At 2pm on May 9, hundreds of university students from the University of Sydney (USyd) and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) gathered with fellow high school students in support of Rafah. Outside the UTS Central Building, on Broadway, the students called out Australian universities for backing Palestinian genocide and demanded institutional divestment from Israel. Key speakers at the event included Palestinian Liberation Activist, Jana Fayyad, NSW Senator and Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens Dr. Mehreen Faruqi, Palestinian high-schooler Nesreen Saddik, Macquarie University student Aarya Pagrut, and Jewish high-schooler Rex Urquhart. While police patrolled the sidelines, the event remained peaceful.
After marching from the USyd Quadrangle to the UTS Central Building, the rally escalated. Following the speeches, students stormed Broadway and occupied the Broadway Shopping Centre, gaining much attention from the general public. From several stories up, hundreds of young voices could be heard, united in a common goal, “hands off Rafah”.
Fayyad, a Palestinian from Arrabeh in the West Bank, addressed the crowd: “use these dark times as a golden opportunity to make a real difference in the world…know the systems around the world so you can change them.” Fayyad also urged students to join the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement, identifying them as “one of the biggest threats to Israel”.
Hope was the resounding sentiment at the rally, with calls of “Gaza, Gaza, don’t you cry, Palestine will never die” filling the air. Seventeen-year-old Saddik encapsulated this with her address, “bound by solidarity, we refuse to be silenced by borders or oppression”. Saddik went on to say that “guided by love we forge a path to the future of freedom.”
Jewish high school student, Rex Urquhart, also touched listeners with his unique stance as an anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian Jew. Urquhart recounted his grandmother’s story as a Jewish woman fleeing Ukraine, and likened this to families now fleeing Palestine. “History is repeating itself,” Urquhart declared.
When asked why they attended today’s rally, one UTS student shared that, “protesting millions of Palestinians being bombed and terrorised in Rafah and Gaza is more important than attending a couple (of) classes”.
A historic day for university activism, Thursday also saw a motion to cut ties with Israeli universities and global arms manufacturers passed by the USyd branch of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), with 93% in favour.
