Australian students join US university movement with pro-Palestinian encampments

A university-based pro-Palestinian protest movement that has made headlines in the United States is being mirrored in Australia.

Transcript

00:00 The divide couldn't be clearer.

00:07 Tensions ran high in Melbourne as protests unfold across the country.

00:15 Pro-Palestinian camps have now been set up at universities in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra,

00:20 Adelaide and Perth, inspired by the movement in the US.

00:25 We plan to stay out here as long as we can until the university meets our demands.

00:32 These University of Sydney protesters have been sleeping out for more than a week.

00:37 Other camps have sprung up more recently.

00:39 We're asking for our own university to disclose their full ties with weapons companies.

00:46 Monash University students claim their camp was attacked overnight.

00:52 Police say 10 people were moved on just before 1am.

00:56 At the University of Melbourne today, Jewish students held a counter rally.

01:01 Of course if it remains peaceful, that is great. We fear that it won't based on prior trends.

01:06 It's just been really, really difficult and honestly I don't want to come into school

01:10 every day because I know that it's something that I'm going to interact with.

01:14 A week in, the students on the other side are digging in.

01:18 Our peers have been massacred over in Gaza and so we take that responsibility, that ethical

01:23 and moral responsibility extremely seriously.

01:25 The two rallies were initially a few hundred metres apart from one another.

01:30 We have had some of the pro-Israeli students who have come up to the encampment.

01:35 It is remaining peaceful, they're just exchanging chants and songs but they are staying separate

01:41 from one another.

01:42 At this stage, there are no plans from universities to shut down the camps.

01:48 At the end of the day, freedom of speech and free speech, this is it in action, right?

01:52 Free speech is uncomfortable.

01:54 If these protests are becoming violent or are making people on campus, students on campus

02:03 feel unsafe in any way, it is absolutely unacceptable and there has to be a line in the sand.

02:09 Getting agreement on drawing that line could be difficult.

02:12 I'm not sure.

02:13 I'm not sure.

02:14 I'm not sure.

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