More than 600 students at Sydney Uni have voted overwhelmingly not just to cut the uni’s ties with Israel, but affirming the right of Palestinians to armed resistance and endorsing one, secular, democratic state in Palestine from the river to the sea.
The historic student general meeting, attended by 800 people with 600 students registering, spilled over into three different lecture halls, with the venue overflowing.
Two Zionist students spoke against the motion to cut ties, moving an amendment to label Hamas a terrorist organisation. This was ridiculed from the floor and near-unanimously rejected.
The meeting buzzed with radicalism and rage against Israel’s genocide. When SRC officers tried to close the meeting, saying the room booking was finished, students shouted them down to demand a vote on a second motion.
The meeting also voted to scrap the new Campus Access Policy introduced in an attempt to silence the Palestine movement. As the meeting ended, students chanted with megaphones inside the building in defiance of the policy and marched on the administration building.
The huge success shows the growing support for Palestine and the potential to keep broadening the movement.
