Last week students in Australia established encampments at their universities in solidarity with Palestinians. These join the dozens of solidarity camps established across the US and elsewhere in recent weeks. Like their peers, Australian students are calling on their institutions to end relationships with weapons companies that are enabling Israeli war crimes, and urging our government to sanction Israel and cut military ties.

The Jewish Council of Australia strongly rejects the claims that these protests are a threat to Jewish students and staff.

Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza in the last 200 days. In the past week, new evidence of mass unmarked civilian graves was uncovered. Palestinians in the West Bank are also suffering at the hands of the Israeli military and violent settlers. Students are right to peacefully protest these mounting crimes and should not be silenced by their institutions or by other organisations that erroneously claim these protests are antisemitic.