Why we’re camping at USYD for Palestine

On Tuesday April 23rd, at around 4pm, Students for Palestine launched a Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Sydney University in conjunction with other pro-Palestine advocacy groups, following in the footsteps of students in the US.

Students from USYD, UTS, Macquarie, Western Sydney, and my own campus UNSW, set up tents and banners across the Quad Lawns to begin occupying USYD for as long as we can to demand that USYD cut ties with Israel’s genocide. Our protest has a renewed urgency as Netanyahu has invaded Rafah, where 1.4 million defenseless Palestinian refugees had fled for safety.

Students here were inspired by Columbia University students’ occupation that made headlines for defying brutality from the NYPD who were called in by students’ own University President, Minouche Shafik. 20 campus occupations quickly became 40, then 50, and now over 100, not just in the US, but now in France, the UK, Germany, some Middle Eastern countries, and Australia. 

Students here in Australia have a fight of our own with the government and University administrations’ complicity in genocide too. USYD Students for Palestine’s camp is demanding that USYD cut all military and academic ties with the Israel’s genocide. Universities should not be involved in genocide and war; they should be places of education. 

USYD is directly involved in providing research and material for the weapons Israel is now using to massacre Gazans. In 2022, they re-signed a multi-million dollar memorandum of understanding with Thales, a weapons company that partners with Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems in its production of drones which target and kill Gazans. 

Like universities in the US, USYD’s Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott has refused to address what is rightly motivating our protest: USYD’s ties with Israel’s genocide. Universities are showing themselves to be more committed to their money-making inhumane ties to Israel’s war crimes than the values of ‘social justice’, ‘democracy’ and ‘free speech’ they profess to uphold. This is why the USYD Gaza Camp is still going and only growing. Record numbers of students, staff and community members from all walks of life have turned out for protests, teach-ins, and to even camp overnight to support our fight against this genocide. 

UNSW Students for Palestine is calling on all UNSW students, staff and supporters of Palestine to get down to the USYD Gaza camp!

Now more than ever we need more people to demonstrate that we are not going away until our demands for real justice against this genocide are met. If you can come down at any time during the day, there are protests, teach-ins, crafty working bees. And help us occupy more of the Quad lawns to send our message loud and clear!