This is Part One of a six-part series of articles from the ANU Gaza Solidarity Encampment. Apart from the Introduction by Emeritus Professor Tamara Jacka, all articles are written by student members of the encampment. To protect the authors against identification, we have kept them anonymous.
Introduction
Tamara Jacka
On 29 April 2024, students established a Gaza Solidarity Encampment in the centre of the Australian National University (ANU) campus. The students made the following demands:
- That the ANU cut ties with all weapons manufacturing companies, starting with BAE systems, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, and place a moratorium with any such ties in the future;
- That the ANU disclose and divest from all companies complicit in the genocide in Gaza, including all companies on the BDS list;
- That the ANU cut academic ties with Israel, including the exchange partnership with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as well as any research partnerships with Israeli companies;
- That the ANU condemns and denounces the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the apartheid Israeli state, including the destruction of all universities in Gaza and the murder of Palestinian students and academics.
As of late July, the university executive has refused to visit the encampment. Instead, it has kept the encampment under constant surveillance, directed students to vacate the encampment and taken disciplinary action against those students that it could identify through surveillance.
Early in the morning of May 27th, a directive was issued for the encampment to be dismantled and the police were brought in to enforce the directive. However, by midday that day, the tents had not been removed and some two hundred protesters – students, staff and members of the community – had assembled around the encampment. The police withdrew and the university issued a new directive, for the encampment to be removed by the following midday. Overnight, students packed up the tents and reestablished the encampment in another place on campus, a short distance from the original location.
Before and after the encampment’s relocation, the university executive has invited encampment members to a meeting only on condition that the students identify themselves. Given the risk of disciplinary action associated with identification, it is understandable that students have not complied. Instead, they asked that a team of a few staff members, including myself, act as intermediaries between the encampment and the university executive. The University executive finally responded to the staff team’s numerous requests for a meeting, and so far, has met with us twice, with another meeting planned soon.
To date, the university executive has failed to address any of the encampment’s demands. However, the Vice Chancellor has assured the staff mediation team that the exchange partnership with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is no longer in operation and has promised to have the university website revised to make this clear. In addition, she and the University Council committed the university to a review of the so-called Socially Responsible Investment Policy and launched a consultation process. Submissions closed on July 17th.
Meanwhile, of the 12 students known to have been subjected to disciplinary measures, one has been expelled from the university. Two have had charges dropped and disciplinary measures rescinded. The rest remain banned from residing at the encampment.
As Canberra’s bitterly cold winter has progressed, the number of students staying overnight at the encampment declined from a peak of 30-50 in early May to just a handful during the semester break. But with the start of second semester, the numbers are increasing again. Throughout this almost three-month period, apart from the students staying overnight, many more have been involved in daily meetings and other activities, and numerous members of the community have continued to visit and offer support. There are no plans to dismantle the encampment.
Read the first anonymous account by a participant in the ANU Gaza Solidarity Encampment below:
The idealised notion of a ‘university experience’ has only been achieved in direct opposition to the University.
In the age of the corporate university students often feel isolated, disillusioned and downtrodden. This had certainly been my experience for the past two and a half years. I had accepted that this is just how university was now. So, I was incredibly surprised when one day, after a teach-in at the ANU Gaza Solidarity Encampment, I found myself thinking that this is what university should be like.
Something that has become apparent since the start of the Encampment is the fact that I have never felt so supported emotionally, academically and socially before. I feel I have a community that cares about me and supports me.
I feel it in the small things like when someone asks if I want a hot water bottle. I feel it in the big things such as the nightly dinner provided by the local Palestinian community. I feel it in the fun times, like 2am karaoke or nightshift Just Dance sessions. I feel it during the challenging times, when the police are called, and the university attacks us.
In every aspect of encampment life, I can feel the intense bonds we have built together, the care, the respect, the love. It is an empowering and beautiful experience. My emotional and physical needs are being met because of this incredible community that has formed around the encampment.
Academically and mentally participating in the Encampment has provided us with invaluable opportunities. Whether it be political discussions in the main tent, teach-ins conducted by experts in their field, working on media projects for the camp or simply study sessions in the library, I am engaging in more of the study I am passionate about.
Part of being involved in a political movement is being in political spaces. This brings forth critical discussions about sociology, democracy, economics, history, arts and literature. The Encampment provides room for these conversations to occur outside the stifling structures of the ANU. When you are placed outside the systems of the university you are able to criticise it as an institution. From the outside looking in you can see that better things are possible and what is currently the system does not have to remain.
This intersection of community and education can be seen during our Arabic lessons on Mondays. We gather as friends and peers, joking, laughing and enjoying each other’s company. We come together to learn and further our understanding of the world. It is truly beautiful to be a part of. It is what university is meant to be.
The free sharing of knowledge and ideas creates an environment that all universities should aspire to. However, the only time I have ever experienced such a positive culture is when I rejected the status quo of this institution.
The idealised university experience is possible, but only outside the confines of the corporate university…
Read the rest of this series in P&I, forthcoming under the following titles:
Hollow Liars: The day ANU called ACT police on its students
Succumbing to the Zionist Lobby: higher education institutions abandon ethics and integrity
Space and domination: The ANU Gaza Solidarity Encampment
The Failure of the ANU: Will a plaque commemorate the slaughter?
Art and popular resistance: Truth telling from ANU to Gaza to Sudan
Tamara Jacka
Tamara Jacka is an emeritus professor in the College of Asia and the Pacific at The Australian National University and an active member of the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network. Since 2020, she has been involved in campaigning against AUKUS, against Israeli occupation and genocide in Palestine, and for improvements in refugee rights in Australia.
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