Thousands of students walked out of class in solidarity with Palestine as part of a campaign that has students take action across the country — in Melbourne, Sydney, and Wollongong. The Sydney protest saw over hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Town Hall whilst young student activists called out the Australian government’s failure to condemn Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
High school student Eva chaired the rally, and began by underlining the importance of the turnout and how “the genocide in Gaza has resulted in the death of 7,000 children. The least we can do here in Australia is walk out of school and say, we’re not gonna fucking stand for this!”
NSW Premier Chris Minns and Minister for Education and Early Learning Prue Car advised students earlier this week to stay in school: “If you want to change the world, get an education.” Eva responded to this, commenting that “Chris Minns and the rest of the politicians think school students are too young and stupid to understand what’s happening in Palestine and that we should stay in school and stay in our lane (…) we’re saying we won’t quietly go to class and let the system function as normal, while Australian politicians support this genocide.”
Wiradjuri and Wailwan activist, and incoming USyd SRC First Nations Officer Ethan Floyd was the first speaker of the rally, commenting that “mob are showing up for Palestine day in, day out.” Floyd commended the solidarity between Palestinians and First Nations people over the past few months, adding that “the Palestinian cause is an Indigenous cause and the Indigenous cause is a Palestinian cause.”
Year 11 Palestinian student Noura remarked on her experience: “we were always taught to never be a bystander, to stand up for people who are being treated poorly. And it is for that reason today, the students of Sydney strike in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Because we will not be bystanders to a genocide.”
Over 15,000 Palestinians have been murdered since the siege, 7,000 of which have been children. “This is who we are striking for. We are striking for the children of Gaza who are being slaughtered by their thousands. The children of Gaza who have been robbed of their education, their childhoods, their futures, their families, their lives. As the daughter of two Palestinian refugees and the great-grandchild of Nakba survivors, I refuse to look away.”
Federal Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi, addressed the students in the crowd: “Your education is working really well, it has brought you out here today. It has taught you how to think for yourself. It has taught you the difference between right and wrong. It has taught you the difference between freedom and occupation. Your education has taught you the difference between courage and cowardice.”
Faruqi added that the student strikers “are standing up against imperialism, colonialism and racism, you are standing up against the people who think they run the system and believe that those who don’t look like them are not good people. That is what you are doing, and I am so proud of you. You are brave, you are articulate.”
Jewish anti-Zionist Year 10 student Rex underlined that the conflict “is not an age-old religious conflict that high school students are too naive to understand. It is a struggle between an imperialist apartheid regime and an entire people who have faced over 75 years of unending dispossession and ethnic cleansing (…) I stand here to say that I won’t let Israel get away with the lie that it represents all Jewish people.”
Rex then continued to commend the crowd for showing up: “It’s easy to oppose genocide and apartheid when it has already happened, after it falls, after it is forcefully put to an end, when everyone agrees that it was abhorrent and completely unjustifiable. But it is much braver and more difficult to do what all of us are doing today. To oppose genocide and apartheid when it is ongoing, when your own government supports the state carrying it out, when people you know deny its existence, and when the media calls you an outright liar.”
Year 12 Palestinian student Jaseena highlighted that education “is why we’re here today,” as “education is our strongest weapon that Israel can’t take away from me.” Adding that “We are here for the children of Gaza who do not have the privilege of completing their education. Education that was stripped, torn away from them when their schools were bombed.”
Jaseena also added, despite what media outlets have said, “Palestine has always been a land that ebbed and flowed with streams of multi ethnic, multi religious, multi racial groups. People of Jewish faith have lived in Palestine as Palestinians for centuries. We consider them to be our brothers and sisters. We have the utmost respect and unity. With those hundreds of thousands of Jews that chant not in our name and end the genocide in Gaza.”
Year 10 Palestinian student Zayn commented on the coverage that has been coming out of Gaza daily, “I shouldn’t have to wake up every morning to see parents having to say goodbye to their children. I shouldn’t have to wake up every morning to see children covered in rubble. I shouldn’t have to wake up every morning to see and hear the death toll has increased by hundreds and thousands.”
Adding that with these news updates, guilt “seizes me every single day. My mind can’t comprehend how they can bomb hospitals, mosques, churches, schools, and work, and still say it’s for protection and self defence.”
The final speaker was Students for Palestine organiser and incoming USyd SRC Education Officer Shovan Bhattarai. She commented “We know that change is never going to come by looking to the people in power. These are the same sick people, the criminals, who have ensured that if you’re young, there has never been a day of peace under this system in your entire lifetime.” But despite this, Bhattarai echoed that “we owe it to these children to fight against the criminals in power responsible for these crimes. We owe it to the children of Gaza, to fight like hell for a world that they deserve.”
Demonstrators then marched through the city — chanting in support of Palestine and against the actions of the Israeli regime and the complicity of the Albanese government — before reconvening outside Sydney Town Hall.
Palestine Action Group will be hosting their 7th weekly rally at Hyde Park this Sunday. Students for Palestine will be rallying at Central station Friday 1st of December at 5pm.
