People’s Inquiry into Campus Free Speech on Palestine launches

The People’s Inquiry into Campus Free Speech on Palestine is a grassroots initiative bringing together students, activists, academics and legal experts to assess the state of free speech on Australian university campuses in relation to Palestine.

The People’s Inquiry has been initiated in response to the worsening climate of repression and censorship of campus-based Palestine activism.

Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi, who is a patron of the People’s Inquiry, announced the launch in a joint statement with members from the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN), the Jewish Council of Australia, Students for Palestine and the National Union of Students.

“University campuses should be political spaces where students and staff are encouraged to speak out on issues of social, racial and environmental justice, not shut down”, wrote Senator Faruqi in the statement.

“The People’s Inquiry is a critical pushback by and for the people against the suppression of free speech and the criminalisation of solidarity with Palestinians”, APAN wrote. “Advocating for an end to Israel’s decades of oppression of Palestinians is not hate speech—it is a fight for justice and liberation.”

Just as they have in social justice movements of the past, university students have played a prominent role in the Palestine solidarity movement, marching in the streets, organising historic student general meetings and establishing protest encampments. This has, in turn, made university campuses sites of intensifying repression and censorship. Students and staff have found that even expressing support for the Palestinian people can attract threats of disciplinary action.

The University of Sydney shut down a bake sale fundraiser for Gaza under its draconian Campus Access Policy, introduced in response to last year’s Gaza solidarity encampment. Three students at RMIT were told by the university that their keffiyehs posed a safety risk by provoking “anticipatory anxiety”—whatever that means.

A page on Monash University’s website titled “A proud history” reads: “In the 1970s the foundation campus at Clayton became the centre for student protest in Australia, and this philosophy of challenging the status quo permeated the University”. But nine Monash students who challenged the status quo of their university’s links with weapons companies at the Monash encampment were not even allowed to set foot on a central part of the campus, let alone permeate it.

The People’s Inquiry aims to shine a light on these concerning attempts to curtail freedom of speech and assembly.

It will convene while the Labor-led joint Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities is piling pressure on universities to restrict political expression and protest activity. For instance, the commission has recommended that universities adopt a definition of antisemitism that “closely aligns” with the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition, which includes calling the state of Israel a “racist endeavour”. On campuses in the United States and United Kingdom, the definition has been used as justification to shut down criticism of Israel and brand it as hate speech.

Similar scenes have played out in the United States, where university heads were hauled into Congressional committee hearings and grilled over their failure to crack down on pro-Palestine students swiftly and severely enough. Since returning to power, President Donald Trump has launched investigations into antisemitism at five US universities and has called for the deportation of foreign students who participate in pro-Palestine protests.

Students, university staff members and organisations are invited to make submissions via the inquiry’s website, where more information can be found. In particular, the inquiry is interested in submissions relating to the infringement or restriction of political communication or activity concerning Palestine on university campuses. The panel will include Lama Qasem, executive member of APAN; Professor Linda Briskman of Western Sydney University; and Professor Gill Boehringer, former head of the Law School of Macquarie University.

James McVicar is the 2025 education officer for the National Union of Students and is a panelist for the People’s Inquiry into Campus Free Speech on Palestine.