Rival groups face off on Monash University campus

Tensions were running high at Monash University on Monday night as rival pro-Palestinian and pro-Jewish student activists staged events at the campus.

Pro-Palestine protesters gather at Monash University in Melbourne on Monday night. Picture: David Caird

Tensions were running high at Monash University on Monday night as rival pro-Palestinian and pro-Jewish student activists staged events at the campus.

Palestinian students and their supporters issued a late afternoon call on social media for reinforcements, and activists gathered at the student encampment before a group marched towards a hall where the Jewish event was being staged.

The group were shouting chants such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, “Albanese, Albanese, genocide won’t go easy” and “Shame shame Australia shame”.

Monash for Palestine, the organisers of the rally, said it was opposing a Jewish Yom Hazikaron memorial held on the campus to honour Israel’s fallen soldiers and victims of terror.

The pro-Palestine group marched to the front of Robert Blackwood Hall, where the Jewish event was being staged, with some members shouting “bastard children” and “inbreds” at some of the people filing into the building for the Israeli remembrance event.

The group has demanded the university cancel the event, apologise for “distress and harm” caused by planning to run the event and to cut “all ties” with Israel. The Palestinian protest began about 5:30pm at the Lemon Scented Lawns.

“We know this university isn’t going to defend this encampment. We know the f..king cops are not going to defend this encampment,” a male speaker said to the group.

“We know that we are going to defend this encampment for as long as it takes and as hard as we have to.”

Zionism Victoria executive director Zeddy Lawrence said Yom Hazikaron was a “very solemn” occasion and likened it to a Jewish Anzac Day.

“We encourage everyone who’s coming along to not approach the encampment,” Mr Lawrence told The Australian.

“We may not agree to what they’re protesting about, we may not agree how they’re disrupting life on campus, but as long as they respect us, we have no problem respecting them.”

Mr Lawrence also highlighted that Sir John Monash was the founding member of the Zionist Federation of Australia.

“So if you have a problem with Zionism, one has to wonder why you’re at the university named after former president of the Zionist Federation,” he said.

In a statement, the Monash for Palestine student group said it refused to “tolerate events that commemorate institutions and their forces that are complicit in the genocide, oppression and displacement of Palestinians”.

“It is utterly appalling that the university would allow for such an event to proceed given repeated expressions as to how this event would impact the wellbeing of the university community, particularly Palestinian staff and students,” the group said.

“The ongoing oppression faced by the Palestinian people at the hands of the IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces) is a reminder of the urgent need for justice and accountability. It is bizarre that the University will go ahead with an event that ‘hero-washes’ those accountable for blatant human rights violations towards the Palestinian people.”