UTS cuts ties with Technion in a win for Palestine campaigners

The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) has officially ended its Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Israeli Institute of Technology (Technion), following almost a year of consistent pressure, campaigning, and coordinated actions by students and staff.

Technion has been a core part of Israel’s military and weapons development since 1948. It is deeply enmeshed with the Israeli arms industry, contributing to the ongoing genocide in Gaza through helping Israeli weapons companies such as Elbit and Rafael develop military technology. Technion helped develop the remote controlled D9 bulldozers used to demolish Palestinian homes in the occupied territories.

Since 2010, UTS had quietly maintained an MOU with Technion, facilitated by the Faculty of Science. The partnership involved student exchange programs, joint research, and use of UTS facilities. It was due for renewal in June 2025.

UTS Staff for Palestine obtained internal university documents through Freedom of Information that exposed the partnership in August 2024. This was around the same time that Palestine solidarity encampments sprung up at campuses across Australia. Inspired by those actions, we began organising at UTS with a clear demand: cut ties with Technion.

The UTS Student Association (UTSSA), the UTS Palestine Society (Palsoc), and UTS Staff for Palestine all backed the campaign.

UTS Staff for Palestine was launched in early 2024, with an open letter initiative that saw more than 700 staff sign on to demand UTS cut all ties with Israel.

The UTS NTEU branch adopted a formal position of support for the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign at a meeting in September 2024, reiterating a demand UTS cut ties with Israel and citing the Technion link in particular. This helped build momentum towards the national NTEU Council meeting in September, where BDS became the formal position of the union.

Protests

Technion was a focus of a student and staff National Day of Action on 23 October 2024. Around 100 students and staff from Sydney Uni marched to join 60 others at UTS.

The protest stormed into the UTS Engineering building and occupied it for around 30 minutes, demanding the university cut ties with Technion. The building houses the office of Professor Michael Blumenstein, Technion Australia board member and UTS Pro Vice Chancellor (Business Creation and Major Facilities).

In December, UTS staff and students helped organise a protest at the Technion 100th Anniversary Dinner in Sydney.

Another National Day of Action on 26 March this year saw 70 staff and students protest at UTS.

Repression

The campaign for Palestine at UTS has faced continual repression.

In October 2024, when a health science researcher at UTS tried to organise a seminar on “The Health Crisis in Gaza” the event was banned and the room booking cancelled due to a “risk assessment”, with the staff member threatened with misconduct if he went ahead. Students responded by taking over the room to watch a Zoom meeting of the seminar at the scheduled time.

Yet in April this year under the same risk management assessment management allowed Israel-is, an organisation set up to promote the Israeli Defense Forces, to bring former Israeli soldiers onto UTS to speak. Students were told a speakout against this would be considered an unauthorised protest under campus policy and students could be issued with move on orders. The protest went ahead regardless.

Security tried to stop students leafleting for protests on several occasions, and lecture announcements about Palestine have also been prevented.

The win at UTS follows campaigns that have successfully ended student exchange partnerships with the Hebrew University at University of WA, Ben Gurion University at Curtin Uni, and the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design at Sydney Uni.

We need to keep fighting to end all university ties with Israel. This kind of campaigning can help broaden support for Palestine on university campuses, and build support for broader demands for Anthony Albanese to cut ties with Israel through sanctions on weapons exports and a ban on trade.

By Ali Al-lami

Magazine

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