University of Melbourne students facing expulsion for taking part in pro-Gaza protests

Students at a top Australian university say they are at risk of expulsion over "baseless" allegations of misconduct due to their involvement in pro-Palestine demonstrations, with the university coming under fire for using surveillance technology.

The University of Melbourne has taken disciplinary actions against 21 students for taking part in a sit-in protest in May which saw dozens occupy a building to pressure the administration to disclose ties to US or Israeli weapons companies amid the Gaza war.

The protests uncovered that the Australian university has ties with major arms manufacturers which allegedly supply the Israeli military.

Following the global wave of student solidarity with Gaza in April, student activists at the University of Melbourne joined in with an encampment and protest at an arts building which the students - renamed Mahmoud’s Hall after slain Palestinian student Mahmoud Alnaouq, who was due to study at the university this year before he was killed in Gaza by an airstrike in October.

'Peacefully protesting'

Student organiser and founder of UniMelb for Palestine Dana Alshaer said the allegations have been "politicised" and have been challenged by lawyers, as well as by rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Digital Rights Watch Australia.

Alshaer had a misconduct hearing at the university last week and said she is expecting to hear whether she will be expelled over the coming days.

The university administration claimed the ten-day student sit-in had breached health and safety regulations, despite assessments at the time by experts that "there was absolutely nothing unsafe about the building".

The second issue the university raised accused the students of not "using the building properly".

But Alshaer points out that they had a right to peaceful protest under the Victoria state charter, known as the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities.

"We were peacefully protesting inside the building so both their allegations are baseless," Alshaer told The New Arab.

The sit-in, which saw dozens of students from all nationalities take part, was successful in pushing the university to disclose their investment in weapons manufacturers. In June, they published links to the United States Department of Defence, including a multimillion-dollar research scheme, and ties with arms manufacturers Lockheed Martin, Boeing and BAE systems.

University 'punishing' students

The disclosure showed what the students said was the university's "profits from genocide".

But the day before the disclosure, the students received emails stating they were being investigated for misconduct and were facing disciplinary hearings.

Palestinian national Alshaer believes the hearings are not grounded in the health and safety concerns the university initially cited, but more as "a punishment" for their role in pushing the university to disclose.

"When you look at the misconduct and you look at the allegations and you look at the context of how the allegations have been sent and the timing, this is not a disciplinary action for protesting in a building," Alshaer said.

"It's a punishment for forcing the university to disclose its ties."

Alshaer has been studying a master's degree for nearly three years through a scholarship and said the university's actions left her feeling "very distressed".

'Politicised' case and Israel links

She believes that the whole process has been "extremely politicised" by the university.

She said they had received support from staff and students throughout the process who were "shocked and extremely disappointed" by the university’s harsh response.

Australia’s Human Rights Law Centre said it had written letters to four universities in Victoria urging the administration to drop the charges against the students for “peacefully protesting on campus”.

Some believe that the case against the students has been influenced by the country’s right-wing and pro-Israel political networks.

One of the university’s board members is Mark Leibler, a prominent lawyer who is also on the board of Tel Aviv University and for ten years served as President of the Zionist Federation of Australia.

Leibler is said to be close to former Australian prime ministers Paul Keating, John Howard and Julia Gillard.

'Concerning' use of surveillance

In addition, the evidence collected against the students is based on findings from CCTV footage and the students' personal internet history. This has prompted concern from rights groups and allegations of privacy breaches.

A report in the Australian newspaper The Age said that the university was facing investigation by a state body for breaches of the Privacy Act over its decision to allegedly track students’ locations using their WiFi connections.

The New Arab has seen the university's evidence against one student which appears to show CCTV screen grabs and WiFi log-in history.

Human rights experts expressed concern that any surveillance tracking and use against students contradicts the university's own policies and previous assertions.

In response to the allegations in the newspaper report from 8 July, a university spokesperson told The New Arab: "The University is in communication with the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner, which has clarified that it has not launched an investigation at this point."

In regard to the misconduct hearings which took place last week, the spokesperson said they could not comment on individual matters and is in "direct communication with individuals as required in relation to these matters".

Final hearings are expected in the coming days.

For Alshaer, who hails from Bethlehem, the experience has echoes of Israel's use of surveillance technology against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

"Israel is the leading 'state' in developing surveillance and oppression technologies to use against the Palestinians as tools for population control and subjugation," the 30-year-old student said.

"And I felt exactly the same thing, that [the university] has used surveillance to control us and to basically subjugate and oppress us for standing up against their complicity… and refusing to be silent about their weapon manufacturing ties".