University of Queensland: Students involved in pro-Palestine protests to be punished with disciplinary action

The University of Queensland will involve police and take disciplinary action against students involved in pro-Palestine protests after alleged incidents of assault, property damage and hate speech at the campus.

UQ chancellor Peter Varghese said the behaviour went beyond a legitimate protest and breached the university’s codes of conduct.

The UQ senate met on Thursday, and while it remained committed to freedom of expression, Mr Varghese said it did not extend to actions on campus that disrupted classes or put staff and student safety at risk.

‘Anti-semitism and other hate speech has no place on our campus,’ he said.

‘Senate noted that the freedom to protest is not absolute. The university has a duty to foster the wellbeing of staff and students.’

Mr Varghese said the university was now taking steps to discontinue camps that were setup on campus to prevent further disruptions and safety ahead of the exam period and had met with protest representatives.

But students have told the Courier Mail they ‘aren’t going anywhere’ despite being issued with a notice to move on as soon as possible.

A student and member of Students for Palestine Liam Parry said the university had failed to communicate with his group about the decision to evict protesters. 

‘To be honest, this is news to us. As far as I know, the university hasn’t told us that we need to shut down,’ he said.

‘I know the university doesn’t like the existence of the camps – they have said that – but they haven’t told us that we need to shut down at all.

‘From our perspective, we have freedom of speech and the ability to continue protesting. We’re definitely not going to leave. We aren’t going anywhere.’

Another student and member of the pro-Israeli Camp Shalom Idan Benesch said his organisation would respect the move on order.

‘I feel like this is the best thing for the university, for students and for our encampment as well,’ he told the Courier Mail.

‘I was at lunch in the foodcourt the other day minding my own business with other students and it was disrupted.

‘I know that the point of a protest is disruption but at a university where there’s a bunch of tired students having their brain bombarded with information and then during their one peaceful moment of lunch a protest starts out.

‘It just isn’t nice for any students. I feel like being asked to leave by the university is something we will respect.’

On Thursday, about 100 protesters from the Students for Palestine group occupied the Advanced Engineering Building, which resulted in classes and lectures being cancelled because people could not get into the building.

Videos on social media showed protesters inside chanting: ‘Free, free Palestine.’

‘This is a private movement that wins,’ one man said through a megaphone.

‘I promise you we will win this fight and this university will divest from genocide and we will keep going until we win.’

Political activist Drew Pavlou said he was ‘peacefully’ watching the rally when somebody put a Jewish sticker on his bag.

‘So I confronted the mob of 100 Trotskyites and socialists and denounced anti-Semitism,’ he wrote on X.

‘This baldy guy who is not even a student tried to push me over backwards and I tried to hold onto him to stabilise myself.’

Last week, a window was allegedly smashed during a protest at the university.

UQ vice chancellor Deborah Terry said they were engaging with nominated protest representatives to agree to a peaceful resolution to the current camp arrangements.

‘UQ’s senate has endorsed this approach and the statement from the UQ chancellor Peter Varghese reaffirms our commitment to freedom of speech, while recognising that there are limitations relating to safety and disruption to campus activities and operations,’ she said.

‘The University will continue to ensure that we take appropriate action where there are incidents that do not align with our codes of conduct as we make every effort to progress a peaceful resolution.’