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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
Steve Evans

Expelled pro-Hamas student speaks out after being allowed back to the ANU

The ANU student expelled - and now reinstated - for supporting Hamas has welcomed the reversal of the decision and accused the university of intimidation.

"I welcome the fact that my expulsion from ANU has been overturned," Beatrice Tucker said.

"It is a victory for all students, and others, who have faced disciplinary action or been sacked, for standing up for a free Palestine."

The ANU would not confirm that it had changed its mind beyond saying that it "is currently reviewing its appeals processes".

"ANU will continue to provide procedural fairness and support for all students in these matters."

Beatrice Tucker was expelled in June after saying on the ABC that "Hamas deserves our unconditional support".

Hamas was the organisation that perpetrated the October 7 massacre of more than a thousand people in Israel. An outside report by a UN investigator also found evidence of rape. The Australian government deems Hamas a terrorist organisation.

Beatrice Tucker at the ANU encampment earlier this year. Picture by Keegan Carroll

The change of mind by the leadership of the ANU follows a 1200 signature petition organised by ANU Students and Staff Against War (SSAW).

"We are very pleased that Ms Tucker's expulsion has been overturned," the organisation said, "but very critical that [they were] suspended and excluded in the first place. SSAW hopes that the ANU will uphold its commitment to free speech on the campus."

Beatrice Tucker reiterated their strong support for the militant Palestinian cause: "All fighters for Palestine will be encouraged to redouble the movement's efforts to isolate the apartheid state and end Australia's complicity in the murderous attack on Gaza and the West Bank. It is right to resist."

The protesters, among whom Beatrice Tucker had been prominent, moved their original camp from the heart of the campus when the university promised to reconsider its investments in arms companies.

In the end, the ANU decided to exclude only holdings of shares in manufacturers of particular controversial weapons and not in those of all companies making weapons for Israeli use.

Its new policy was to steer clear of shares in makers of "anti-personnel mines, cluster munitions, chemical weapons, biological weapons and nuclear weapons outside of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons) and/or civilian small arms".

The protesters saw this as a betrayal.

Beatrice Tucker echoes that accusation against the ANU: "Four months ago I was suspended, then recklessly expelled.

"Yet after almost a year of genocide and more than five months of the ANU's ties with Israel being public, the ANU has not expelled its connections with institutions that are complicit in Israel's genocide in Gaza."

It is not clear what now happens to Beatrice Tucker - when and if they will resume their place.

It is the second time recently that the leadership of the ANU has reversed a decision.

Last month, it changed its arrangements for graduation ceremonies. It had announced that its usual two ceremonies a year would become one, and that one held in April.

But it then brought the month forward to February one day after The Canberra Times publicised the anger of international students who said they and their families would have to miss the important ceremony.

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