Pro-Palestine students push Melbourne Uni to agree to major demand
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The University of Melbourne will make extra disclosures starting next month about arrangements for its research project grant to enhance transparency.
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A pro-Palestine encampment at the University of Melbourne in Australia on April 28, 2024 (Social media)
After more than a one-week encampment by pro-Palestine protesters inside a department building at the University of Melbourne, the latter has become the first Australian education institution to agree to some of the demands of student protesters.
Students across multiple campuses nationwide declared their commitment to sit-ins, urging universities to disclose, divest, and sever all ties with weapons manufacturers linked to "Israel", which, according to the students, makes these universities complicit in the Israeli war on Gaza.
Starting next month, the University of Melbourne will make extra disclosures about arrangements of its research project grant to enhance transparency, it said in an announcement this afternoon.
Even though it will disclose the parties and the amounts included in the funding of the research, the university said that confidentiality obligations, national security regulations and laws, as well as the safety of researchers will still apply amid disclosures.
"This commitment reflects the University’s dedication to fostering informed dialogue and understanding about our contributions to Australia’s social and economic wellbeing, including in our commitment to the defense and national security of Australia," the statement said.
According to the university, since last year, it has discussed this issue with a huge variety of staff members and student groups some of whom took part in recent protests.
Mahmoud's Hall
On the evening of May 22, student activists said if the university makes a public statement agreeing to an important demand of theirs, which is disclosing its ties to weapons companies, they will end the encampment.
On the same day, University of Melbourne for Palestine organizer, Dana Alshaer, also said that the university's disclosure commitment was "a major win, but also a first step."
The university administrators previously threatened the students with police and disciplinary action as they camped inside the university's Arts West Building for eight nights.
In honor of a Palestinian who was killed alongside his family by the Israeli occupation in Gaza before he could start his studies in Australia on scholarship, the students renamed this building "Mahmoud's Hall".
Also at Australian universities
Pro-Palestine students and staff at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, have criticized the university's directive to halt their sit-in as an “attack on free speech” and pledged to continue rallying against the crackdown on their encampment until their demands are met.
Following Deakin University's lead, La Trobe University issued an official instruction on May 17 for protesters to dismantle their encampment on the Bundoora campus, amid a series of student-led pro-Palestine sit-ins nationwide.
Monash University confirmed on May 18 that the student encampment on its Clayton campus in Melbourne's south-east had disbanded. At the same time, the University of Queensland has indicated its intention to end its pro-Palestine camps.
Earlier this month, the Australian National University (ANU) urged a group of pro-Palestine students to disperse their on-campus encampments or risk "violating the university's code of conduct."
La Trobe University affirmed its commitment to allowing students and staff the freedom to protest, albeit without encampments. However, Students for Palestine La Trobe slammed the university, accusing it of trying to suppress pro-Palestine encampments.
