West Bank upbringing sparks Aussie student to lead Melbourne campus protest

Australian students have joined thousands of university students worldwide who are camping on campuses calling for peace in Gaza.

About 60 tents were pitched at the University of Melbourne encampment on April 29. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Blair Jackson

A global student movement has dug roots at the University of Melbourne, as students near a week camping on campus in a pro-Palestine demonstration.

Various student groups are involved in the encampment, which buried its stakes in a large central lawn area of the Parkville campus last Thursday.

On Monday, there were at least 60 tents and swags, plus communal gazebos on site.

The demonstration is broadly calling for the University of Melbourne to cut ties with any and all weapons manufacturers.

The institution has worked with Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon on non-weapons related research, and says all projects comply with ethics, integrity and Defence rules and codes.

Lockheed Martin makes rocket and ballistic missiles, various fighter jets and attack helicopters among a host of other defence and commercial technologies.

The University of Melbourne camp was set up on April 25. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Blair Jackson

A university spokesperson said the university had received $3.5m from Lockheed Martin since 2016. The funds went to non-weapons related AI, resources, and quantum computer projects, plus powerline safety monitoring and fire fighting drone control.

Boeing sponsors scholarships at the university, and current projects funded by Boeing include testing virus-resistant aeroplane tray tables, and investigating an environmentally friendly way to break down decommissioned commercial planes.

Boeing makes military planes and missiles, and the US supplies Israel with Boeing’s guided air-to-surface bombs.

Melbourne-born aid work Zomi Frankcom and six World Central Kitchen colleagues were killed by the Israel Defense Forces in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on April 2, 2024. Picture: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto

Raytheon makes bombs, missiles and radars. The University of Melbourne has “no current relationship” with the company.

In 2009 the university and Raytheon partnered in a weather-monitoring project. In 2011, a University of Melbourne researcher worked with a different university and Raytheon on a quantum computing project, the details of which were not to hand.

Dana Alshaer is an accidental weapons expert.

The University of Melbourne student can hear the difference between a sniper bullet and a rubber-coated bullet, having been born and raised in Bethlehem, in the West Bank.

Student organiser Dana Alshaer says she grew up surrounded by conflict. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Blair Jackson

Ms Alshaer, an international relations masters student studying on a scholarship, and is a key organiser of the campus encampment.

The 30-year-old has intermittent contact with her friends in Gaza, most of whom she says have lost their homes.

She said her 15-year-old cousin, and the boy’s mother, were beaten at home by Israelis last week, before the teenager was taken away.

There was a particular period of heightened tension from 2000 to 2005 in the contested area, called the Second Intifada or Second Uprising. During this Ms Alshaer says she and her cousin were walking on an isolated road, when a “huge” Israeli man got out of his car with a rifle strapped around himself, picked her young cousin up by the throat before dumping the boy on the ground.

A missile strikes Gaza on October 28, 2023, as seen from Sderot, Israel. Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

When she was eight years old, Ms Alshaer said the barrel of an Israeli tank tracked her from left-to-right, right-to-left as she tried to leave school.

“I’ve lived my whole life under a settler-colonist regime,” she said.

Her lived experience is why Ms Alshaer is one of the organisers for the encampment. She said the call went out and people from all over Naarm donated food, sleeping bags, tents, banners and paint.

The University of Melbourne spokesperson said the “peaceful” protesters were exercising their right, and the protest continued without incident.

A woman prays at a University of Melbourne pro-Palestine encampment. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Blair Jackson

“Freedom of speech is respected and supported at the University of Melbourne and is central to our values and identity,” the spokesperson said.

“The University welcomes debate and peaceful protest on campus, provided it does not extend to violence, threat or intimidation.”

The university was made of a diverse, multicultural and multi-faith body of more than 80,000 students and staff, they said.

Student Maryam Masood wants better transparency from governments and institutions about their involvements in conflict. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Blair Jackson

“All perspectives are welcome but these must be expressed in a respectful way, so that everyone can fully participate in University life,” the spokesperson said.

Sparked by the Columbia University president calling in New York police to dismantle an encampment, at least 40 colleges across the US, as well as universities in Paris, Rome – Warwick, Leeds and Leicester in the UK – and Sydney have followed suit.