‘Gaza solidarity’ tent city at University of Sydney enters second week
One week into their campus encampment, pro-Palestine protesters at the University of Sydney groggily emerged from their tents claiming they’ll stay “weeks or months” until their demands are met – or be arrested trying. Watch the video.
NSW
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Bleary-eyed student activists claim they’re willing to remain camped out on the lawns of Australia’s oldest university for “as long as it takes” to convince the institution to denounce its Israeli counterparts, and be arrested if police try to remove them.
Up to 30 protesters at the so-called ‘Gaza solidarity camp’ taking over the University of Sydney quadrangle are now sleeping there overnight, fuelled by food donations pouring in from staff, student groups, and the wider community.
Slowly stirring from their makeshift camp on Monday morning, when questioned by The Daily Telegraph on their political beliefs activists described Israel as “an ethnostate” and all but called for its destruction as they called on their university to cut ties with Israeli institutions and French weapons manufacturer Thales.
24-year-old UTS student and ‘Students for Palestine’ organiser Yasmine Johnson avoided directly responding to questions on Israel’s future.
“I’m for a state where everyone is free to live regardless of their race, religion, for a free Palestine basically,” she said.
“I’m for somewhere … (where) there’s no occupation and apartheid, where there’s no genocide taking place, where there is not a religious state, where people don’t have the right to basic civil liberties on the basis of their nationality or religion.”
Her comrade Deaglan Godwin responded similarly, while 21-year-old Harrison Brennan said whether Israel should continue to exist “really isn’t a priority right now”.
The Jewish state’s reaction to Hamas’ October 7 bloodshed is not justified he said, because “Israel has been carrying out an apartheid system for the last 76 years”.
Marley Liyanagama, the only camper to describe Hamas’ October 7 attack as a “war crime”, doesn’t have high hopes of a speedy resolution to the protest and is “tag-teaming” with other students to avoid “burning out”.
“Camping out here is nothing compared to what people are going through in Gaza right now, so if we need to keep doing this in solidarity, I think there are people here – me included – who are willing to do that for as long as it takes … weeks, months if we have to,” he said.
Shadow minister for education Senator Sarah Henderson urged the University of Sydney to dismantle the campsite altogether and “call in the police”, describing institutions as “weak” for failing to crack down on protesters.
“The University of Sydney and University of Melbourne are failing to act against this ugly tide of hatred,” she said.
A USYD spokeswoman said the university was “engaging with the protesters civilly and peacefully”, but would not kowtow to the camp’s divestment and boycott demands.
“We remain open to and encourage links with countries all over the world,” she said.
“We would only consider placing restrictions on our staff engaging in collaborations with colleagues overseas if the proposed activity was assessed as potentially unlawful, or was likely to place the wellbeing of students and staff at risk or threaten the University’s capacity to comply with our legal duties.”
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