Deakin students support Palestine despite official sabotage
Students at Melbourne’s Deakin University held a special general meeting on 28 August to express solidarity with Palestine, despite their student association trying to stop them. More than 250 students gathered to consider four motions, including one calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza and another demanding the university cut ties with weapons companies and divest from Israel.
Alec Ferguson and Lara Jarrar, both members of Deakin Students for Palestine, moved and seconded the motion against Israel’s genocide. Ferguson described the horror in Palestine: “Nothing has been spared. Every piece of vital infrastructure, water facilities, schools, hospitals, medical facilities—nothing has escaped Israel’s bombing campaign”.
Five students attended the meeting carrying an Israeli flag and photos of hostages. One spoke against the motion, arguing that Israel is not guilty of apartheid because “In all the big industries you will see a whole lot of people of Arab descent” and that genocide is not happening because “Israel does not have genocidal intent”.
In response, another member of Deakin Students for Palestine quoted various Israeli ministers and an army reservist and veteran, Ezra Yachin, about the goal of the Gaza offensive: “Yachin, in an effort to boost soldier morale in October last year, was recorded saying, ‘Be triumphant and finish them off. Erase the memory of them. Erase them, their families, mothers and children. These animals can no longer live’”. Jackson also noted that in the view of the International Court of Justice (“World Court), Israel’s actions likely constitute genocide.
When the motion was put to a vote, hundreds voted in favour and only a handful against.
The divestment motion, along with two others about supporting refugees and the right to protest, also passed by a very large majority.
The special general meeting was called by Deakin Students for Palestine, after the Deakin University Student Association refused to, in defiance of its own constitution. The association is controlled by students aligned with the Australian Labor Party and the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
According to the student association’s constitution, if 250 members sign a petition to request a special general meeting, then the meeting must take place and any motions passed become official association policy. Pro-Palestine students at Deakin collected more than 700 signatures, yet the association refused to organise the meeting, claiming that “It would not be appropriate ... to adopt a position in relation to the conflict”.
University management also tried to sabotage the meeting by cancelling the room booking, threatening to discipline sympathetic staff and getting security to tear down posters promoting the meeting. Jasmine Duff, who chaired the meeting, told Red Flag, “To have 250 students show up and vote to adopt the demands of the Gaza solidarity encampment was a significant vindication of the encampment. Even better, it happened just one day after the university was forced to overturn the suspension of Renee Nayef, one of the leaders of the camp. The university has been trying to discredit pro-Palestine activism, but hasn’t succeeded.”
The students who attended made a moral stand, not just against Israel’s atrocities, but also against the university administration and student representatives who support or are silent in the face of genocide.
