Except for some heated arguments, the protest and counter-protest passed peacefully.
Sydney, Australia:
Hundreds of supporters of Israel and Gaza clashed Friday at a Sydney university, bringing echoes of US university protests and turmoil in the Middle East to a campus and continent on the other side of the world.
Rival protesters came face to face, shouting slogans and waving flags. Still, with the exception of some heated arguments, the protest and counterprotest proceeded peacefully.
But it was yet another sign that the war in Gaza, which is approaching its seventh month, and the long-running culture wars in the US are roiling politics across distant oceans.
Pro-Palestinian protesters have been camped out for 10 days on a green lawn in front of the sprawling Gothic sandstone building of the University of Sydney – a bastion of Australian academia.
The dozens of tents adorned with Palestinian banners and flags have become a focal point for hundreds of protesters – students and others – opposing Israel’s ground invasion and bombing of Gaza.
Deaglan Godwin, a 24-year-old arts and sciences student and one of the camp’s organizers, said the US protests were an inspiration and a warning.
Columbia University in New York, the scene of police crackdowns and mass arrests, inspired us “to set up our own camp,” Godwin said.
He said Columbia is “now also a warning, a warning that the government is willing to use quite lethal and brutal force to suppress Palestinian protesters.”
Like their North American counterparts, protesters want the University of Sydney to cut ties with Israeli institutions and reject funding from arms companies.
Administrators at the University of Sydney are keen not to replicate the US experience.
Vice-chancellor Mark Scott wrote to students and staff expressing a “commitment to freedom of expression” and did not call on the police to dismantle the camp.
Australian police were noticeably absent even during Friday’s protests, which brought about 100 pro-Israel counter-protesters face to face with 400 protesters in the pro-Palestine camp.
Law enforcement and riot police vehicles were parked well out of sight on the edge of the campus.
Security was left to the university guards, who exchanged jokes with each other about their ill-fitting, high-visibility coats, while also forming a very porous separation barrier between the opposing camps.
Some curious Chinese students stopped to observe the edges of the demonstration, while the media surveyed the scene and a right-wing vlogger looked for any signs of confrontation or violence.
– ‘Stop hating, mate’ –
But, like the United States, allegations of extremism have been made against Sydney’s pro-Palestinian protesters.
Jewish groups have expressed concern that slogans about the “Zionist entity” and “from the river to the sea” are evidence of rising anti-Semitism.
Against this backdrop, more than a hundred Jewish and pro-Israel protesters decided to march near the pro-Palestine camp on Friday, hoping to send a message that Jewish students are safe on campus and that they also have the right to be heard.
Wearing “stop the hate, mate” t-shirts, they sang “Hatikvah” – Israel’s national anthem – acapella and danced to the cheesy Australian pop classic “A Land Down Under”.
Protester David Treves said he hopes the march shows people that there is more than one perspective on what is happening in the Middle East.
“I’m not trying to change people’s minds. I’m just trying to make them think,” he said, expressing concern that the camp could incite the kind of clashes seen in the United States.
“As long as it’s legal, as long as it’s within the law, I have nothing against it. There is freedom of speech in Australia,” he said. “I wouldn’t aggressively just remove everything. But I don’t want it to get out of hand.”
A small group of counterprotesters donned tefillin — the black leather boxes and straps typically worn during Jewish prayer that have come to signify more orthodox and conservative views.
Another group of students wearing keffiyeh scarves linked arms in a circle and danced the dabkeh – a Levantine dance popular at weddings.
When the groups met, some from each camp clashed and exchanged slogans, but the tension was quickly defused.
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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