Students turfed from second pro-Palestine encampment
A second major university has moved to shut down a pro-Palestine encampment.
Pro-Palestine encampment at ANU Pic: Wikimedia Commons
Australian National University in Canberra told students to prepare to vacate the camp after a meeting was held with organisers on Wednesday.
“The university has communicated its expectations… ANU expects participants to follow these reasonable directions,” a spokeswoman said.
ACT’s National Tertiary Education Union said students have been directed to collect belongings and vacate the encampment on Friday.
Deakin University in Melbourne ordered the immediate dismantling and removal of a similar encampment at its Burwood campus on Monday, but students are resisting and plan on rallying on Wednesday evening.
Pro-Palestine students at universities across Australia have created more than a dozen encampments in total and say they have no plans to move.
Deakin’s deputy vice-chancellor Kerrie Parker ordered the dismantling of its encampment saying students had agreed to run the set up until Friday, May 10.
Ms Parker said the protest was disrupting the function of the campus.
However, the tertiary sector’s peak body head said universities had a legal obligation to uphold free speech.
“But it is appropriate that university vice chancellors and management take action when freedom of speech turns into hate speech,” Universities Australia chief executive Luke Sheehy told AAP.
“I’ve been working with our vice chancellors closely and they’re taking appropriate action.”
