At 8am on Monday at the University of Melbourne, pro-Palestine protesters involved in a six day “sit-in” inside Arts West – the showpiece contemporary seven-story building at the heart of the historic Parkville campus – were issued with notices directing them to remove their property from the building and leave campus.
Some students left the building with their equipment and bedding. But by late morning there were still about 35 students still camped inside the building which students have renamed – including in graffiti on the walls – “Mahmoud’s Hall”. This commemorates a Palestinian student, Mahmoud Alnaouq, who won a scholarship to study in Australia but was killed by an Israeli airstrike, along with 20 family members, in Gaza on October 20, 2023.
Students involved in the action said they had been threatened with disciplinary and police action if they do not comply with the order. The notice warns university staff that failure to comply may “constitute misconduct or serious misconduct”.
Throughout the day, a fluctuating number of staff members formed a picket line around the entrances to the building, in support of protesters.
By evening, security guards were still attending all the entrances, noting down student and staff ID details, if protesters are willing to hand them over. The “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” – a collection of dozens of tents – remains on the nearby South Lawn for the 26th day.
Students have vowed to host a “permanent sit-in” within Arts West until the university divests and discloses ties with weapons manufacturers and, in their words, condemns “the genocide in Gaza”. Israel has repeatedly denied claims of genocide.
![<strong>Zara Chauvin-Cunningham, 20, a member of the pro-Palestine protesters’ media team, talks to reporters from<em> The Citizen</em> about the occupation of the Arts West building at University of Melbourne’s Parkville campus on Saturday, May 18, 2024. She says she has been sleeping on campus for three weeks. “I’m Jewish. I feel incredibly safe here. We had Shabbat last night. It’s a beautiful safe space. As a Jew, I’ve never felt more supported.” “We would love to have camped for a couple of days and then had the uni come to the table and [we could] go on home. But if we’re going to keep getting ignored, then we’ll keep doing actions to make ourselves visible and heard.” “We’re all learning so much all the time. It’s been one of the most educational experiences we’ve had. So I think that feeds into our education generally. It can be very hard to focus when a genocide is going on”. <em>Photo: Kristian Oka Prasetyadi.</em></strong>](https://the-citizen-web-assets-us.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2024/05/20140705/DSC02698.jpg)
Zara Chauvin-Cunningham, 20, a member of the pro-Palestine protesters’ media team, talks to reporters from The Citizen about the occupation of the Arts West building at University of Melbourne’s Parkville campus on Saturday, May 18, 2024. She says she has been sleeping on campus for three weeks. “I’m Jewish. I feel incredibly safe here. We had Shabbat last night. It’s a beautiful safe space. As a Jew, I’ve never felt more supported.” “We would love to have camped for a couple of days and then had the uni come to the table and [we could] go on home. But if we’re going to keep getting ignored, then we’ll keep doing actions to make ourselves visible and heard.” “We’re all learning so much all the time. It’s been one of the most educational experiences we’ve had. So I think that feeds into our education generally. It can be very hard to focus when a genocide is going on”. Photo: Kristian Oka Prasetyadi.
Gemma O’Toole, 21, a spokesperson of the pro-Palestine protesters, speaks on their demands to the University of Melbourne as they refuse to vacate the Arts West building at the university’s Parkville campus on Saturday, May 18, 2024. “It’s such strange rhetoric to say protesters have crossed the line. If you think about what protesting is, is that the red line for the university? Surely genocide should cross the line, right?” “This is a public institution with ties to private weapons. They’ve made it clear yesterday in this discussion of upholding Australia’s national interest. That is what the university is insinuating. And what we’re contending is: Why is upholding human rights not in our national interest?” “I’ve been sleeping outside for three weeks. I’m so exhausted. Luckily, we have a lot of mental health support. We have a lot of the community rallying around us. I have not been able to go to a class in the last two weeks that I haven’t left crying. I’m so fatigued. But that’s not what it’s about. What it is about is genocide. What we’re witnessing is the first digitally documented genocide. You can open your phone and you everyday you see the worst thing you’ve seen in your life and it tops the day before. Every single day you can see that.” “It’s funny that this university specifically, they go out of their way to praise past protests. Sometimes it’s nice to keep you going, if you’re thinking about how in twenty years they might have a plaque of you somewhere. Even if they might suspend you now.” Photo: Kristian Oka Prasetyadi.
![<strong>Thomas Weight, a PhD student and tutor in Master in Media and Communications at the University of Melbourne, organised the academic staff picket line on Monday, as a union representative. The university said in its directive that protesters had to leave the building due to multiple examples of damage and obstruction to emergency exits and fire-related safety measures. But Weight disagreed: “[The National Tertiary Education Union] have had health and safety representatives who have conducted their own assessments into Mahmoud’s hall, and there is only one safety issue that we can identify. That is the fact that the university has installed wooden blocks which barricade every single entrance except two. If that’s the grounds upon which the university is stating that staff who are here are failing to comply with their duties, then the university has no grounds to make a complaint.” <em>Photo: Kristian Oka Prasetyadi.</em></strong>](https://the-citizen-web-assets-us.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2024/05/20164216/DSC02757.jpg)
Thomas Weight, a PhD student and tutor in Master in Media and Communications at the University of Melbourne, organised the academic staff picket line on Monday, as a union representative. The university said in its directive that protesters had to leave the building due to multiple examples of damage and obstruction to emergency exits and fire-related safety measures. But Weight disagreed: “[The National Tertiary Education Union] have had health and safety representatives who have conducted their own assessments into Mahmoud’s hall, and there is only one safety issue that we can identify. That is the fact that the university has installed wooden blocks which barricade every single entrance except two. If that’s the grounds upon which the university is stating that staff who are here are failing to comply with their duties, then the university has no grounds to make a complaint.” Photo: Kristian Oka Prasetyadi.
