A Royal Commission examining antisemitism in Australia has heard confronting evidence about alleged misconduct, intimidation and discrimination involving students and academics at major universities.
During hearings focused on experiences within Australian higher education, former Monash University student Paris Enten told the commission that some students behaved disrespectfully during a university study tour of Holocaust sites in Europe in 2024.
Ms Enten, whose grandparents survived the Holocaust, said the group visited Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic as part of a trip led by two Jewish Monash University staff members.
She alleged that students filmed TikTok dance videos near Auschwitz and other concentration camp sites, while some complained about having to visit Holocaust memorials and former Jewish ghettos early in the morning because they were still affected by drinking the previous night.
Ms Enten described the trip as emotionally intense and said the conduct of many participants was deeply upsetting.
She also told the commission that some students questioned whether Jewish people were the principal victims of the Holocaust, despite the efforts of university staff to educate the group about the history of the sites.
According to Ms Enten, the two staff members leading the tour responded as effectively as they could while attempting to maintain order and continue the study program.
However, she argued Monash University should have taken stronger disciplinary action after the students returned to Australia.
Ms Enten said she was one of only two Jewish students among the 23 people on the tour.
She also spoke about growing up with stories of persecution, expulsions and genocide from her family, particularly from her grandmother, who was a teenager during the Holocaust.
The commission heard that Ms Enten experienced or witnessed several alleged incidents of antisemitism while studying at Monash between 2020 and 2025. She said some incidents were reported, while others were not.
The hearings also heard evidence from University of Melbourne academic Professor Steven Prawer, who described feeling threatened after masked protesters entered the building where he worked.
Professor Prawer said protesters wearing face coverings and keffiyehs gathered near his office during pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus in 2024.
He told the commission that he initially did not know whether the incident was a protest or a more serious attack.
Professor Prawer said a group of about 20 people entered an area near his office and confronted him over his academic relationship with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
He said the protesters chanted accusations against him and demanded that he speak with them.
According to his evidence, university security later escorted him from the area before police became involved and the protesters left the building.
Professor Prawer said the situation felt significantly more intimidating than a demonstration held in an open public space because he was surrounded and outnumbered inside his workplace.
He argued that academics must be allowed to collaborate with overseas institutions without being threatened or pressured by student activists.
The University of Melbourne later increased security around Professor Prawer, strengthened swipe-card access to his building and provided transport arrangements to help protect him.
Professor Prawer told the commission that a private investigation commissioned by a family member identified some of the people allegedly involved as students.
However, he said he had not been told their names and had not received access to the university’s full incident report.
He criticised what he described as a lack of transparency surrounding the university’s disciplinary process and questioned why some students were reportedly suspended rather than expelled.
Professor Prawer said universities must clearly distinguish between legitimate political dissent and conduct involving harassment, intimidation or disruption.
A University of Melbourne spokesperson acknowledged the impact of the incidents on Professor Prawer and his family and said the university continued to support his academic work and research partnerships.
The university said it remained committed to eliminating hatred and discrimination in all forms.
The commission also heard from Australasian Union of Jewish Students president Jeremy Suss, who raised concerns about the online publication of personal and workplace information belonging to Jewish students and graduates.
Mr Suss said some former Jewish student leaders had been doxxed, with details about their employment circulated online.
He described the practice as distressing and said taking a leadership role in a Jewish student organisation was sometimes treated by critics as evidence of wrongdoing.
Mr Suss also recalled being confronted on campus over Israel’s actions in Gaza and said he became concerned after protesters indicated they knew where Jewish students regularly gathered.
He described another incident in which a speaker at a pro-Palestinian encampment allegedly pointed toward him and his friends while making hostile remarks about Zionism.
Mr Suss said Monash University had generally responded more effectively than some other institutions when investigating allegations of antisemitism.
However, he said universities often spent too much time debating whether behaviour met a formal definition of antisemitism rather than immediately considering whether it involved bullying, harassment, intimidation or doxxing.
Researcher Bren Carlill also gave evidence about a survey of Jewish university students conducted in 2023.
Dr Carlill said university administrators were often surprised by the number of antisemitic incidents students said they had experienced.
The survey, commissioned by the Zionist Federation of Australia and released before the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks in Israel, found that 64 per cent of participating Jewish students reported experiencing at least one antisemitic incident during their time at university.
Among those who reported incidents, 88 per cent said the behaviour had occurred within the previous 12 months.
The most commonly reported experiences involved students feeling intimidated because of their Jewish identity.
Other complaints involved stereotypes about Jewish people and money, influence or power.
Dr Carlill said many Jewish students did not make formal complaints because they lacked confidence that universities would respond effectively.
He argued this underreporting meant institutions did not fully understand the scale of the problem on their campuses.
The Royal Commission is continuing to examine the experiences of Jewish students, graduates and academics, as well as the responses of universities to allegations of antisemitism, harassment and intimidation.
