It has been over 300 days since Israel’s most recent escalation of the genocide against Palestinans.
The University of Sydney’s initial statement on October 9 “expressed the University’s deep sympathy for those affected by the conflict in the Middle East.” Though the statement notes that the University “reached out to students of Israeli and Palestinian citizenship or country of residence to offer additional support”, and Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott stated that “our campuses…do not tolerate anti-Semitic or anti-Muslim language or behaviour,” no part of the statement acknowledged or expanded on the October 7 attack or Israel’s disproportionate response.
While it may not inherently be considered out of the ordinary for the University to not take a stance on geopolitical issues, there has been precedent of the University actively taking action.
The University’s initial statement in 2022 regarding the Russian-Ukraine war not only explicitly named Ukraine, it also professed support for “Ukrainian sovereignty.” The language of the statement is markedly different, making note that the “situation in Ukraine” is a direct result of an “invasion by Russia”. It also states that the University extends their sympathy to “those in our community with Russian citizenship or ties to the Russian community who deplore this act of violence against their Ukrainian neighbours.”
Significantly, the statement also declares the University’s intention to “cease working with Russian suppliers” in accordance with the Australian government’s sanctions on the Russian Federation.
No such sanctions were made by the Australian government following the ethnic cleansing committed by Israel against Palestinians, and predictably the University has yet to cut ties with Israeli companies. This is just the first of many disparities we find between the University’s responses to the two cases.
Perhaps most notably, the University refers to the Russian invasion as “the conflict in Ukraine”, whereas the invasion of Palestine and subsequent ethnic cleansing is only afforded the designation of “conflict in the Middle East”, conflating aggressor and victim into a wider geography.
Despite these glaring discrepancies between responses to these conflicts, in many of the universities responses, particularly with regard to humanitarian scholarships and programs, we find a shared insufficiency. Despite a 2023 yearly pledge of $180,000 to Scholars at Risk (made almost a year after the invasion of Ukraine), the University has only managed to host four Ukrainian scholars since the 2022 invasion.
Alongside Scholars at Risk, the Sydney Mathematical Research Institute runs a Ukrainian Visitor Program (UVP) which aims to “provide a temporary safe haven for Ukrainian researchers in the mathematical sciences who are in distress due to the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army at the end of February 2022.” When asked about how many scholars the UVP supported, a university spokesperson told Honi Soit that “while the program received interest and two academics joined the program at Sydney, there are other institutions in Europe offering similar programs or funding for displaced academics which eligible academics may find easier to accept given their location.” The Institute also runs an
International Visitor Program, which is open to academics of other nationalities. However this program does not exclusively cater to scholars fleeing conflict.
The University, following the closure of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, stated it will be “doubling our expenditure over the next three years to support academics and PhD students under the Scholars-at-Risk Program”. It remains unclear, however, how much of this expenditure would go towards supporting Palestinian academics, given that the program encompasses all international scholars at risk, including those from Ukraine. The university spokesperson told Honi that the University is “working with the Scholars at Risk Network to better understand the needs and requirements of Palestinian scholars but have been advised it is extremely difficult for scholars in Palestine to leave at this time.” They also stated that the University had one inquiry from a Palestinian scholar “however the scholar was offered a position at another university soon after.”
For students, other than the usual equity scholarships, the University offers two humanitarian scholarships: The Gregg Humanitarian Scholarship for Asylum Seekers and Refugees and The Humanitarian High Achiever Scholarship. The former is not open for applicants in 2024, while the latter requires 12-months residency in Australia for admission. Both scholarships also require students to hold either bridging or humanitarian visas.
However for both Palestinian scholars and students, not only is it difficult and expensive to leave Gaza, there are limited visa pathways into Australia. Unlike Ukrainians, Palestinians have not been offered humanitarian pathways. For the 7,000 tourist visas that have been applied for by Palestinans since October, as of the end of May, more than 4,600 of these applications had been rejected. In comparison, about 4,877 Ukrainians were offered three-year temporary humanitarian stay visas in 2022, with fewer than five applications rejected.
In both the Palestinian and Ukrainian responses, it becomes evident the university has toed the line of the Australian government, in sanctions, aid, and language. As a democratic, educational institution, the University of Sydney should instead be leading such humanitarian responses rather than shyly play ball with an increasingly conservative government.
