{"id":798977,"date":"2026-07-14T04:29:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T04:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/798977\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T04:29:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T04:29:22","slug":"jewish-australian-professor-hired-private-investigator-to-identify-protesters-who-occupied-his-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/798977\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewish Australian professor hired private investigator to identify protesters who occupied his office"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Jewish Australian academic has told a royal commission he hired a private investigator to identify protesters who entered his office, in an attempt to find out if they were enrolled students on campus.<\/p>\n

University of Melbourne professor Steven Prawer has appeared on the second day of the Melbourne sittings of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.<\/p>\n

The award-winning physics expert has given evidence in the fourth hearing block of evidence at the commission, which is focusing on lived experience of Jewish Australians on the nation’s university campuses.<\/p>\n

Professor Prawer, who describes himself as an observant Jew and Zionist who wears a kippah, said he was targeted by pro-Palestinian protesters who accused him of supporting genocide in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Steven Prawer has told the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion about being the target of protesters. (ABC News: James Oaten)<\/p>\n

He said he was targeted because of his role in heading up a research collaboration between the University of Melbourne and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as well as comments he made at a pro-Israel rally.<\/p>\n

He said protesters also drew links between his work and Israeli defence.<\/p>\n

Professor Prawer said his work was not related to the military.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Signs stuck to the door of Professor Steven Prawer’s office at the University of Melbourne in 2024. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

On 9 October 2024 about 12:30pm, he told the commission, he arrived in the anteroom of his office in the university’s physics building to find 20 masked protesters waiting for him.<\/p>\n

“I had no idea at that stage if it was a protest, if it was a terrorist attack,” he told the commission.<\/p>\n

“I said, ‘you’re trespassing, you’re in my private space’.<\/p>\n

“They said to me, ‘well, Israel trespasses on Palestinian lands’, and I didn’t know what to say to that. I said, ‘please leave my office’.”<\/p>\n

He did not know if the protesters were University of Melbourne students or outsiders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said he managed to get away, though protesters occupied his office for some hours.<\/p>\n

Professor Prawer said the university’s investigation into the incident was “opaque” and several students were disciplined with expulsion or suspension, but 10 to 15 of the protesters were never identified.<\/p>\n

He told the commission he hired a private investigator to try to find out who they were.<\/p>\n

“I was genuinely concerned that there were people in my office who were not students,” he said.<\/p>\n

Professor Prawer said that he later found out some of the penalties had been reduced on appeal after they posted on social media.<\/p>\n

“The students were very pleased and posted about how happy they were they had avoided expulsion.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Steven Prawer tells the royal commission he was accused by pro-Palestinian protesters of supporting genocide in Gaza (Supplied: Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion)<\/p>\n

Professor Prawer pointed to the Iranian government’s links to the firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue<\/a> in Melbourne in 2024 and said he wondered if there were outside links or a “Hamas connection” to the incident in his office.<\/p>\n

He sent the private investigator’s report the University of Melbourne but said they were alarmed he forwarded it and did not use it.<\/p>\n

To this day, he said he does not know who most of the individuals in his office were.<\/p>\n

“They must be having a giggle about how they’ve managed to remain hidden,” Professor Prawer said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A death threat against Steven Prawer graffitied at the University of Melbourne in February 2025. (Supplied: Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion)<\/p>\n

Professor Prawer also told the commission a death threat had been graffitied on a university noticeboard, but he did not learn about it until weeks later.<\/p>\n

“They had removed the graffiti and didn’t think it was appropriate to tell me that this had been posted,” Professor Prawer said.<\/p>\n

He said he was “deeply disappointed in the university” and it was hard not to think management had tried to hide it from him.<\/p>\n

Outside the hearing, he said the protesters were making a mistake with their approach in their fight.<\/p>\n

“It seems that what’s happened on campus is that if you’re pro-Palestinian, you become anti-Israel and that has affected the social cohesion of the university,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Civil debate is all about disagreeing without being disagreeable and I think that it’s hugely important that we return that sense of civility to the university.”<\/p>\n

He said a week-long encampment at the university by protesters<\/a> in 2024 was disappointing because it did not offer the chance for dialogue.<\/p>\n

Professor Prawer said the University of Melbourne’s initial response to his complaints about the student incursion of his office was timid and lacked moral clarity.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Items around Professor Steven Prawer’s office were targeted by pro-Palestine protesters in 2024. (Supplied: Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion)<\/p>\n

At the time of the protest, the university’s then-vice-chancellor Duncan Maskell condemned the students’ actions, saying he was “shocked and appalled”.<\/p>\n

Today, the university described Professor Prawer’s testimony as powerful and said it acknowledged the significant effect his experiences had had on him and his family.<\/p>\n

“The University is providing ongoing support to Professor Prawer and we uphold his right to pursue his academic endeavours and research partnerships without being harassed or intimidated,” a spokesperson said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“As a diverse community, we stand united in our continued efforts to eradicate hate and discrimination in all forms.”<\/p>\n

The interim vice-chancellor, Professor Glyn Davis, will appear at the hearing tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Later this week, other university vice-chancellors will also face the commission and will be questioned about their responses to experiences of antisemitism on their campuses.<\/p>\n

More on the royal commission<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Jewish Australian academic has told a royal commission he hired a private investigator to identify protesters who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[9903,64,63,213035,6898,6897,44,99073,30954,61947],"class_list":["post-798977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-antisemitism","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bondi-royal-commission","tag-gaza","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-pro-palestinian-protesters","tag-royal-commission","tag-university-of-melbourne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}