Honi Soit spoke to students about the last three days of the encampment. Jack, who has been at the encampment since day one, said 40 people stayed for the night and mentioned yesterday’s presence of Zionists on campus, attempting to intimidate those at the encampment with Israeli flags. SRC First Nations Officer Ethan Floyd also said that they tried to steal some belongings today, while SRC Education Officer Grace Street spoke about a notion of “registration infiltration” for those trying to crash the camp from within.
Source: Grace Street
SRC Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment (SASH) Officer Ellie Robertson commended community members who stopped by for moral support and brought big pots of lentil soup. It was broadly noted that the campus security has been friendly, but that there is a feeling that the university will want them to be moved on by the end of the week. Questions loom over graduations which begin next Wednesday, and how that will affect the camp’s continuation.
Visit from Families for Palestine
The day began with organisers from Families For Palestine and writer, academic, and lawyer Randa Abdel Fattah organising a trip to the USyd Gaza Solidarity Encampment. Families and children attended in support of the student-led campaign and participated in activities like tatreez (Palestinian embroidery), painting, and drawing on the ground with chalk.
A teach-in by Abdel Fattah followed soon after, who began the phrase “always, always will be”, to which the children responded, “Aboriginal land!” without any assistance. Abdel Fattah emphasised that “we are guests on this land” and that “comes from a real gratitude”. She asked the children why they were here today, to which one child answered: “to be kind to the people that are dying”.
Noting that it is mostly young children that are being killed, Abdel Fattah said that she doesn’t “want anyone walking away from here feeling sad”, rather with the knowledge that “they are the hope” for a world that is “safer for everyone”. Abdel Fattah said that everyone should feel proud of the students who have taken the initiative to “stand up to teachers and say that justice matters”, even if it means “sleeping at the university”.
“I want my children to come here and meet these students because they are demonstrating what it means to be a true human being”, Abdel Fattah continued.
Abdel Fattah finished by saying that one day, the children present here will be students with the power to affect change.
Kira from Students for Palestine spoke next, asking the children if they had ever been to a protest, and volunteer chants they knew in both English and Arabic. Afterward, the families marched around the camp chanting, “Free Gaza”, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, and “shame, shame Sydney Uni.”
Gaza Solidarity Encampments now span three Australian states
Later that morning, Students for Palestine organiser Jasmine Al Rawi declared to the crowd that the University of Queensland will join USyd and the University of Melbourne with its own encampment. Al Rawi stated that like the spread of university encampments across the US, the same is happening here in Australia because “we have the same ties [with Israel]”, and must demand a cut to these ties.
Fisher and Law Library Evacuation
Around 11:45 am, USyd security initiated an evacuation of Fisher Library and Law Library, with scores of students exiting onto the Quad lawns. Students for Palestine took to their megaphone to call upon fellow students to join them in solidarity.
A few minutes later, NSW Police arrived on campus and parked near Chau Chak Wing Museum. They instructed all students to move away from the vicinity of Fisher Library, directing them to the side of the Quad where the Great Hall is situated. Various police members stood at the entrances around the Quad and near Eastern Avenue, while others went inside the buildings. Other cars were parked around campus, including near Manning Road and Science Road.
According to a USyd security guard, it was a pre-planned drill, with security only notified at 6am this morning. However, the USyd Media Office told Honi that the university was notified about a threat and swiftly contacted the police who arrived at the scene. Police then cordoned off the Quad area closest to Fisher, as well as the New Law Building area.
Questions subsequently arose over the logistics of the planned speakout and rally. When approaching the police for more information, Honi was told that it was a “police operation” and they could not provide further details as the operation was ongoing.
Crews from the ABC, Al Jazeera, SBS, and other outlets were spotted filming throughout the day, as well as journalist Wendy Bacon who visited the encampment and spoke to organisers.
Speakout
Due to the police exclusion zone, the 1 pm speakout for USyd to cut ties with Israel was delayed until 2 pm. At 1:30 pm, renowned anti-Zionist Jewish journalist and academic Antony Loewenstein spoke. He congratulated organisers of the encampment, noting that “the allegations that these kinds of protests in Australia, in the US and elsewhere, are somehow infused with antisemitism is a blatant lie that needs to be called out constantly.”
Loewenstein went on to say that as “as a Jew…Israel does not speak for me, but it claims to speak for all Jews around the world.”
Speaking on the importance of protests for Palestine, especially on university campuses, Loewenstein stated that there “should be massive pressure on Sydney University and all universities in Australia that are openly and privately colluding with the worst arms dealers on the planet”, stating that “the idea that universities can get away with that is shameful.”
Loewenstein concluded by highlighting that apartheid in South Africa was brought down by “global action” through “arms embargoes, boycotts and sanctions”, and stated that the same “is needed against Israel today.”
After Loewenstein’s speech, Students for Palestine organiser Jasmine Al Rawi initiated a series of chants, such as “Free, free, free Palestine!”, “Columbia first, USyd next, all universities must divest” and “From the sea to the river, Palestine will live forever”. She went on to condemn the repression of student protests in the US.
SRC Education Officer Shovan Bhattarai addressed the complicity of governments and universities in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, saying that “every one of the major political institutions of our society has been marching along the destruction.”
“Planes made have research done at universities like ours. Sydney Uni has its hands soaked in blood.”
Bhattarai then continued to condemn the University of Sydney’s partnership with weapons manufacturer Thales, stating that one of the main aims of the encampment is to ensure that “management…cut ties with Thales and tear up its agreement.” She went on to say that the “encampment is about trying to bring together students, staff, and community members” to stand up and “fight the entire political establishment that is leading this genocide.”
Grace Street, fellow SRC Education Officer, expressed solidarity with the student encampment at Sciences Po in Paris, and called for university funding to go “[to] health and education, not for war and devastation.”
The NTEU’s Matte Rochford then spoke to the University strengthening their corporate and academic partnerships with Israel, and also to successful action against Tel Aviv University’s presence at the Sydney Abroad Fair. Rochford expressed staff solidarity with the encampments, and called for students to “draw more people into the struggle” by “com[ing] to classes” and “bring[ing] announcements to lectures”.
Rochford also noted that the USyd NTEU for Palestine has passed a motion demanding USyd cut ties with campus, and that the motion will be put to the entire NTEU membership on campus in their May 9 meeting.
The final speaker was Palestinian student activist Leighlyan, who spoke of Israel’s response to student encampments: “Netanyahu condemned encampments as ‘beyond horrific’, neglecting the fact that Israel demolished all universities in Gaza.”
Adding onto the complicity of USyd in Palestinian genocide through its ties to Israeli institutions, Leighlyan specificed the medical exchange placement program USyd runs with Technion — the Israel Institute of Technology. Leighlyan concluded with a call for the encampment to continue “until ties are cut and until Palestine is freed and the occupation falls.”
Rally
After the speakout, having coordinated with the police, students marched towards Eastern Avenue chanting loudly “Whose university? Our university” as local media and onlookers filmed. As the pedestrian light on City Road was about to turn red, protestors rushed onto the road, blocking it while chanting. Cars and buses beeped their horns, as one car, determined to drive through the crowd, almost ran over one student but managed to pass through. Students then exited the road and marched back to the encampment.
Teach-in and film screening
A teach-in scheduled for 3pm happened later in the afternoon with Teachers4Palestine’s Amane Issa and Miro Sandev debunking the myths surrounding the ANZACs and delving into the history of Australian imperialism, including within Palestine. A screening of the documentary film Berkeley in the Sixties (1990) occurred in the evening.
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