The Road to Solidarity and Action.

OP-ED / STUDENT AFFAIRS / GAZA

How student activists stood up for what’s right, protested, lobbied, and changed University policy.

UC’s first major student protest movement in decades has won a substantial victory. The University of Canterbury has spent months doggedly ignoring the latest phase of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people, even after Israel brought its atrocities to new heights after October 7. Individual, undirected, efforts have been taking place for months and years, to the credit of academics such as Jeremy Moses and Mahdis Azarmandi who’ve given substantial time and energy to the cause. Until recently, however, UC’s students have been largely disorganised. That was until May, when the University of Canterbury Students for Justice in Palestine (UC SJP) chapter kicked off. Only three months later, on the 9th of August 2024, UC’s Academic Board—the highest convocation of academic representatives at UC—voted 36-11 to endorse a motion to recommend immediate boycotts. This brings the University in line with the BDS movement and international law.

The Academic Board advises the Council of the University of Canterbury to: 

1. Investigate and disclose University ties to identify any financial investments, research collaborations, or contractual agreements with institutions or corporations that are complicit in Israel's violations of Palestinian human rights and breaches of international humanitarian law. 

2. Divest from corporations that are complicit in Israel's violations of Palestinian human rights and breaches of international humanitarian law. End any existing contracts with these companies and pledge not to enter into new agreements with them. 

3. Suspend any academic or cultural collaborations with Israeli universities or other institutions that are involved in the development of military technologies or doctrines that contribute to Israel's violations of Palestinian human rights and breaches of international humanitarian law. 

Now that this motion has been passed, it’s going to a future meeting of the University Council, the governing body of the University of Canterbury. This means that the SJP campaign is continuing. SJP needs the students of UC to stand up for what we all know is right—supporting the people of Palestine in their struggle against the bureaucratic-genocidal apparatus that calls itself the State of Israel.

SJP’s next steps come in the context of a surprisingly effective campaign in a very short timeframe. When the movement began in May, Israel had spent seven months trying to decimate Gaza. With over 30,000 Palestinians killed, a small group of UC students had had enough. The UC School of Engineering then chose to invite to its careers fair the New Zealand Defence Force, which at the time was deployed to “protect” the Red Sea trade route from Yemeni attacks against Israeli-flagged or Israeli-owned vessels. While the Israeli war effort’s top suppliers Lockheed and Northrop were absent, other military hardware manufacturers were there to recruit UC students.

In response, we dropped a 10 metre Palestinian flag at the careers fair as a sign of our solidarity with the people of Palestine. Beneath it, we launched our petition to call for the university to join the BDS movement. Despite this message to the University—that we would not accept its complicity in the genocide—we were ignored. With unprecedented support from students and faculty, we decided to deliver the message more forcefully. 

On the 21st of May, we encamped in the Undercroft. The University immediately called on law enforcement to remove the students from a 24-hour study space, and locked access to every single building on campus. Not only did they try to crack down on student protest, they punished every student and faculty member on campus by preventing their access to lectures and study spaces. On the second day of occupation, the Vice-Chancellor recognised the student protest and began negotiations. These resulted in small steps towards UC SJP’s demands, and in good faith we agreed to decamp on the agreement that BDS would be advanced at UC through other channels.

This began in June, with faculty members Mahdis Azarmandi and Jeremy Moses presenting a motion for boycott to the Academic Board, an elected group of academic representatives that reports directly to the UC Council. After an initial exchange of views between the representatives, the motion was refined to its key points, above, to be presented in August.

In support of the motion, we rallied at UC. We presented our petition in the form of a 100 metre long scroll with over 1,200 represented signatures on it. We brought the petition to the Matariki building, the seat of the Council and Vice-Chancellor, where it stretched around the Puaka-James Hight courtyard Puaka-James Hight several times over. Prominent local leaders spoke at the rally showing the overwhelming support for the movement, including local councillors, activists, and MPs.

In August, the refined motion was brought before the Board. With student supporters of SJP lobbying the representatives prior to the meeting, the motion passed almost three-to-one with 36 academics voting in favour and 11 against.

Despite this win, there’s a long way yet to go. The Academic Board vote is a strong statement to other universities across the country (such as the University of Auckland, where Vice-Chancellor Freshwater’s response was even more aggressive than UC’s and saw no engagement with the student body), and faculty support for the cause has not gone unnoticed. However, the Academic Board can’t implement the motion itself; that’s up to the University Council. SJP will be announcing rallies in support of the motion going to Council, and other ways to get involved.

In the meantime, SJP asks you to have conversations on campus. Talk to well-informed friends, colleagues, and faculty, and ask them to get involved in supporting Palestine on campus. For the uninformed, show them the scope of the atrocities, tell them about the recent International Court of Justice judgement of July 2024 which found Israel’s 60-year occupation of Palestine to be a flagrant violation of international law. Remind them always that Palestinians are human beings, and that Israel has subjected every single one to forced displacement and apartheid. Israel is only able to perpetrate these atrocities and get away with it because it’s convinced ordinary people to look away, to ignore the truth. Every time you have a conversation about it, every time you persuade someone to take action, and every time you help someone get informed takes a little bit of Israel’s power away.

The death toll continues to rise. Some estimates suggest Israel has murdered over 180,000 Palestinians.  The University of Canterbury grinds its heels and delays its recognition of international law; still it refuses to condemn Israel and cut all ties. Students for Justice in Palestine will not give up. We’re absolutely determined that the Council will vote for conscience, as is its duty under law and morality.

Neoliberal reforms from the 1980s turned education into a product rather than a right, and turned students into customers on campus. But it doesn’t have to be this way. We students belong to UC, and UC belongs to its students. The campus is ours, and we can re-politicise it.

There are simple actions you can take to help the movement: follow us on Instagram to stay informed and updated, educate yourself on the atrocities happening in Gaza; we cannot lose focus on Israel’s apartheid and genocide, wear your support (if you can) with kuffiyeh, badges, and flags, and most importantly talk to faculty and tell them to push Councillors to vote in favour of the motion. Encourage people to stand on the right side of history. 

—

Student for Justice in Palestine, Canterbury 

@sjp.canterbury