STORY: Pro-Palestinian activists set up an encampment outside the sandstone main hall last week and on Friday rallied to demand the university divest from companies with ties to Israel, much like students in the U.S., Canada and France.
"It matters that there is a student movement being built all around the world, made up of millions of people who are refusing to be complicit in this genocide," said Shovan Bhattarai, a history student and organiser of the 'Students for Palestine' group who were staging the rally.
Several hundred meters away and separated by lines of security guards, hundreds gathered under Australian and Israeli flags in a counter-protest.
"It's free speech. But they took over everything on campus, it's just their word," said one teaching academic at the university, Sarah, who withheld her surname and called pro-Palestinian chants on campus "scary".
University of Sydney vice chancellor Mark Scott told local media on Thursday (May 2) that the encampment could stay on campus in part because there had been no violence like that seen on U.S. campuses thus far.
