On November 15th, 300 staff, students and alumni called on the University of Melbourne to take action against Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza. They demonstrated their support for the people of Palestine by staging a sit-in at the University of Melbourne Parkville campus. In coordination with the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement, attendees called on the University of Melbourne to stop colluding in Israel’s war crimes and terminate its 13-million-dollar partnership with weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
This came after staff, students, and alumni of The University of Melbourne published an open letter in Overland Literary Journal on November 2nd, addressing the Vice-Chancellor of The University of Melbourne, Duncan Maskell. The open letter implores The University of Melbourne to “condemn Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza”, “cease its partnership with weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin” and “rescind The University's adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism”. The Open Letter has already received over 2100 signatories and was endorsed by the National Tertiary Education Union’s (NTEU) University of Melbourne Branch.
Lockheed Martin is one of the largest arms companies in the world and is a long-term supplier of weapons to the Zionist state of Israel, including fighter jets, attack helicopters, and missiles. Lockheed Martin technologies are also integrated into Israel's main weapon systems. According to Lockheed Martin, their collaboration with the Zionist state over the period of 2014–2029 is expected to exceed 4 billion US dollars.
At the sit-in, concerned staff members and students were heard chanting, “UniMelb you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide!”.
Through its partnership with Lockheed Martin, The University of Melbourne is directly participating in the settler-colonial occupation and genocide of the Indigenous people of Palestine, occupied by the colonising Zionist regime since 1948.
At the sit-in, particular attention was given to Mark Cassidy, Dean of Engineering and IT, and Professor James McCluskey, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Research, which a speaker noted were “the head of these partnerships”.
As the sit-in concluded, speakers and organizers from the “UniMelb for Palestine Action Group”called on students and staff to keep up the pressure on the University by emailing and calling University representatives, including Mark Cassidy and James McCluskey.
They also called on University staff to get involved with the Trade Unionists for Palestine campaign, which was recently involved with the blocking of massive supply trucks destined for Israeli shipping line ZIM at Port Melbourne.
One organizer and University staff member stated: “This is a long-term campaign. We are not going to stop until we see tangible action from the University to end all complicity with ethnic cleaning and genocide”.
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