Pro-Palestine protesters defy warnings to leave Melbourne University building

Pro-Palestine protesters occupying a University of Melbourne building on Wednesday night have vowed to dig in and risk arrest, defying warning from campus authorities that police would be called in if they did not leave.

Deakin University on Monday became the first Victorian university to order those in the pro-Palestinian encampment to leave its campus, citing safety and security amid allegations of antisemitism against some within the protest movement.O’Toole said students would continue their occupation until the university severed its research agreement with companies that supplied defence technology to Israel.

“We have garnered a lot of support from the community. There are a lot of people who care deeply. So right now, I’m looking around at hundreds of people I have never seen before,” O’Toole said. “We are mindful of the effect of the ongoing encampment on our South Lawn, one of the university’s major communal open spaces in Parkville, on all members of our university community. At all times, the safety of our staff and students is paramount and this includes those encamped.

“Nothing’s happened,” Duff said. “It’s been very peaceful. Security hasn’t been acting differently to usual and there aren’t more police.” Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler called on other universities to order protesters to leave, but lawyer Greg Barns said that “heavy-handed enforcement should be the very last resort” when it came to freedom of speech and the right to protest.

He said Deakin’s order for the disbandment of the students’ camp “appears to run contrary to its policy that freedom of speech by students is a ‘paramount value’ and its exercise not ‘unnecessarily burdened by restrictions or other burdens’ other than those imposed by law”.

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