The Colonial Tyranny of So-called Australia and Its ‘Like-minded Countries’

I have seen more blatant repression of peaceful protest in the last three months at ANU than I ever saw in my Arab homeland.

Artwork: The Sponsors (1994) by LAILA SHAWA

In recent months, several public figures have vividly described Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in telling ways, likening the current situation in Gaza to a ‘hell on earth’.

Not too far from Israel’s colonial atrocities being live streamed direct to our screens from Gaza are the atrocities taking place in Sudan. This is being supported by regional allies of the same colonial powers who are massacring the people of Palestine. Further away, another case of European colonisation is ongoing in Kanaky (so-called New Caledonia). Everywhere we look, we are seeing the havoc wreaked by this colonisation and its perpetrators, whilst also sharing the struggle of other colonised countries for emancipation and freedom. 

Here in so-called Australia, my position as an Arab but also as a settler on stolen Aboriginal lands has driven my involvement in the university encampment movement. As a person whose lands have been stolen, I look at my surroundings, and I see that colonisation is ongoing here. But never in my lifetime have I seen colonial institutions like Australia’s universities, the same institutions that pride themselves on their Acknowledgements of Country, be so openly repressive of anti-colonial movements led by their students.

Of course, it is not surprising or shocking. Ilan Pappe has told us that he thinks what Palestinians are suffering and what we are currently seeing is the ‘beginning of the end of the Zionist project’. If this is true, then we are surely able to pinpoint the end of all other colonial projects in a similar way, either as it is taking place or by looking back at the history of these projects. One of the signs that a colonial project is still ending must be that it comes to the aid of similar projects (or as Australia likes to put it, ‘like-minded countries’) in their time of need. 

ANU's Repression of Dissenting Voices

Australia and its universities have spared no effort in coming to Israel’s aid when most of the world has acknowledged that the latter is a settler colonial regime carrying out a genocide against the indigenous people of Palestine. Australia’s national university has perhaps been the most repressive of universities here, refusing to even engage with the encampment in good faith. Instead, the administration has feigned respect for students’ right to protest whilst attempting to crack down on our protest using a range of threatening and intimidatory tactics. 

The first of these tactics was to gather names of students whom the administration ‘suspected’ were involved in the encampment and gradually threaten each of these students with disciplinary action if they did not leave the encampment immediately. Of course, these students were not provided with any reason as to why they would be disciplined. To make sure that its stance against Palestinian liberation and anti-colonial movements more broadly is as clear as it possibly can be, ANU then sent in its security outfit to shut down the camp, citing ‘fire safety concerns’. They also called the police (amongst the most colonial institutions of all) for good measure! If this wasn’t enough, the administration continued its crackdown by directing both university-employed and outsourced security personnel to conduct surveillance of those involved in the encampment.

ANU launched its crackdown on an anticolonial student protest on a day that Australia designates a day of reconciliation with its colonial ‘past’, which is ironically more proof that Australia in fact remains a settler colony to this day. The Australian university never runs out of ways to repress the anticolonialism of its students. The encampment moved to its own alternative location, and the student movement pushed back against all of ANU’s attempts to ensure the encampment did not survive the winter. ANU’s latest violation of students’ right to protest and perhaps the most pathetic crackdown tactic was the cutting off of the electricity that was powering basic equipment at the encampment, claiming after three months of the encampment that its electrical equipment presented a threat to campus safety. 

Before studying at ANU and settling on the unceded lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, I grew up in the Arab region where we are constantly advised to self-censor and avoid saying anything critical of authorities. Australia claims that what separates it and its like-minded countries from the rest of the world is that they are democratic and free. But in my personal experience, highly politicised as it is, I have seen more blatant repression of peaceful protest in the last three months at ANU than I ever saw in my Arab homeland. Frankly, I’m glad we’re not amongst Australia’s like-minded countries - I hope we never will be!