Sydney University students set up Gaza solidarity camp as war marks 200 days

ByDr. David Robie

David Robie also blogs at Café Pacific

From Asia Pacific Report:

Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians as similar student and academic protests spread across the United States — and faced crackdowns by police.

The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of infrastructure haunted Gaza with Israel’s war on the besieged Palestinian coastal enclave passing the 200 days milestone.

Nearly 85 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced and more than 14,500 children killed in the attack, which critics have dubbed a war of vengeance.

In Sydney, according to the university’s student newspaper, Honi Soit, the camp was established on the campus when tents were pitched “emblazoned with graffiti reading ‘Free Palestine’ and ‘from the river to the sea’”.

Students form several Australian universities were in attendance for the launch of the encampment, which was inaugurated with a student activist “speak out” on the subject of the war on Gaza and the demand for USyd management to drop any ties to the state of Israel.

According to the student newspaper: “Many chants that were used on US campuses in the past week were repeated at the encampment tonight like “disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest” followed by “Albanese/Sydney Uni you will see, Palestine will be free”.

Pro-Palestinian protests have been gaining momentum at colleges and universities across the United States with street protests also outside campuses as police have cracked down on the demonstrators and administrators have faced calls to resign.

Students at New York University, Columbia, Harvard and Yale are among those standing in solidarity with Palestinians and demanding an end to the war on Gaza.

Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey, reporting from New York, said student demonstrators from New York University (NYU) gathered for hours in a park just off the campus to protest against the genocide.

The protest moved to the park following the mass arrest of 133 students and academic staff who had participated in a protest on the NYU campus the night before.

“As news spread of their arrests, so have demonstrations around the country — at other colleges and universities,” Saloomey said.

Columbia announced that it was introducing online classes for the the rest of the year to cope with the protests.

Watch Saloomey’s AJ report:


Columbia protests: Chants of ‘Azaadi’.               Video: Al Jazeera

The Al Jazeera Explainers team have put together a comprehensive report detailing the numbers that highlight the unprecedented level of violence unleashed by Israel on Gaza in the 200 days of war.

The massive infrastructure damage caused by the Israeli war on Gaza
The massive infrastructure damage caused by the Israeli war on Gaza . . . . making the strip “unlivable”. Graphic: Al Jazeera

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11 Comments

  1. Soon to be millions, many thousands of students world wide, “…are all Palestinians.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPiMwfjdiFU

    Despite harsh repression, for the first time in their lives as they begin to feel their power, the students will not quit. At Princeton University it has been reported that professors have joined the protests and are holding classes.

    https://abc11.com/college-protests-live-updates-more-encampments-pop-up-at-princeton-northwestern-emerson/14733832/

    When faced with a people that refuse to submit, society has two choices negotiate or resort to massacre.
    In 1968 at Kent State University even massacre did not work.
    If the students don’t back down, I am certain that the students will get the universities to allow their protests, which will make them even bigger. Then not only will the university governors have to listen to their students demands to quit divestment from the industries that support the genocide, faced with open revolt in the universities the Biden administration will have to change course.
    The only other course for the US to continue supporting the war in Gaza is resort to open fascism, probably a step too far a Biden administration, but probably not a step too far for a Trump administration.
    Repression, or negotiation?
    One way or another Biden knows he must end these demonstrations.

    1. Biden needs to end supply of arms to Israel, look at the images he refuses to of the destruction and slaughter in Gaza and turn the tap off to Israel completely. If he doesn’t, he will lose the election to Trump because the population that would carry him over the line will be too inflamed to vote for him.

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