The Gaza Solidarity Encampment organised by student and staff activists at the University of Sydney and located outside the Quad has now entered its second day. Wednesday 24 April saw a schedule of rallies, speak outs, and teach-ins. However, questions hang over its survival with the planned ANZAC Day dawn service tomorrow morning.
The campout started yesterday in solidarity with Gaza, as inspired by pro-Palestine encampments at Columbia University. The situation is currently escalating in the US, with students and staff arrested at Yale University and New York University. Columbia University has issued another ultimatum for protestors to leave campus grounds, or they will be forcibly removed. Additionally, there are rumours of the National Guard being called on students by university management.
What happened overnight?
Honi spoke to SRC President Harrison Brennan and SRC Office Bearer Ishbel Dunsmore early in the morning, who noted that 30 to 35 students and activists camped overnight. While weary, the campers remained in good spirits.
Overnight, the campers experienced a low, but intimidating police and security presence. USyd security came by but didn’t speak to protestors. The Quad remained locked, with one security officer remaining inside all night. Two police constables, who had remained parked on campus, walked by twice and shone flashlights into tents, but did not speak to any campers. Late into the night, a car came through flying the Israel flag.
Legal Observers NSW also briefed campers late last night. Because these protests are occurring on campus, and do not hinder or stop traffic, there is little jurisdiction for the police and security to give the campers a move-on order.
What happened today?
Multiple speeches, rallies, and teach-ins at the encampment occurred outside of the Quad. The day began with an organising meeting and was followed by a teach-in hosted by Dr Lana Tatour on the front lawns of the Quad. Tatour, a UNSW lecturer, affirmed staff solidarity with students, and called upon other academics “to come and protect your students”, because “if we fail to protect, we have failed in our jobs as academics”.
Tatour also spoke to the growing strength of the Australian and specifically, student, pro-Palestinian movement, making sure that “Israel’s standing in the international community will never be the same”. She asked students to not be preoccupied with the media’s framing of pro-Palestinian protests as antisemitic, reminding them that they “have nothing to do with racism”, but as an “anticolonial’ and ‘antiracist” movement. Tatour deemed this depiction of student protests as merely a “distraction tactic” from the genocide itself.
After the teach-in, various public figures and activists spoke outside the Quadrangle. Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, a visiting Palestinian scientist from the West Bank, made a surprise appearance to endorse the rally. Qumsiyeh spoke about the importance of environmentalism in the movement and encouraged all students to see Palestine. On Friday, April 26, Qumisiyeh will be speaking at the NSW Teachers Federation from 6pm.
Member of Parliament for Newtown, Greens’ Jenny Leong attended and called on the USyd Vice Chancellor and administration to divest from arms manufacturers like Thales. Leong noted this is “not the only camp we’ll see in Australia”, citing the upcoming encampment at the University of Melbourne. Leong concluded by asking all universities to cut ties with Israel “unless they want their universities to turn into campsites”.
How has the University responded so far?
This morning, acting Vice-Chancellor and President Annemarie Jagose sent an email out to all students. The response highlighted the students’ right to “assemble peacefully and express their views”, but noted, “the University will not hesitate to take firm and decisive disciplinary action where appropriate if a student or staff member is found to have breached the Student Charter, Code of Conduct or University policy”.
The university’s official communication was noted during the speech of SRC Vice President Deaglan Godwin. While the university implicitly indicated that they would respect the protestors’ freedom of speech, Godwin argued this was “not because of benevolence or magnanimity” or “some sort of principle”. ”
Speakout
The day continued with a rally at 1.30pm. The first speaker, SRC President Brennan spoke to the protest movement spreading across the US and Canada noting the “unjust charges” against student protestors, particularly in New York. Brennan emphasised that the motivation behind setting up this camp is “because this university, like countless others across the world, has overwhelming ties to arms manufacturers and Israeli institutions” in addition to the continued promotion of “ties to and programs with the genocidal and apartheid state of Israel”. Brennan cited the OLE: Experience Israel which functions as “a propagandistic tour” that not only “glorifies Israel” but “sanitises its violent founding and obscures the ongoing displacement and obstruction of Palestinians and their livelihoods”. Brennan reiterated that until USyd cut ties, the encampment would continue.
Nick Riemer, president of the NTEU USyd branch and senior lecturer in the Department of English indicated his and the NTEU’s support “for as long as it takes to get justice for Palestinians on this campus and more widely.” Riemer noted that leadership “never hesitated to broadcast the most hollow expressions of support” for democratic expression, when in reality it only demonstrated “vacuous liberal values.”
“There is something deeply wrong with institutions that are able to espouse commitment” to this “but the meaning of which is systemically perverted and bureaucratically corrupted by almost everything they do, including profound hostility to pro-Indigenous struggles”, Riemer said.”
Riemer then told students that “the current leadership of the NTEU, without any opposition, is recommending to our members a motion on May 9” to call upon USyd management to cut all institutional and academic ties with Israeli universities as well as weapons technology and military manufacturers.
Federal Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi addressed the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the “morally bankrupt Albanese-Labour government” and the “unacceptable” nature of USyd’s partnerships with arms dealers. Faruqi proceeded to call upon university management to “listen to the students and staff and publicly condemn genocide”.
Amal Naser, Palestinian organiser, and UNSW student, then talked about how universities are “institutions of learning and knowledge”, yet they prioritise profit and the “backing [of] imperialism over education”. Naser noted that this profit incentive occurs “all the while students on this campus can barely afford a basic education.” She said it is possible to cut ties, citing five Norwegian universities, and called upon USyd to do the same. Naser also reminded attendees of the weekly rallies demanding an end to the Australian government’s complicity in genocide through their $917 billion contract signed with Elbit Systems and invited students to attend the May 15 rally in commemoration of 76 years since the Nakba.
Godwin spoke next on the encampments in the US which “started a wildfire of student anger”, and with a video sent to USyd from the New School in New York in solidarity, called on students to “rise up even stronger”.
Protest then marched down Eastern Avenue, and held chants outside the F23 Michael Spence Building, which continued well into the afternoon.
The encampment has picked up some mainstream media coverage, with Junkee, ABC National Radio, NBC News, and Al Jazeera English. There are rumours of VICE and Michael West Media preparing to cover in the coming days.
Honi Soit spoke to Brennan who called the university’s statement “interesting” as it “implied that the protest is fine to go ahead”. He argued that the protests are not aggressive and that this response does not indicate a “benevolence of management or generosity to let us camp in the quad.” Instead, it is motivated by fear of the “massive” student solidarity at present and “the response they’d get from other students if they were to turn this away or kick us off.”
“USyd is playing their cards wisely here. The worry we will have is tomorrow when we have our dawn service at the Quad what that will mean for the campus then”, Brennan continued.
What’s going to happen now?
As Dunsmore expressed in the morning, tonight, April 24, remains critical due to the ANZAC Day Dawn Service planned for 5.15-6.15am on Thursday, April 25. Brennan said the encampment would remain “as long as possible” and encouraged everyone to come down and join. The signup sheet is here.
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