Fred Fuentes
Students are continuing to campaign for the immediate withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Lebanon and Palestine. On August 17, speak-outs and meetings were held on campuses around the country.
At the University of Queensland, 120 staff and students turned up to hear former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib speak. It was the first public event organised by the newly formed Students Against War and Racism at UQ.
At Flinders University in Adelaide, staff and students organised a 70-strong meeting on the topic "Stop the war in the Middle East". At the end of the meeting a network was established to hold monthly forums on the campus. Resistance is organising an anti-war speak-out at Flinders on August 24.
In Sydney, two speak-outs were held on August 17 — one at the University of Western Sydney's Bankstown campus and one at Sydney University.
The UWS speak-out, organised by the UWS Student Association as part of Islam Awareness Week, attracted 90 students. Luke Fomiatti from the UWSSA told participants that Israel's war on Lebanon is not a war between religions, but "a war between the rich and the poor".
Resistance member Kiraz Janicke received a great response when she spoke about the revolutionary Venezuelan government's decision to withdraw its charge d'affaire from Israel and President Hugo Chavez's denouncing of Israel and the US as the biggest threats to world peace. Many speakers on the open microphone explained their support for the actions of Hezbollah and Hamas in response to the Israeli aggression.
Students at Sydney University gathered for the third week in a row to protest Israel's wars. They were addressed by Australian Islamic Friendship Association president Keysar Trad and members of Students Against War.
Geelong Resistance organiser Justine Kamprad reports that 23 people attended a forum at Deakin University on August 16 to hear a report from Resistance member James Crafti, who returned from Palestine in April. Zionist students ripped down posters advertising the event, but the forum organisers responded by "painting a 10-metre long banner that was hung off a construction site on campus in full view of the cafe and bar".
Crafti also spoke at a meeting organised by the University of Tasmania's international solidarity collective on August 14. Alby Dallas, the UT international solidarity officer and a Resistance member, told GLW that a dozen people turned up and "responded really enthusiastically to the call to get active in the anti-war movement".