Sunday’s rally was co-chaired by Jana Fayyad, a Palestinian activist, and Josh Lees of Palestine Action Group (PAG), commencing at Belmore Park at 1pm.
The rally was set to march to the USyd Gaza solidarity encampment, however, protesters were forced to alter their route, due to the University threatening protesters with lifelong campus bans if they entered onto the grounds. The route of the march was adjusted so that the protest would end at the Main Gate, with university entrance sectioned off and highly monitored by police.
This unfolded in the midst of heightened pressures to close the USyd Gaza solidarity encampment, culminating in a university wide email from Vice Chancellor Mark Scott ordering the encampment’s closure.
Jana Fayyad commenced the rally with a minute of silence for those who have been killed in Palestine and Lebanon. She acknowledged that this should be a time where Muslim Palestinians would be entering into Eid celebrations. She also acknowledged the shared and ongoing struggle for Indigenous liberation in Australia and in Palestine.
Ethan Floyd, Wiradjuri Wailwan student activist and USU board member then addressed the crowd. He gave an Acknowledgement of Country, addressing Belmore Park as being a place of historic resistance, remarking that protestors were gathering on land where Gadigal people resisted colonial oppression.
“We are tired of asking our political leaders to condemn the slaughter of Palestinians. We are tired of asking the government to cut ties with apartheid Israel,” he said.
He spoke to the recent developments at the USyd Gaza Solidarity encampment, and remarked: “We will be mobilising thousands of students for a Student General Meeting (SGM).”
“Universities should be institutions for public good,” he said.
Josh Lees, Palestine Action Group (PAG) organiser, spoke to the complicity of the Western imperialist powers in the genocide of Gaza. “This operation was carried out with the direct help and cooperation of the US army,” he said. He condemned the continued and widespread use of carpet bombing, inflicted against schools and hospitals in Gaza.
The next speaker was Mohamed Mayara, a journalist and political activist who lives in the occupied Western Sahara. He spoke to the shared struggle for liberation, and an “interconnectedness” of struggles between Sahrawis and Palestinians, noting the “same brutality.”
“Today we gather to condemn the ongoing genocide. We stand in solidarity with the victims of these atrocities,” he said.
Jana Fayyad, co-chair of the rally, then addressed the crowd again. “It feels like we’ve been living in a dystopia for the last 8 months,” she remarked. “An estimate of six thousand Palestinian children are still stuck under the rubble. Five hundred medical personnel have been targeted since the beginning of the genocide.”
Dr. Farah Fayyad, a Palestinian academic, spoke next. “We salute your resilience and resistance in face of the most brutal occupation in modern history,” Dr. Fayyad said.
Her speech revolved around the systematic dehumanisation of Palestinians which continues to allow genocide to occur. “Let it be known that if it were not for the long term deeply seeded dehumanisation of Palestinians, the world would not accept the deaths of innocent men, women and children,” she said.
Dr. Fayyad implored the crowd to “humanise the victims of occupation in pursuit of justice.” “It is incumbent on all of us to be relentless in our humanising of Palestinians.”
The next speaker was Raneem Emad, a Gazan UTS law student. “I serve as an echo of my family members displaced in Gaza, and my martyred family members,” she said.
“I am honoured to be their voice today, in the presence of my grandmother, a survivor of the Nakba. A woman older than the illegal state of Israel.”
“Leaders criminalise our chants but will not criminalise a genocide.”
After the speeches, the march commenced from Belmore Park, down George Street, and through Broadway before stopping at USyd’s Main Gate entrance. Traffic was disrupted throughout the march — but several cars honked horns and waved to the crowd in solidarity with the protest.
Chants continued as protestors piled into the Main Gate, but were fenced off from entering the university.
Josh Lees addressed the crowd for a final time, encouraging all to attend the next action in protest against the upcoming Labor conference, which will be held on July 27 at Town Hall.
Lees emphasised the need for dissent against the complicity of the Labor party in the continued attacks on Gaza, noting the recent $900 million contract Labor entered into with Elbit Systems, an Israel-based weapons manufacturer.
The Student General Meeting to demand USyd cut ties with Israel is to be held on August 7 at 5pm. Location TBA.
