Action is the Only Way Forward: The Student Intifada, Jul 24-Aug 7
Press conferences in Korea, arrests in Australia, disruptions in the US, and much more from The Student Intifada.
Welcome and welcome back.
Gaza is still starving. There is not enough land to bury all the dead. There is an entire industry of war profiteers profiting off the carcass of a modern-day Holocaust. There is an occupation that is ever-tightening its long-fingered grip on the Palestinian people. There is a little girl whose torn off scalp can no longer grow the long hair she cherished.
There were no more words to be said that can be new or necessary to the struggle when the last edition was made, there are certainly none now. What more can be said about a genocide we are all complicit in? What else can be written that would do more than action? What progress is made with words and rhetoric?
Take the following news stories as a lesson from your comrades across the world and put what you have learnt into action. Learn from the mistakes and victories of your peers and seek to avoid and emulate them. Look at the past and learn from it too. Listen to the words of the martyrs and living who demand action, lest they die to inaction. Take every measure that is necessary. Make every sacrifice that is required. Take your soul and spirit and devote it to the struggle. We can only do so much, but so much might just be enough to break the siege, incinerate the occupation, and create a world where we all are free and full. At the very least, it's what the moment demands.
Updates from the intifada, Jul 24-Aug 7
South Korea
On Tuesday 5th, students a part of Student coalition for Palestine in South Korea, as well as other community members, gathered in front of the Egyptian embassy in Seoul. There they staged a press conference where they condemned the Egyptian government’s complicity in the Gaza genocide and their blocking of aid, and called on Egypt to re-open the Rafah border. They continued their standing protest outside the embassy, with posters and banners, until it closed.
Australia
On Sunday 3rd, various Palestinian solidarity organisations, including Students for Palestine Australia, participated in a massive demonstration in Sydney despite attempts by law enforcement to prohibit the protest. The protest, which organisers estimated was 300,000 strong, shut down large sections of the city, most notably the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which was completely shut down by the demonstration. A startling number of community organisations, trade unions, and political organisations participated in the march from all sectors of society.
On Thursday 7th, a group of student activists, some from Melbourne University, were forcefully dragged and arrested by police for allegedly blocking Flinders Street intersection. The activists, one of whom has family who were victims of the holocaust, have condemned the "attack on civil liberties" and Australia's continued role in supporting the Zionist Entity's genocide in Gaza.
Canada
A report published by the Palestinian Youth Movement and Arms Embargo Now has revealed that Canadian universities have actively been involved in technological development for the israeli military. On top of many such as the University of Waterloo and UBC being tied to military shipping companies, McGill University, Concordia, and Carleton University have all been involved in military research and technological development.
UK
Currently, a series of university solidarity activists are attempting to gain signatures for an open letter demanding the UK Government assist in bringing Palestinian scholars and students from Gaza into the UK. These 40+ academics already have full scholarships to British universities, however, they are unable to travel due to bureaucratic barriers from the Home Office. Specifically, biometric requirements and the resulting inability to gain visas has meant that these students cannot travel from Gaza to the UK, leaving them at the mercy of the Zionist Entity. Activists are calling for the British government to either excuse these requirements or pre-determine their visas, and to evacuate the students to the UK as soon as possible.
On Friday 1st, activists from the University of Birmingham Student’s Assembly refused to end their occupation of the Guild of Students and their disruption of the National Union of Students’ (NUS) ‘Lead and Change’ Conference. The occupation, which began on the 28th of July, is in response to the NUS’ continued ties and association with the ruling Labour Party, their adoption of various Zionist policies, and their refusal to consistently campaign for the end of the UK’s government’s complicity in the genocide in Gaza. The NUS, in negotiations with the Student’s Assembly, refused to drop their use of the IHRA definition of anti-semitism and have refused to apologise for attempting to censor and repress Sabbatical officers who expressed support for the occupation and for condemning the occupation itself.
On Thursday 7th Haya Adam of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London was officially expelled from the University. Haya is a key organiser of the SOAS Liberated Zone and Palestine Society and has been on open suspension for a year due to her organising in SOAS to get the university to divest and disaffiliate from complicit companies and institutions. Now, with the apathy of Student Union leadership, SOAS has expelled her and given a variety of other punishments against fellow activists in an attempt to suppress the Student Intifada within SOAS.
US
On Monday 28th, three Cornell students targeted for protesting Cornell inviting an israeli war criminal to speak on campus received letters from the university alerting them that charges would be dismissed if they were not arrested prior to August 10th.
On Tuesday 5th, students and faculty at CUNY released a statement alongside the Palestinian Youth Movement condemning the university's suspension of several faculty members, including Professor Corrinna Mullin, and the disciplinary actions taken against several student protestors.
On Wednesday 6th activists from the University of Maryland’s SJP chapter won a legal settlement of over $100 thousand. The settlement comes after the university unconstitutionally banned a vigil that was to be held on October 7th, 2024. While originally approving the vigil, university administrators then reversed their approval, citing concerns over “campus safety”. This was despite the fact that it was only Zionists, who threatened to organise a KKK rally and turn up to the vigil armed, were the ones endangering campus safety. With aid from CAIR National and Palestine Legal, UMD’s SJP chapter has successfully achieved the massive settlement covering damages, attorney’s fees and legal costs. Alongside this, UMD has been forced to “recognise SJP as being in good standing”, rebuking Zionists attempts to slander pro-Palestinian activists.
On Friday 1st, activists from Columbia University, specifically the CUNY 8 and participants of the Basel al-Araj Popular University, had criminal hearings regarding felonies activists have been charged with for allegedly occupying a campus building on April 30th, 2024. Originally 28 protesters, now only 8 of these activists have had their charges maintained, with possible consequences including up to seven years in prison. This criminal hearing was the first of many to occur regarding the case, and activists urge those sympathetic to keep supporting the activists facing these charges.
On Wednesday 30th activists from the University of Illinois disrupted and shut down the university’s Board of Trustees annual meeting. The University of Illinois, which itself encompasses multiple subordinate universities, invests in complicit companies such as BlackRock, Caterpillar, Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Students and alumni of the university called for the end of these investments and a shift in the university’s approach to the Student Intifada and Palestinian liberation.
Parting thoughts
In a decision raising fresh concerns over academic freedom and expression in occupied Kashmir, the Indian Government has banned 25 books, citing their content as “false narrative and secessionist.” The notification declares that all copies and documents related to these books stand forfeited to the government.
The official order claims that the books distort historical facts, glorify terrorism, vilify security forces, and contribute to the radicalization of youth in Jammu and Kashmir. It adds that such literature plays a role in “misguiding the youth” and inciting violence against the Indian state.
The list includes works by renowned authors, historians, academics, and journalists such as Sumantra Bose, A.G. Noorani, Hafsa Kanjwal, Ather Zia, Anuradha Bhasin, David Devadas, Victoria Schofield, and Arundhati Roy. Titles like Do You Remember Kunan Poshpora?, Colonizing Kashmir, The Kashmir Dispute 1947-2012, A Dismantled State, and Azadi are among those ordered to be removed from public circulation.
Here is the full list of banned books. We encourage you to read them, because as we have continued to reiterate at TSI, the struggles of Palestine and Kashmir are deeply interconnected.
In solidarity and resistance, The Student Intifada.
Written this week by comrades from UK, US, Ireland and India