Students at the University of Sydney (USyd) voted to cut ties with Israel at a historic student general meeting (SGM) on August 7.
More than 700 students attended, packing out the Eastern Avenue Auditorium and filling three break-out rooms. Hundreds had queued up beforehand.
One student told Green Left they decided to attend because “what’s happening in Gaza is a humanitarian issue and the fact that the university is turning a blind eye should not be ignored … it is obvious the university should cut ties with Israel.”
The Students Representative Council (SRC) called the SGM after the two month-long Palestine solidarity encampment forced management to agree to disclose ties with Israeli institutions and weapons’ companies.
Students were inspired by a successful and well attended SGM at the University of Queensland on May 29, at which 1500 students voted to cut ties with weapons manufacturers and divest from Israel.
This was the fifth SGM at USyd. The first, in 1971, was in response to the tour of the all-white Apartheid South African Springbok rugby team.
Students at the most recent one highlighted the links between the struggle to end Apartheid in South Africa and resisting Israel’s apartheid and freeing Palestine.
An SGM in 2007 condemned the John Howard government’s attacks on student unionism; one in 2021 endorsed the school strike for climate movement; and another that year opposed staff and course cuts.
The meeting was co-chaired by SRC president Harrison Brennan and Students for Palestine activist Jasmine Al-Rawi.
Al-Rawi said the SGM “represents the hope of what students can achieve when they fight together” and pointed to the huge student protest movement in Bangladesh, which forced the resignation of the prime minister, as inspiration.
Two motions were tabled: The first demanded the university “cut ties with the genocide in Gaza” and “cut ties with Thales and all weapons companies conducting research at USyd”.
USyd SRC Education Officer Grace Street, who seconded the motion, told the SGM that the university’s Memorandum of Understanding with multinational weapons company Thales was the “biggest elephant in the room”.
“It is Thales that creates the Watchkeeper 35 drones used to surveil and kill Palestinians in Gaza. It is Thales that creates the Bushmaster vehicles used in Syria, East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan. And it is Thales that houses and manages the Armidale Class patrol boats used to transport asylum seekers to detention on Christmas Island.”
She pointed out USyd also has ties with Lockheed Martin, which produces the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Jets, being used by Israel to kill in Gaza.
The motion called on management to cut ties with Israeli institutions as part of the academic boycott, including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
This includes scrapping the “OLES2155: Experience Israel class”, which includes an exchange program with partner universities in Israel.
Street said these institutions have “played a key role in planning, implementing and justifying Israel’s occupation and apartheid policy for decades” and have close ties with the Israeli Defense Forces and Elbit Systems.
The motion called for disciplinary measures on students for taking part in Palestine solidarity action to be rescinded and for the new Campus Access Policy — which restricts the right to protest and free speech on campus — to be dropped.
Palestinian student and BDS Youth Australia activist Rand Khatib said: “This is a motion against white supremacy, against empire, against capitalism … this is a demand for land back, self-determination and sovereignty.
“There are no universities left in Gaza, no schools, no hospitals, no mosques, no churches … this is a genocide funded by our government and institutions.
“But this genocide is preventable … we can prevent it with BDS and mass mobilisation.”
A group of five Zionists opposed the motion, characterising it in their speech against it as “antisemitic”.
Student activist Yasmine Johnson, who is Jewish, responded by saying “the claim that opposing Israeli genocide and occupation is antisemitic is oldest lie in the book”.
Zionists students moved to amend the motion to “condemn Hamas”, but it was voted down.
The second motion, put by Students Against War, called for a singular, secular and democratic state in Palestine and affirmed Palestine’s right to resist.
The motion called for support for “a single state where Palestinians, Jews, Muslims, and people of all faiths and backgrounds live in freedom and equality”.
It recognised that Palestinians, as an occupied people, have the right to armed resistance under international law.
The motion read: “All the violence in Palestine and Israel is a result of the Israeli state, its occupation of Palestine and the apartheid system inflicted on Palestinians.
“The violence of the oppressed is never equivalent to the violence of the oppressor.”
Both motions passed with an overwhelming majority, with about 5 students opposed to both.
Chants of “Free, free Palestine” echoed around the lecture hall and students then marched to Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott’s office to demand he fulfill the SGM’s demands.
Students have pledged to continue campaigning for institutional support to end the war on Palestine in Semester Two.
SGMs are also being planned at Australian National University, University of Adelaide, Monash University, Deakin University, RMIT, Queensland University of Technology and the University of Newcastle.
whatsapp_image_2024-08-08_at_3.31.21_pm.jpeg
