Arrests as students attempt to rename building after Hamas leader
Demonstrators attempted to hang a banner outside a campus building reading "Haniyeh's Building", referring to assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Two men were arrested and charged following a pro-Palestine protest at Western Sydney University’s Parramatta South campus on Wednesday.
One has been charged with assaulting police and resisting police arrest while the other is charged with resisting police arrest and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
They have been granted bail and can only attend the university to go to class or study.
Footage of the incident showed police forcefully removing protesters, including one wearing a red keffiyeh.
The situation escalated when demonstrators attempted to hang a banner outside a campus building reading “Haniyeh’s Building”, referring to Ismail Haniyeh, the former Hamas leader assassinated in Iran earlier this year.
Western Sydney University Chancellor Jennifer Westacott has condemned the protesters’ actions, stating clearly, “Western Sydney University condemns antisemitism in any form, full stop. We condemn Islamophobia, hate speech, intimidation and violence in any form, full stop.”
She insisted this sort of behaviour will not be tolerated on campus, saying, “The safety and wellbeing of students is our priority. Universities should be places of intellectual challenge and the contest of ideas, but they must never be places of fear or intimidation.”
Jewish community leaders are angry at the protesters’ attempt to name a campus building after Ismail Haniyeh, the assassinated head of Hamas who planned the October 7 atrocities in Israel.
Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) CEO, Alon Cassuto, said, “Imagine students glorifying bin Laden on campus a year after 9/11.”
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), denounced the protesters as, “some of the most ignorant and brainwashed people imaginable”.
He added it is now plain for all to see they’re only interested in war and Jewish destruction.
“In time they will undoubtedly turn up as Greens candidates or researchers for ‘human right organisations but their proud support for a murderous antisemitic psychopath will follow them,” Ryvchin said.
Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson, speaking on Sky News Australia, criticised the “alarming and concerning displays” on Australian campuses since Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel.
He’s called for universities to take a tough approach to extremist behaviour.
However, Paterson commended Chancellor Westacott for her leadership, noting she is, “one of the most outspoken university leaders on these issues with some real moral clarity very early in the debate around those protests”.
The protesters have scheduled a “cops off campus” protest today (Friday) at the university campus, saying two of its members were violently arrested in what they are calling a case of “racial profiling”.
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