Refusal to vacate at USYD
"We've repeatedly stated that we support the right to peaceful protest, provided it doesn't cause significant disruption to core university operations," says Vice-chancellor Mark Scott.
A group of protesters were still refusing to vacate the University of Sydney’s (USYD’s) ostensibly pro-Palestinian encampment at the time The AJN went to press, after the university finally gave them their marching orders last Friday.
“The matter isn’t resolved and we’re still in continuous contact with them [USYD],” NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip told The AJN on Wednesday.
Vice-chancellor Mark Scott said in an email to staff on Monday that following the rejection of USYD’s offer to review its ties with other universities in exchange for the encampment being voluntarily dismantled, “We informed the encampment representatives that we require them to vacate the front lawns, so we can prepare for Semester 2 Welcome Fest.
“We’ve repeatedly stated that we support the right to peaceful protest, provided it doesn’t cause significant disruption to core university operations,” Scott continued.
“We consider preparations for Welcome Fest to be core university operations – and any activity that impedes this constitutes a significant and unacceptable disruption.”
The order to dismantle the encampment came just days before an explosive 60 Minutes report revealed representatives of the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir had visited the installation and held events there.
But while Students For Palestine and other secular so-called progressive groups have packed up, the Sydney University Muslim Students’ Association (SUMSA), Stand4Palestine – the group linked to Hizb ut-Tahrir – and other Islamic groups have vowed to stay.
“The Muslims at USYD have a resolve based on more than the human rights that the UN peddle,” Stand4Palestine wrote on Instagram on Tuesday. “Muslims will continue this camp, we are immensely proud of them.”
Meanwhile, The Age revealed on Tuesday that a mob broke into the University of Melbourne’s Baillieu Library earlier this month where they damaged equipment and spray-painted homages to West Bank Palestinian terror group “Lions Den” on the walls and floors.
The trespassers, who filmed their exploits and sent them to an activist site, declared, “We are students, alumni and ‘outside agitators’ and we are escalating tactics of campus encampment.
“At 4am this morning we barricaded the ‘Baillieu’ library, sabotaged the carceral security system that gate keeps knowledge, & took the liberty of renaming this building ‘Lions’ Den Library’ after the more worthy Palestinian youth resistance group.
“Abolish ‘Israel’. Abolish ‘Australia’.”
Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler said, “If the University of Melbourne had come out strongly at the very beginning and drawn a line in the sand, it would have never gotten to this point.”
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