On Saturday May 11, an emergency rally centring around divestment was held at the USyd quad lawns, where the encampment has remained for the past 19 days. The Quad lawns are expected to fill up tomorrow as protestors march from Belmore Park to the USyd encampment.
Author: Valerie Chidiac
On Tuesday May 7 at 1pm, hundreds of students attended a snap rally organised by the USyd Gaza solidarity encampment, in response to the most recent attacks on — and beginning of an invasion of — Rafah after Israel rejected a ceasefire.
While impossible to avoid projecting contemporary polarisation and the upcoming election, the film’s greatest strength is the hyper-realistic depiction of America at war and the nature of modern total war itself.
Besides a few attempts by Zionist supporters to verbally intimidate, there was no escalation. The encampment chanted non-stop until Zionist protestors voluntarily left university grounds soon after.
“Our experiences aren’t homogenous, there is not one way to be Palestinian or Arab…our literature is moving forward and the rest of the world has to catch up.”
Saturday’s agenda included a banner paint for the encampment’s contingent to the weekly Hyde Park Palestine solidarity rally, a teach-in on a people’s history of the Vietnam War led by Lily Campbell, and a film screening of the Battle of Algiers (1966).
The march began with a silent procession and then protestors’ voices rang loud and clear through the streets of Sydney’s CBD.
It was broadly noted that the campus security has been friendly, but that there is a feeling that the university will want them to be moved on by the end of the week. Questions loom over graduations which begin next Wednesday, and how that will affect the camp’s continuation.
NSW Police are conducting an operation on campus after a ‘threat’ has caused multiple buildings to be evacuated.
A one-woman show, Tell Me On a Sunday necessitates extraordinary endurance for the performer; Clare sang effortlessly with the stamina of a marathon runner.