Features Section Editor Sophie Poredos joins Macquarie Students for Palestine at the National Student Strike for Palestine and reflects on the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
This article does not reflect the views of the Publisher or Macquarie University.
As of March 1st 2024, the day I’m writing, 30,449 citizens in Gaza have been murdered by Israel, including 12,300 children and 70,457 injured [1]. In response to these grave war crimes, the Macquarie Students for Palestine joined the ‘National Student Strike for Palestine’ on February 29th with other university contingents, to walk out of their classes and demand a cease-fire in Palestine.
‘SHAME!’
Joining the crowd of devoted students, I stood at the back in my Grapeshot shirt, notes app in hand, as the Macquarie Students for Palestine and Macquarie Socialist Party met at Macquarie University station and walked out of their classes in response to Australia’s current stance towards Palestine.
‘SHAME SHAME ISRAEL’
Colours of red and green, as well as black and white keffiyehs, were dispersed into the crowd as all the students who attended the strike wore their hearts on their sleeves. Posters were held up as Eddie, the convenor for Macquarie Students for Palestine, grimly shouted out the latest statistics.
“We are striking to oppose our government’s complicity in the genocide taking place in Gaza. It’s an outrage that 1.4 million refugees in the city of Rafah, the supposed last safe place in Gaza, are starved and carpet-bombed by the IDF”.
Trailed by a trio of undercover cops, one can only suspect who asked them to supervise. The activist group made their way across the crammed metro to Central Station, where it would join the much larger Sydney protest of the nearby university and high-school students.
The goals of the Macquarie Students for Palestine seemed simple, yet impossible to achieve; stop the genocide, lift the siege on Gaza, end the occupation of the West Bank and Australia to cut ties with Israel. Australia’s response to the genocide taking place has been woeful and gravely disappointing to the ideals that Labour leader Anthony Albanese presents. Australia has since cut funding to the aid organisation UNRWA, The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians in the Near East, due to some staff involvement in the October 7th attacks. However, this organisation's entire humanitarian operation is at risk of collapsing by the end of March due to the stressed resources and imminent threat of starvation for the Palestinian people. [2] Greater disappointing news emerged on the 28th of February 2024, as the Australian Army awarded Israeli weapon company Elbit Systems a $917 million contract [3], which has directly been targeting the civilians in Gaza.
As a student, it is easy to disconnect from the current conflict because the images are too painful and bloody to bear witness to. But, in a time where blood is being poured freely across streets that children used to dance in, the onus is on each student to keep themselves educated and informed. There are numerous ways to get involved from continuously posting online to keep the information circulating about the current state of Gaza and give voice to those civilians who have passed, such as Hind Rajab, a six-year-old from Gaza who died after being trapped in her family’s car for 12 days. [4]
If you ever think back to historically oppressive regimes and wonder what you would have done in light of something so horrible like ethnic cleansing, what do you stand for now and do these same powerful beliefs apply to Palestine? It is very rare that as a reporter representing Grapeshot Magazine, I would make my opinion so known and side with a current news event. As journalists, we are taught to be impartial and objective to all facts presented so as not to sway the audience’s ability to deliberate on influential matters. However, as a human being, I cannot allow this event to take place without emphasising the unnecessary lives lost to greed and anger. Perhaps there is a time and place for passivity, but that has been what Palestine has been subjected to for too long. As ‘nuanced’ as the discussion may be, and certainly it is complex, constantly subjecting civilians to the standard of war in the name of someone else is never just.
I plead to any reader who has made it this far into the piece, let us not give up on the Palestinian people and write them off as a lost cause. I wanted to end this news piece with one of my favourite Palestinian poets, Mahmoud Darwish [5],
‘I am an Arab’.
I have a name without a title
Patient in a country
Where people are enraged
My roots
Were entrenched before the birth of time
And before the opening of the eras
Before the pines, and the olive trees
And before the grass grew.
Identity Card (1964)
ENDNOTES
[1] AJLabs, ‘Israel-Gaza war in maps and charts: Live tracker’, 28th February 2024,
[2] Hurst, D. ‘Albanese government tells UNRWA it must be sure Gaza aid funding will go ‘to
those who need it’, The Guardian, 28th February 2024,
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/28/australia-unrwa-funding-gaza-penny-wong-anthony-albanese-israel-hamas-war#:~:text=Australia%20had%20already%20delivered%20%2420,January%20was%20“paused%20temporarily”.
[3] Greene, A. ‘Controversial Israeli Weapons Company awarded $917 million Australian
Army contracy, ABC NEWS, 28th Feburary 2024,
[4] ‘Body of 6-year-old killed in ‘deliberate’ Israeli fire found after 12 days’, Aljazeera, 10th February 2024, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/10/body-of-6-year-old-killed-in-deliberate-israeli-fire-found-after-12-days
[5] Darwish, M. ‘Identity Card, Mahmoud Darwish’, Barghouti, accessed 1st March 2024
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