Casual academic Fatih Oguzhan has been dismissed by the University of Melbourne (UniMelb) over his criticisms of Israel.
This comes a month after an article was published in The Australian about Oguzhan’s supposed use of an “anti-Israel slur,” in a criminology tutorial two days prior.
Honi understands that two students brought their complaints to the media as well as going through the formal complaints process at the University.
Oguzhan allegedly showed his tutorial footage of Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldiers and condemned the actions of the Israeli military in Gaza.
In January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that it was plausible that Israel’s actions in Gaza could amount to genocide. In November last year, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yuval Gallant after it found reasonable grounds that they bore criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The article in The Australian also alleged that Oguzhan criticised the university’s wireless network and security policies, claiming that he was among the staff and students who had been tracked through the university’s wireless network and security cameras.
Oguzhan was reported to have told the class he was “kicked off campus” for protesting.
In August last year, the Victorian Information Commissioner opened an investigation into the university’s surveillance of pro-Palestine staff and students for a suspected breach in privacy laws.
The University traced students to the site of a sit-in protest in the Arts-West Building (named “Mahmoud’s Hall” by the protesters) through Wi-Fi tracking, which was later used as evidence in academic misconduct hearings.
More recent amendments to the University’s wireless and protest policies have drawn criticism from human rights organisations.
Oguzhan was also reported to have criticised the hotly contested International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which UniMelb adopted in early 2023.
The IHRA definition of antisemitism has been criticised internationally by human rights bodies, and notably, one of its original authors after observing the “chilling effect” it had on discourse across American university campuses.
The new Universities Australia definition of antisemitism has similarly been opposed by academics, lawyers, and public figures across the country, and the Jewish Council of Australia.
A student told The Australian that Oguzhan had “crossed a line” when “pushing his opinions on Israel and the IDF.”
“As someone in power, as an educator, it’s not his place to push a political agenda,” the student said.
A Jewish student was reported to have walked out of the class after Oguzhan made these comments.
The University had opened an investigation into the casual academic’s conduct at the time of the article’s publication in early May.
Last week on the 16th of June, the university sent Oguzhan a letter of termination, stating that he would not be considered for employment at, or “association with” the university.
Oguzhan had been working as a tutor in the Faculty of Arts since 2020, having obtained an undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree in 2019 and a Master of Criminology in 2021 at the university. In 2023, he received an ‘Award for Teaching Excellence in Tutoring’ from his faculty.
Two of Oguzhan’s former colleagues defended him in an article published by the Overland literary journal, arguing that he was exercising “his academic freedom in the classroom by critiquing Israel’s military operations.”
They also noted that, given Oguzhan was an employee on a casual contract, the University was not bound by the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement relating to misconduct allegations.
The activist collective U Melb for Palestine (formerly UniMelb for Palestine) claimed that the university had “capitulated” to a “right-wing doxxing campaign” in its dismissal of the academic.
“There is a trend of Zionist complaints being used to intimidate staff and threaten academic freedoms,” they said in a public statement.
University of Melbourne Provost Professor Nicola Phillips told Honi: “The University expects all its academic staff to perform their academic duties to the highest standard of professionalism, and to ensure a safe, respectful and supportive learning environment for all students.
An inquiry about a casual tutor’s conduct during a tutorial last month, following a number of disclosures to the University, concluded that the tutor’s conduct fell well below these professional and academic standards”
News of Fatih Oguzhan’s dismissal comes after the “Palestine Inquiry”, initiated by the Greens, released a preliminary report on free speech across Australian university campuses, based on over 150 submissions from staff and students.
The Inquiry has suggested that Australian universities had restricted free speech and academic freedom, and used existing and new policies to “target and censor” pro-Palestine staff and students.
