On Wednesday August 28, hundreds of students walked out of class to march across Broadway in solidarity with students in Gaza as the death toll continues to climb in the besieged enclave.
A contingent of students from the University of Sydney gathered on Eastern Avenue to hear from speakers before marching down to UTS. Speaking to the crowd on Eastern Avenue, Shovan Bhattari (SAlt and Students for Palestine) condemned the government as well as universities for their complicity in the genocide in Gaza.
“They’ve aided it, they’ve embedded it, they’ve funded it, they’ve provided ideological cover every step of this of this genocide, our government and our institution have at mass in lockstep to the tune of war and genocide and bloodbath, shame.”
Tara Marocchi (Grassroots) a first-year student from Western Sydney University also spoke to the crowd on the complicity to genocide.
“There is nothing but complicity and silence from our politician that extend to this country and globally.”
Marching down from City Road to Broadway, the contingent arrived at UTS chanting, “UTS blood on your hands” as the crowd grew around the entrance of Building 1. In response to the rally, the front entrance of Building 1 was locked down and UTS security stood at the entrance, a response seen at previous rallies at UTS.
NSW Greens Senator David Shoebridge condemned the government for not stopping the unfolding genocide, Shoebridge also commending the students for striking in solidarity.
“They gaslight us and say there is no two-way weapons exchange and they’re not abetting the genocide, we know they’re lying and we know there is so much they can do.”
Rex Urquhart from High Schoolers for Palestine spoke on the state of Gaza for the disproportionate young Palestinians who live in the open-air prison, mentioning the inhumane calorie count imposed by Israel when food gets delivered.
“The occupation and the siege of Gaza didn’t start last year, it’s been under siege since ‘67 but they’ve been also counting calories for what they’re willing to allow in [such as] food, medicine and other essentials into Gaza for 15 years.”
Speaking to Honi Soit, Vice President of the UTS Palestinian Society Omar Abdelrahman said as a Palestinian the solidarity shown by students was “beautiful” to see students come out and rally against the complete destruction of the education system in Gaza.
“For us to take a day off studying, for people to come out from their high schools and their uni classes, it shows that the least we can do, is to take a pause to commemorate and honour the people who don’t have that right and privilege that we do.”
This was echoed by Noura Hussain from High Schoolers for Palestine who spoke to the importance of seeing students strike and showing their solidarity to Gazan high schoolers.
“Students have been robbed of every single opportunity to attain higher education…. We stand in solidarity with the children of Gaza now, we can’t pick and choose when we can be politically active.”
It has almost been 10 months since the genocide in Gaza has began, with the death toll estimated to be in around 40,000.
