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The Australian National University’s acting provost has denied the university “lost control” of its campus to a pro-Palestine encampment, revealing an internal safety review found the encampment had a “high” psychosocial risk rating.
Prof Joan Leach appeared before the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion on Thursday, which is examining the lived experiences of Jewish students and academics, including the response of universities.
The students set up camp on the grounds of the university in April ۲۰۲۴ in solidarity with Palestinians amid the Israel-Gaza war, with the group taking aim at the university’s links to weapons manufacturers.
The workplace review was finalised in October ۲۰۲۴. It found the direct and residual psychosocial risks of the encampment were high.
“There is now a procedure so security knows what to do should a protest like an encampment feature,” Leach said.
Asked if the ANU “had essentially lost control”, Leach said she would not “characterise it in that way”.
“But I think there were concerns about the risks to students and to people in the university community at that point,” she said.
“The security services at the university tend to know many of the students and staff, and they were quite active in interacting with the encampment to ensure that they had kept a constant watch on what was going on.
“And again, to encourage any students who wanted to leave, or maybe were feeling peer pressure to stay on, to do so.”
ANU tried to disband the encampment on multiple occasions, with it ending over a dispute about electricity and light in the evenings. It came just after the university announced “it would not invest in controversial weapons manufacturers and civilian small arms manufacturers”.
Leach was also asked about the university’s investigations into an alleged Nazi salute at a student association meeting.
The alleged salute received widespread media coverage after video footage was circulated allegedly showing a student performing what appeared to be a Nazi salute and another allegedly mimicking a Hitler moustache.
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The ANU Students’ Association meeting in question was attended by about ۵۰۰ people in May ۲۰۲۴. One student was removed because of their conduct from the online meeting, which included debate of the ANU’s ongoing pro-Palestine encampment and the experience of Jewish students on campus.
Leach said in the case of the alleged moustache gesture, the investigator found it was a gesture “commonly made” by the student to cover a facial feature they were uncomfortable with. The investigation also found that a Nazi salute had not been made.
“In the case of the alleged salute, the video was captured during the AGM. Unfortunately, it’s not fully on video,” she said. “It’s very difficult to discern what was going on.
“Through the investigation, other students were asked how they interpreted that gesture, and those students said it was not a Nazi salute. There was a lengthy interview and investigation. There was good reason to believe doing the salute would be pretty antithetical [to that person]. So there was a finding of no misconduct.”
