Students at the University of Melbourne have unanimously passed two symbolic motions that call for the University to divest from weapons companies and Israel. The mass meeting was held yesterday afternoon, Thursday August 15, and was called for by Students for Palestine Unimelb.

This meeting follows the Unimelb Palestine encampment and occupation of Arts West/Mahmoud’s Hall (renamed after Mahmoud Alnaouq, a prospective Unimelb student killed in Gaza by the IDF) that took place last semester. Unimelb for Palestine (UM4P), who organised these actions, agreed to end the student occupation in exchange for the University disclosing its weapons ties. The University has since pivoted to defending these ties as beneficial for Australia’s national security.

Thursday’s meeting was a symbolic mass meeting rather than a Student General Meeting, and so the vote will not be officially recognised by the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU). The following motions were put forward:

1. UMSU supports an immediate and just end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. This means stopping the bombing, a permanent withdrawal of Israeli troops, an end to the 18-year long blockade, and reparations to be paid for the reconstruction of Gaza.
2. UMSU calls on The University of Melbourne to fully divest from weapons companies and cut all ties with the state of Israel, Israeli corporations and Israeli academic institutions.

The NTEU Unimelb branch will vote next week on similar motions.

Students for Palestine estimates that over 800 people showed up, with the loudest contingent of students from the Victorian College of Arts, who had organised their own walkout and marched across to the Parkville campus for the meeting.

Students for Palestine member and UMSU Education Officer Bella Beiraghi, who is also a member of Socialist Alternative, chaired the meeting and spoke first about similar meetings that have been taking place all across the country, including previous divestment votes at RMIT, the University of Queensland, and the University of Sydney. They stated “We want to join that national campaign of students… that stands against genocide”.

UMSU President Disha Zutshi spoke next, clarifying that the meeting and motions were only symbolic and presenting an UMSU-approved Divest Petition. The petition, titled “Minds over missiles”, calls for the University to cut all ties with weapons manufacturing. Disha said, “Having your name on that petition … is actually shaping the culture of this university … [and will] directly impact students”. The petition will go to the University Council, where they will be required to address it, and Disha called out the council directly, saying, “If you’re not listening to us, we will never listen to you.”

There is apparent tension between the UMSU leadership and Students for Palestine and their representatives in the union. At times, students chanted over the ‘official’ UMSU portion of the meeting. While UMSU passed a motion in support of the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement two years ago, it has since backtracked that support and claims that as a result of a subsequent lawsuit/legal threats, it is unable to officially support the motions proposed by Students for Palestine. After the UMSU president’s speech, the Students for Palestine leadership moved onto “the real portion of this meeting,” with the following speaker, Indigenous Students’ Representative on UMSU Students’ Council Oskar Martin, claiming that, behind the scenes, the leaders of the student union and ‘UMSU bureaucrats’ had wanted to crack down on the mass meeting. 

Yasmeen Atieh, a Palestinian activist, also spoke, going into more detail about the University’s “shameful partnerships” with companies like Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems. The two motions were then taken to vote, and both passed unanimously – a definite success, but perhaps the fact that this was a symbolic meeting rather than a Special General Meeting factored into the absence of dissenting voices (Sydney University, for example, had a Zionist and Young Liberal speak in opposition).

The students were led in a new chant, “Show me what democracy looks like/This is what democracy looks like,” and at the conclusion of the vote, proceeded to march to the Vice Chancellor’s Office to protest the administration’s continued support for Israel and the weapons industry.