A Jewish academic has told the Royal Commission on Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion of his experience of being surrounded in his office by pro-Palestinian protesters in October 2024 in what he described as a planned act of intimidation.
University of Melbourne physics professor Steven Prawer said between 15 and 20 protesters gathered in the anteroom outside his office, some wearing masks and keffiyehs, as part of a demonstration against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
When he tried to leave, they chanted, “Prawer, Prawer, you can’t hide; you are guilty of genocide.”
“I don’t know what their intentions were, but when a Jewish person with some experience of what happens in Israel sees a masked person, you could only see their eyes,” Prawer told the Commission.
“This was only one year after the atrocities in Israel and so I was very perturbed. I had no idea at that stage if it was a protest, [or] if it was a terrorist attack.”
The Threats from Pro-Palestinian Protesters
When the professor tried to leave and enter an area controlled by swipe card access, two protesters followed him, and one put their foot in the door to try to stop him from closing it.
After police were called, the protesters were eventually persuaded to leave. Before departing, they left behind a makeshift poster reading, “Your work will break your soul before it breaks the resistance,” an apparent reference to Prawer’s oversight of a joint PhD program between the University of Melbourne and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
He described the collaboration as involving “fundamental science projects without any military application.”
They also left stickers attached to various surfaces, including one with an inverted red triangle. Asked what that meant, Prawer said it was commonly understood to be a Hamas symbol indicating a target.
“It’s like ‘X marks the spot.’ It’s very difficult for me to interpret this in any other way,” he said.
This was a highly personal attack. This was highly directed by persons that are unknown to me. It was an implication that my work as a physicist and as an academic was somehow selling my soul to the devil, and I think the red triangle just consolidates that idea.”
A Planned Intimidation Attempt?
Meanwhile, Prawer said he believed all the actions against him were planned in advance.“My understanding is this was not a spontaneous protest born of excessive zeal. They knew exactly how far to go before the police would arrest,” he said.
Other incidents targeting him included graffiti on a university directions board reading, “Death to Israel, death to USA, death to Stephen Prawer.”
The university later removed the graffiti, but Prawer said he was not informed and only learned of it after police contacted him as part of their investigation.
The professor also told the commission the incident’s aftermath had curtailed his freedom. Where he once had an “open door” policy, with a bowl of fruit for students who dropped by, his office now operates under strict security, with swipe-card access required for both the physics building and his office.
A number of the intruders were later identified as students. But Prawer said he was not kept informed of the disciplinary process subsequently followed by the university, and he remained unaware of their identities.
“I still don’t know who they are. And I think for my protection, I should know who these people are too, if I ever see them on campus,” he said.
