
“Our priority is always the safety, wellbeing and security of every single person across our university community," the spokesperson added
