Nationwide Palestine solidarity week
Over the past 2 and a half years, Israel’s genocidal campaign in Palestine has resulted in Gaza looking like Hiroshima in 1945. It is an unrecognisable wasteland of death and misery. Israel is currently laying yellow concrete blocks throughout the enclave to map a yellow line to determine where Palestinians can and cannot exist. Every night, that line is moved. Existing tent villages previously in the allotted green area now lie outside the bounds in the yellow. They are then subjected to severe harassment and death, forcing the remaining survivors to relocate.
This process is now playing out in Lebanon, where Israel is forcibly displacing everyone south of the Litani River. In the West Bank, the violent settlement of Palestinian villages is increasing. Anyone who resists can be marked as a terrorist and face imprisonment. This has been a long-standing practice for Israel, but since the passing of the Death Penalty for Terrorists Law on the 30th of March, 2026, these Palestinian prisoners face execution by hanging, mandated to take place within 90 days of a final ruling. The conviction rate of Palestinians in Israeli Courts is over 90%.
Our government is straining to curtail our ability to protest for peace and the freedom of Palestinians. NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns sent the police on a rampage through the streets of Sydney on the 9th of February to beat down peaceful protesters demonstrating against the visit of Issac Herzog, Israel’s President. In Queensland, they have arrested Liam Parry and many Students for Palestine activists because they uttered six words that demand the liberation of Palestinians from their oppression: “From the river to the sea.”
We must not be cowed; we are standing on the right side of history, and will continue our fight. A member of Students for Palestine’s Sydney branch, Ethan Floyd, is on board the Gaza Freedom Flotilla to break the siege on Gaza.
The fight for Palestinian liberation isn’t over. It must and will continue.
This is why a Nationwide Palestine Solidarity Week has been organised by Students for Palestine and is set to take place from the 27th of April to the 1st of May. From Melbourne to Brisbane, Sydney to Perth, and here at the University of Wollongong, campuses across the country will be participating. There will be forums, protests, and other events to raise awareness of the role our universities play in Israel’s genocide.
A red thread stretches across the globe from Gaza and ends right here in Wollongong. Our university is home to the Defence Materials Technology Centre (DMTC), where they conduct research to make armour-plated steel as impenetrable as possible. The main beneficiary of this research is Bisalloy Steels in Unanderra, and one of Bisalloy’s main customers is, you guessed it, the Israeli state. Bisalloy provides the armour for Israel’s tanks and battle utes to level buildings in Gaza and settle the West Bank.
Over this Week of Solidarity, Students for Palestine Wollongong will be holding a stall outside the library on Tuesday 28th of April to get the word out. On Wednesday 29th of April, around 12pm, we will be organising a speakout and banner signing to commemorate the children who have been needlessly murdered by Israel. On Thursday 30th of April, we will be hosting a movie screening on campus of The Voice of Hind Rajab at 2:30pm.
If you’d like to help or join Students for Palestine, message our Instagram page @uowpalestinesociety, and we will be in touch. We hope to see as many of you as possible at our events.
From The River To The Sea, Palestine Will Be Free,
Ryan Chapman
Co-convener of Students for Palestine — Wollongong.
