Eighty students joined a Students Against War rally at the University of Melbourne on 10 September demanding the university cut its ties with Israel.
The rally called on Melbourne University to scrap its PhD exchange program with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an institution illegally established on Palestinian land, with an IDF base on its campus.
NTEU delegates spoke alongside student organisers and highlighted the importance of building working class power through unions and solidarity between students and staff.
The rally was called in the wake of high levels of organising activity on campus at the University of Melbourne in the first six months of this year, culminating in an impressively attended student encampment and the ten-day occupation of a university building, renamed Mahmoud’s Hall.
This resulted in the university bowing to student and staff pressure by promising to disclose its links to weapons manufacturers. But the university has still refused to cut its ties with any of the weapons manufacturers and Israeli institutions that support the genocidal regime.
The key to winning divestment is pressure exerted by a mass movement of staff and students.
The presence of so many new faces at SAW’s rally on 10 September demonstrates that there is a layer of students who want to fight the University to cut ties with Israel.
The rally was mentioned by the lecturer responsible for overseeing the exchange program, Professor Steven Prawer, in the senate inquiry into antisemitism on Australian universities.
Shamefully, he tried to brand the rally as antisemitic in an attempt at deflecting criticism from his complicity in Israel’s actions.
SAW have called another rally for 16 October and will present a petition signed by students and community around the university to the University Council to demonstrate the broad support that exists for the university cutting ties with Israel.
It will take sustained campaigning to engage the wider student body to force the university to divest from Hebrew University.
By Owen McNamara
