To kick off Israeli Apartheid Week at the University of Sydney, students and allies attended a forum on intersectionality on Palestine in the Education Building earlier this month.
Hosted by the Autonomous Collective Against Racism (ACAR) and BDS Youth, the panel featured speakers from across different social justice movements, unpacking and exploring the significance of community action and solidarity within the fight for a free Palestine.
The session was chaired by a Palestinian activist who works in climate activism.
The panel involved five speakers: Jenny Leong, human rights activist and Member for Newtown; Ethan Lyons, a Wiradjuri student activist and member of the Blak Caucus; Ethan Gandler, an Honours student and member of the grassroots Jewish collective Tzedek; Sophie Cotton, member of the NTEU Branch Committee, and; Fahima Badrulisham, a community organiser who believes an intersectional approach is crucial for climate justice.
The chair opened the forum with an Acknowledgement of Country, noting the solidarity between Palestinians and the First Nations people in so-called Australia.
Panellists were then asked to explain the intersectional nature of their work.
Badrulisham began by stating that their work is “interconnected with liberation of all people — – liberation of women, liberation of the LGBTQIA+ community (…) these problems are huge, so I want to be efficient and work together across as many intersections as I possibly can.”
Leong asked us to re-examine concepts of feminism and how they apply to Palestine, speaking about the need to “redefine feminism, which should be understood as something that’s intersectional, because it’s been dominated by white feminists for so long.”
Leong also touched on the dilution of International Women’s Day as a day of protest. This comes after the Sydney steering committee refused to invite a Palestinian speaker earlier this month, and attendees of the rally boycotted chants in support of Palestine.
Cotton made reference to Israeli pinkwashing, likening it to “a gay flag being flown over a genocide.” They also spoke about the role of unions in international struggles, “particularly when it comes to Dutch colonisation of Indonesia, and when it comes to South African apartheid.”
Asked how to bring collective liberation into reality, panellists offered unique perspectives on radical, community-minded approaches to justice. Lyons explained, “I think the approach would be the abolition of police.”
Leong added to this, identifying over-policing as a “barrier to a broader collective movement.”.
“The NSW Police and systemic racism and violence are so intertwined with political authority that actually the power of the state, and particularly the police, is a real issue here.”
The chair spoke about how queer identities have been weaponised to give cover to Israel’s war crimes. “I’m queer. I’m Palestinian. There have been queer Palestinians older than me. There are queer Palestinian communities interacting and talking with each other.”
Gandler spoke from a faith perspective, highlighting that their “religion and my Jewish history was transformed and co-opted” by Zionism.“What makes me so, so angry is the idea that I was involved in that. And I think that the idea of revolution is exciting because it’s going to actually liberate Jewish people from this racist ideology [Zionism] that is also antisemitic.”
Panellists were asked for their reflections on solidarity spaces in so-called Australia.
The chair said “I feel like solidarity and intersectionality are different buzzwords right now. I feel like maybe people have lost sight of what solidarity actually means, and maybe people are redefining what solidarity means to them.”
The session ended with a vision for collective action and the future of Palestinian activism.
“There can’t be peace without justice. You can’t get security without peace (…) we share very similar values of justice and there’s something that we’re all moving towards together.”
Israeli Apartheid Week events were organised by the Autonomous Collective Against Racism (ACAR), Students for Palestine, and BDS Youth.
