July 16, 2026 — 3:43pmAnother university leader has apologised to Jewish students and staff over pro-Palestinian protests on campus, and vowed to “do better”.The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion this week heard evidence from Liat, a Jewish student at the Australian National University (ANU), about how unsafe she felt on campus during that time, and when she was taunted as a “baby killer” and “genocide supporter”.Professor Rebekah Brown, ANU’s interim vice chancellor, said she was “very moved … very affected” by Liat’s evidence.Professor Rebekah Brown of the Australian National University arrives at the royal commission on Thursday.AAP“Jewish students and staff have an absolute right to feel safe, respected and heard on our campus, and I’m sorry that they didn’t,” Brown told commissioner Virginia Bell on Thursday.“I’ve committed in my role, as long as I am the interim vice chancellor, to do better.”The ANU hosted the longest-running student encampment in the country between April and August 2024, and an expert on psychosocial hazards later told the university the Canberra encampment “could lead to serious injury”.Under questioning on Thursday, Brown agreed that freedom of academic expression meant nobody had a right not to be offended. However, she said the university had upped the strength of its policies on psychosocial risks and was implementing an antisemitism policy and rolling out training.Brown said though she was not vice chancellor at the time, she also agreed there “had been failures” with how ANU handled the pro-Palestinian campus protests throughout 2024.In a hearing on Wednesday, University of Sydney vice chancellor Mark Scott also apologised to Jewish students and staff for the light-touch approach the university took towards the encampment on his campus.Brown’s evidence came after the ANU’s acting provost, Professor Joan Leach, said the encampment was not broken up earlier because of a fear it would cause US-style violent confrontations with students.The pro-Palestine encampment at the ANU’s Canberra campus in 2024.Alex EllinghausenLeach told the royal commission only one student had been disciplined as a result of the encampment, and not for antisemitism. She also related how students who appeared to mimic a Hitler moustache and a Nazi salute on a student livestream had been cleared in an internal investigation.Asked about the encampment, Leach said the students were directed twice in May 2024 to disband for health and safety notices. They did not.It was almost two months later, on July 23, 2024, that university authorities removed power from the site for reasons of electrical safety.Despite a number of complaints from Jewish students that they felt unsafe on campus, particularly due to chants, the protest did not move until August 17, 2024.Student protesters at their encampment on the Columbia University in the US in 2024. APLeach said ANU did not take stronger action because of “images about students being pulled by police off campuses” in the US.“That was very much on people’s minds,” she said, and the university wanted to bring the encampment to a close “peacefully, without violence, and with some agreement with the students”.“In hindsight, that might appear naive or inadequate, but I do believe at the time there was a hope that the encampment could be brought to a peaceful end,” Leach said.During the protest period, the ANU Students’ Association held a meeting in which Jewish students proposed that Hamas be condemned as a terror organisation.During the meeting, allegations were made that a student performed a Nazi salute, and that another made a gesture indicating a Hitler moustache.A screenshot of an ANU student allegedly performing a gesture impersonating Hitler on a Zoom call in 2024.Leach told the royal commission an investigation cleared both students.One student, Leach said, was found to have been using her finger to cover a facial feature they were uncomfortable with – “not a moustache gesture but a gesture this student commonly made in multiple contexts in multiple events”.The alleged Nazi salute was not fully visible on the video, Leach said, and it was “very, very difficult to discern exactly what was going on”.Both students were cleared, but the findings were not communicated to the Jewish students involved. The Jewish students did not find out the result of the investigation until the university revealed them at a Senate estimates hearing.After the encampment at ANU, eight students were charged with misconduct because they had disobeyed university directions. None were charged over allegations of antisemitism and Leach told the royal commission seven of the eight were cleared.The university has since begun a review into student conduct rules, and has prohibited tents and banned sleeping on campus. An agreement with the protesting students also meant the university had changed its investment screening processes, so no money flowed towards defence manufacturers, Leach said.Yasser Bakri, a lawyer representing the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, put to Leach that the university had acted poorly towards a Palestinian student during the encampment.Bakri said the student applied for special consideration because multiple members of her family had died in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.The course co-ordinator told the young woman she needed to provide a death certificate for every member of her family killed for the extension to be considered, Bakri said.“After those death certificates were procured, which was very difficult given the circumstances in Gaza, the student was then told to obtain a notarised translation for the death certificates,” Bakri said. The lawyer said the entire process took the student more than a year.Leach agreed that, if true, the university should do better.Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.Michael Bachelard is a senior writer and former deputy editor and investigations editor of The Age. He has worked in Canberra, Melbourne and Jakarta, has written two books and won multiple awards for journalism, including the Gold Walkley.Connect via X or email.From our partners