On 28 November, Students Against War held a rally outside the Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) ‘New Contemporaries’ Graduate Exhibition, protesting the SCA’s ties with the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design.
Documents released after a Freedom of Information (FOI) request reveal that as recently as 2020, the SCA has renewed its exchange program with the academy, which in October of last year opened an “Emergency Sewing Center” for the purpose of sewing and repairing the military uniforms of the Israel Defence Forces.
As attendees of the graduate exhibition entered the Old Teachers’ College, members of Student’s Against War handed out flyers at all entrances detailing information about the SCA’s ongoing partnership with Bezalel Academy.
Chair Luke Ottavi opened the protest, stating that Bezalel Academy is “a university that backs the genocide 100 percent, and USyd thinks that’s okay”. Ottavi stated that “we’re here to raise awareness about those ties … the petition we launched has about 100 people signed onto it now”.
National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) Member and Art History Academic Aiden Magro spoke first, stating that “tonight we are putting the University of Sydney and Sydney College of the Arts on notice. SCA must not reenter into any form of partnership with Bezalel come next year, when the current partnership is set to expire. It has absolutely no excuse to continue this partnership, and failure to cut ties will amount to blatant support for a genocidal regime.”
He continued, stating of Bezalel that “The institution tasks students to mend the uniforms that the IDF wear while they massacre palestinian villages, displace Palestinians, and commit heinous war crimes.”
Midhat Jafri from Students Against War spoke next, beginning with a chant of “Free, Free Palestine”. Jafri went on to state that “It is clear that art students and staff at USyd want nothing to do with apartheid, and nothing to do with an institution that supports genocide … but USyd is intent on trying to silence opposition to it’s support for Israel’s apartheid regime and genocide in Gaza.”
Speaking of the necessity to protest this exchange agreement, Jafri stated that “It is very likely that USyd is negotiating with Bezalel right now … we must demand that this program be cut immediately”.
Speaking to the repression of free speech on campus, Jafri repeated the words of Jewish photographer and activist Nan Goldin: “The ICC is talking about genocide. The UN is talking about genocide. Even the Pope is talking about genocide. Yet we’re not supposed to talk about this as genocide.”
Concluding the protest, Ottavi stated simply that “It [Israel] is an apartheid state, and ordinary people across Australia want nothing to do with that … we have to force them [the University] to cut these ties, because if we don’t do it, nobody will.”
Earlier this year, the Dutch Royal Academy of Art made the decision to suspend their exchange program with the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. In a letter to the student union, the board of directors described Bezalel Academy as “an institution that is not opposing a government under serious investigation for breaching human rights and committing crimes against humanity or is supporting this”. The Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and five Norwegian Universities have also suspended cooperation agreements and cut ties with the Bezalel Academy.
When asked for comment, specifically with regard to whether the University plans to renew their exchange agreement with Bezalel Academy, a University spokesperson provided this statement.
“Bezalel Academy agreement expires in September next year and we will undertake discussions with the institution in line with the stated terms.
We take a range of factors into consideration when commencing or renewing a partnership including the potential benefits for our students and staff, that our participation will be reciprocated equitably and the outcome of due diligence checks.
Future exchanges with the Israeli universities we have active programs with will continue to depend on current expert travel advice.”
The Students Against War petition to end the exchange agreement with Bezalel Academy can be found here.
