Open letter to the Vice Chancellors of Australian Universities from Jane Kenway on behalf of Academics for Palestine-WA

Australia’s Vice Chancellors must direct their universities to support the universities of Gaza. There is increasingly widespread condemnation of Israel’s atrocities in Gaza and support for the Palestinian people. Despite this, Australian universities have largely remained silent, and in many cases, actively opposed such support.

Israel’s genocide in Gaza incorporates scholasticide – the deliberate destruction of the education system of Palestine. Despite this carnage, in July 2025 the Presidents of Gaza’s three non-profit universities circulated this Open Letter which begins, “Our campuses may have been razed, but our universities continue to exist.” This letter calls upon academic communities around the world to coordinate themselves to:

• Support their efforts to continue teaching and conducting research, under siege and amidst loss.
• Commit to the long-term rebuilding of Gaza’s universities in partnership with them, respecting their institutional autonomy and academic agency.
• Work in partnership with them. Engage directly with and support the very institutions that continue to embody academic life and collective intellectual resistance in Gaza.

We call on all Australian Vice Chancellors to direct their universities to take the following actions:

• Engage in practical, structured and enduring partnerships with Gazan universities. The Emergency Committee of Universities in Gaza has provided examples of how to do this here.
• Cease suppression of support for Palestine amongst staff and students.
• Make a public statement declaring support for Palestine and condemning the actions of Israel.
• Reject the adoption of Universities Australia’s flawed definition of antisemitism.
• Divest from commercial contracts with companies funding Israeli military and weapons development.
• Cease partnerships with Israeli universities that promote a philosophy that condones the eradication of Palestinian people and the theft of their land.

The choice to remain inert, silent, and suppress support for Palestine is a choice to support genocide and scholasticide.  There are many documented examples of universities’ suppression of Palestinian support, including the act of one university to remove a Palestinian flag hanging from an academic’s window, claiming it did not comply with the University’s 15 page ‘ flag policy’ – a perfect example of the ‘banality of evil.’

The scholasticide’s recent horrors in the Occupied Territories are documented in detail here. Education is highly prized by Palestinian people even during times of terrible trauma.  They have one of the highest literacy rates in the world and a long-running reputation as the world’s best-educated refugees. As Palestinian scholar Ashjan Ajour explains, “These institutions not only preserve the narratives of Palestinian history and resistance, but also empower the future generations to challenge colonial oppression.”

Australian universities must recover their role as institutions of truth, knowledge and integrity. This includes helping to preserve the rich and powerful education system of Palestine and supporting the right of Palestinian citizens to exist in peace and freedom.