From Dharawal and Gadigal, to Gaza: Nationwide Palestine Solidarity Week
From the 27th of April to the 1st of May, students on campuses around the country observed Nationwide Palestine Solidarity Week by demanding their universities cut ties to weapons industries.
For the duration of this week, the University of Wollongong Palestine Society held a banner outside the library for students to sign the names and ages of Palestinians murdered in Israel’s ongoing genocide. The top of the banner stated “UOW blood on your hands,” calling attention to the university’s inaction to cut ties with weapons manufacturers.
The planned actions at UOW aimed to call attention to, and push back against, the university’s ties with the Israeli military. In particular, UOW participates in research for DMTC (formerly the Defence Materials Technology Centre). The UOW program is partnered with weapons companies and steel manufacturers such as Thales and Bisalloy Steels. Thales, a French weapons company, has developed drones and missiles for Israel. Bisalloy Steels, a steel manufacturer in Unanderra, has had an over 20 year long relationship with Israel, including producing steel plates for armour applications.
It was a busy week for the UOW Palestine Society. On Wednesday, there was a speakout outside the library against the university’s weapons manufacturing research. Speakers called attention to the fact that student fees go towards funding weapons research due to the DMTC partnership.
On Thursday at 12:30pm there was a snap speakout defending the Freedom Flotilla after Israel had kidnapped several activists aboard, including Students For Palestine member Ethan Floyd. Israel had illegally kidnapped the activists in international waters off the coast of Crete. After the speakout, the UOW Palestine Society screened the film The Voice of Hind Rajab. The docudrama tells the story of Red Crescent volunteers’ attempt to save 6 year old Hind Rajab who was killed by Israeli defence forces in 2024, while trapped in her family’s car.
This on-campus action throughout Palestine Solidarity Week were not only to condemn Israel’s settler colonial violence against Palestinians, but reveal the way in which Australia, and more immediately our own university, are directly involved in the genocide. A fact that without actions that highlight UOW’s complicity, would be forgotten.
From Gadigal
On Wednesday in Sydney, a rally was held from Town Hall where students from the University of Sydney (USyd), the University of New South Wales, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Macquarie University, and Western Sydney University, all gathered as one large contingent to demand an end to complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Greens Senator for New South Wales, Mehreen Faruqi, spoke to the rally, praising students for their courage and bravery.
“Your refusal to be silenced is what keeps me going every single day,” she said to the crowd.
“From organising rallies like this, to snap actions, to holding your universities’ management to account, to the incredible student encampments for Gaza, and also for students actually going on the Global Sumud Flotilla.
“You have shown so much bravery and so much creativity in your activism, especially at a time when there are so many politicians, the media establishment, university managements, and corporate interests that are trying to get all of us to forget about Palestine.
“To distract you, to punish you, and to pretend there is a ceasefire and that the genocide has stopped.
“So thank you for being the conscience of this country.”
Ms Faruqi also acknowledged the students who have suffered repercussions for speaking out against the genocide. She praised the crowd’s bravery for continuing to stand in solidarity with Palestine as more news comes out about the genocide.
“Humanitarian aid continues to be restricted and Israel continues to occupy large parts of Gaza in their quest for ethnic cleansing,” she said.
“We must keep telling these stories, that’s the least we can do.”
Once speeches wrapped up, activists marched across the city to take their demands to the offices of two defence companies. The march disrupted traffic and drew attention from mainstream media reporters as well as passersby, who occasionally joined in. Police were escorting activists throughout the city and redirecting traffic to do so.
The first defence company activists marched to was DroneShield, an Australian defence technology company that has direct ties to UTS, a partnership the university takes pride in, as per a media release titled “Guarding against rogue drones.” DroneShield is tied to the ongoing genocide in Palestine with the supply of their DroneGun Mk4 to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), used to jam signals from electronic devices and prevent Palestinians from remaining connected to digital infrastructures.
The second defence company activists marched to was Boeing, an American multinational aircraft company with direct ties to several universities by sponsoring scholarships, such as the University of Newcastle’s “Boeing Engineering and IT Scholarship for Women.” Boeing profits off of Palestinian genocide on several fronts, from the supply of missiles and bombs (such as GBU-39 bombs and Apache missiles) to their sale of spy satellites (such as the X-73B).
Activists wrapped up their march and rally with the chant “we’ll be back!”
During Nationwide Palestine Solidarity Week, the Global Sumud Flotilla was sailing to Gaza when news broke that the aid ships were intercepted by the IDF off the coast of Greece, and that a great deal of activists were taken into custody. Ethan Floyd was one of the many activists illegally detained.
Activists had recorded messages ahead of time in the event of their capture to plead for citizens of their respective homes to call their government representatives and demand their release.
In response to this illegal detainment of aid workers and activists, a snap rally in Sydney was organised on Thursday, demanding those on board the Global Sumud Flotilla be freed.
The rally once again began at Town Hall, where students who personally knew Ethan Floyd shared their stories and demanded government officials intervene and condemn Israel for his illegal detainment.
“Ethan Floyd is my comrade in Students for Palestine, and they are also my friend,” Students for Palestine activist Jasmine Al-Rawi said.
“Ethan is doing what all of us here wish we could be doing, which is trying to break the illegal siege on Gaza which has existed since 2007.
“Our government has not lifted a single finger to punish Israel, not a single sanction, can you believe that?”
The rally marched towards the building where the office of the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade is situated, where activists expressed their loud dissatisfaction of Penny Wong’s ineffective policy and relationship with the United States and Israel.
Since the rally, Ethan Floyd was able to safely return home on the 4th of May.
At of the time of printing, Saif Abu Keshik and Thiago Avila, both prominent organisers of the flotilla, are still illegally detained by Israel and have been subjected to torture during their imprisonment, according to activists who were initially arrested alongside them.
You can demand the government release Saif Abu Keshik and Thiago Avila by emailing them with a template provided by the Global Sumud Flotilla at https://globalsumudflotilla.org/contact-officials/.
