100 Days of the ANU Gaza Solidarity Encampment
April 29, 2024 and ongoing
This past week, the ANU Gaza Solidarity Encampment marked a 100 days of occupying university lawns in an effort to compel our university to disclose and divest from investments in weapons, to cut ties with companies and universities complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and those institutions on illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The encampment commemorated this milestone by holding a vigil on our former campsite at Kambri Lawns. The vigil was somber and beautiful, bringing together the students, staff and the wider community to remember and honour the hundreds of thousands of lives lost in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
We held this ceremony to emphasize the tragic reality that, even after a 100 days of protest, the university Executives has yet to acknowledge or clarify the university’s stance in regards to the ongoing genocide. Students at the encampment have tirelessly worked to awaken ANU’s conscience, urging the university to take a stand against the death, destruction and ecocide happening on Palestinian land. However, the silence of the university Executive combined with a sloppy SRI review process, suggests that the ANU is not making meaningful progress towards genuine disclosure and divestment.
As a camp, we recognise that an institution like ANU is deeply entrenched in upholding a colonial legacy. Its alignment with the state of Israel reflects a broader complicity in systemic violence. Despite facing an institution with little morality or conscience, we, the staff, students and the wider community continue to push forward and demand that ANU disclose and divest, we will not stop, we will not rest!
Below are two student reflections on 100 days of the encampment:
Student Statement on the 100 Days:
100 days ago we raised the Palestinian flag at the ANU campus in solidarity as we bore witness to the ongoing genocide in Gaza by Israel. 100 days ago we decided to hold the ANU accountable for investing our student fees into the weapons manufacturers enabling this genocide. What we didn’t know at the time was that our lives would be changed forever. As we began digging deeper for the truth, educating ourselves further and having to face the lies of the Western media and government we realised that by shouting free Palestine our own minds had been freed by the idea that power only lives with those at the top. Our ability to fight as students against our institution is a freedom unlocked by the Palestinian cause. Our ability to denounce the normalisation of our university funding crimes against humanity and war crimes is due to the people of Palestine. To the people of Gaza, your steadfastness is a testament to the strength and greatness of humanity. Thank you for liberating our minds to the truth that has directed us to fight for a future of justice and peace in this world.
We will continue to do our part until Palestine is free. Palestine is a reflection of humanity, and what is happening there at the moment is a reflection of our collective humanity's past and present failures and the path towards a liberated future. No one is free until Palestine is free.
Vigil Speech:
I don’t think any of us thought when we first started this encampment 100 days ago, that we would last this long, and honestly we shouldn’t have had to. The last 100 days is a testament to the commitment and steadfastness of the people of this camp and the supporting community.
Making the poppies that we will lay on these lawns took us hours. And still we could only make enough for each to represent 1000 lives martyred in Gaza since October. It’s all too easy to reduce each life to 1000th of a poppy here. The magnitude of destruction is just that enormous. But every single one of those lives is somebody with aspirations, family, friends, dreams. A community. Each one of those 186,000 lives is a member of a community. Communities that will never be the same, communities torn apart, reduced to rubble and destroyed. But communities that stand by one another, support each other as they are forced to flee their home. And communities that develop and strengthen each other in their hardest hours.
This encampment could not have lasted over the past 100 days without the community. Without support from donations, dinners, night watches and just words of thanks and encouragement. Community is the lifeblood of humanity. Palestinian community members across Canberra have told us that the encampment gives them hope in some of their darkest days, and I’m sure we’ve all seen the words of thanks scrawled across tents in refugee camps across Gaza. This community extends globally from Canberra to Palestine, from England, the US, Japan, across Europe, across so-called Australia, across every corner of this globe and to every single Palestinian diaspora forced out of their homeland. While we keep strength knowing we are not alone in our fight against our university, we gain strength from the continued fight and resistance of the Palestinian people in Gaza, in the West Bank and across the globe. While we may be your light and hope, you are ours. Every single person who fought to their last breath, every single person who continues to fight and every single person who will hopefully grow up never having to fight.
100 days is a long time. 100 days is a big commitment. But 100 days of cold and camping by choice, will remain nothing compared to over 300 days of genocide that the people of Gaza has faced. The over 76 years of illegal occupation of Palestine. The 186,000 mothers, fathers, children, teachers, aid workers, journalists, poets, workers and those who will never discover what they were to become. But 186,000 people that will always be our community. The community of Palestinians globally and a community of poppies laid out on this lawn.