Students for Palestine – Then and Now

Israel’s genocide in Gaza has galvanised opposition from millions of people around the globe. As I write this, the rift between the opinions of workers and students, on one hand, and the powerful institutions of capitalism – governments, police, universities – on the other, is widening. This month alone, Europe has witnessed two general strikes for Palestine in Italy, involving millions of workers, as well as a large-scale strike across Spain. 

In Italy, four “days of rage” erupted following Israel’s kidnapping of activists en route to Gaza as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla. In Rome, Bologna, Florence, Turin, and countless other towns and cities, Italians “blocked everything” – streets, universities, highways, and railways – in defiance of the complicity of far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni and her bans on road blockades and industrial action during peak hours. 

Glance over to the UK and you’ll see routine images of retirees – elderly women dragged by their necks by riot police – clinging to cardboard placards reading, “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”, while Keir Starmer’s Labour government wages harsher attacks on Palestine activists than to a state committing a literal genocide. This year has been a historic one for Palestine activism in Australia. Imagine an entire city of Wollongong’s worth of people marching in the pouring rain on Australia’s most iconic monument. That’s what the “March for Humanity” was.

Students have a role to play in all of this. In Italy, it’s been university students, and even high school students, who have gotten to work building Palestine solidarity activism on campuses. Students here will be vital to progressing the cause. That’s why you should sign up to be a member of Students for Palestine.

Students for Palestine was founded 16 years ago by handfuls of socialist and Palestinian activists on university campuses across Melbourne. Horrified by Israel’s bombardment of Gaza – known as Operation Cast Lead, where the IDF murdered 1,500 Palestinian civilians in just three weeks – these student activists decided now was the time to act and start a campaign. While the bombing had ceased, Gaza remained an open-air prison and Israel continued to run, as it does today, an apartheid regime in the West Bank.

The students had established clear political positions on Palestine. One was the right for Palestinian refugees to return to historic Palestine. Many descendants of 1948 refugees still carry the keys to their original homes, as a symbol of their aspiration to return. Another was the conviction that nothing less than full equality between all peoples – regardless of race or religion – would bring liberation for Palestinians. Students for Palestine set out to oppose university and government ties with Israel’s racist military regime with notable campaigns against chocolate shop Max Brenner (who gifted ‘care packages’ to the IDF) and research partnerships between bomb and fighter jet manufacturer BAE systems and RMIT university in Melbourne.

Fast forward to today, and Students for Palestine's two greatest achievements are the Gaza solidarity encampments across several Australian universities in 2024, and more recently the nationwide Student Referendum on Palestine. The referendum resulted in majority support from thousands of students to cut the two way arms trade with Israel, and university partnerships with weapons companies to cease. This result is a victory against numerous defeated referendums by pro-Palestine student activists in Australia in the mid-70s.

Our work is not done. It is only just beginning. The future of Gaza hangs in the balance, with a shaky ceasefire deal brokered by the 21st century’s most infamous far-right figure, and nothing that promises freedom or dignity for the Palestinians. Students all have a role to play in building the kind of movement we need if Palestinians are not only to survive another day in the world's largest open-air prison, but live truly freely, with safety and equality.

Students for Palestine have launched an official membership drive for students across all campuses in the country, and have plans for our first NSW state-wide conference at a later date.

Find more information through the website or social media.

Megan Guy

Co-convener of Students for Palestine UOW (formerly the UOW Palestine Society)