Share and Follow
Key Points
- More than 1,000 students in Victoria have skipped school to show their support for Palestinians.
- Politicians urged students planning to take part to reconsider.
- Among the students’ demands were an immediate end to Hamas-Israel war.
Chants calling for a “free Palestine” rung out as organisers encouraged the demonstrators to make their way onto the Flinders Street intersection, blocking cars and trams.
“We will never back down until Palestine is free,” another speaker yelled.
“It doesn’t matter about school – there are people that are dying,” he said.
People of all backgrounds attended the pro-Palestinian school strike in Melbourne. Source: SBS News
Bill Shorten’s Melbourne electorate office vandalised
Speaking about the student strike, he said while he understood the merit of protests, the world needed more people with an education instead of missing school.
Bill Shorten’s electoral office in Melbourne has been vandalised. Source: AAP / Joerl Carrett
Read Related Also: Australia to offer residency to hundreds from Tuvalu, nation at high risk from climate change
Education Minister Jason Clare echoed the sentiment.
Victorian Education Minister Ben Carroll also made a last-ditch plea for students to stay in class, saying it was the safest and best place for them to deal with any vicarious trauma.
Hamas, in its entirety, is designated as a terrorist organisation by countries including Australia, Canada, the UK and the US. New Zealand and Paraguay list only its military wing as a terrorist group. In 2018, the United Nations General Assembly voted against a resolution condemning Hamas in its entirety as a terrorist organisation.
More than 1,000 people took part in the rally. Source: AAP / James Ross
Striking students call for immediate end to Hamas-Israel war
In Adelaide, pupils held a demonstration at parliament house on Thursday, while students in Sydney, Wollongong and Byron Bay will protest on Friday.
Car said the university students should “stay in their lane” and leave high schoolers to focus on their studies.