Sydney's Youth Voices Rise: High Schoolers Rally for Palestine in Solidarity Following Melbourne Protest
Hundreds of students
protested in favor of Palestine at Sydney's Town Hall, defying politicians. Amidst
speakers advocating for a free Palestine and an end to the shelling of Gaza, a
boisterous and lively audience shouted, whooped, and chanted. Students of all
ages held posters that read, "get in, we're freeing Gaza" and
"proudly marked absent today," demanding that political leaders call
for a truce. Speaker and organizer Noura informed the assembly that the strike
was planned in support of Gaza's students, whose school year was canceled due
to Israeli bombardment.
Following a comparable
school strike that took place in Melbourne yesterday, Greens senator Mehreen
Faruqi declared that she was "proud" of the youth in her country.
You give me hope for
the future, and I feel really honored to be among you. She stated to applause
from the children, "You inspire me every single day; you will know what
is right and wrong and you are on the right side of history."
"Because your
education took you to this point, it is clearly working incredibly effectively.
It has equipped you with independent thought skills. You now know the
difference between right and wrong thanks to it.”
Another girl shared
that she was encouraged to leave early for the event because she attends an
Islamic school.
"This cause is
greater than a school day. One child every ten minutes cannot bring that back,
but we can," a protestor continued. "We are lucky we don't live in a
place where we have to use violence, we can use this to change."
At the rally, police
were there in large numbers.
Following demands from the federal government,
NSW Premier Chris Minns and Education Minister Prue Car earlier advised
children to stay in class.
"One of the most
important ways you can change the world is get an education,"
Car asserted.
"You will be
marked absent if you go to the protest it's not a reason to be wagging school
today." "You need to go to school."
Minns' remarks about
staying in school to get an education rather than organizing were met with
backlash from students.
"What is wrong for
me to take a few days out of my time for my people?"
questioned a pupil. "Because
the schools in Gaza have been shut down due to the amount of bombing we walked
out of our school in solidarity with the children in Gaza,"
a girl stated. She said, "Chris Minns and his fellow politicians are
the ones who need to become educated." "Myself and other students at
my school will always stand together in solidarity, regardless of what is
happening. We're sending a strong statement today that we won't be silenced.”
"We have come out
today, people have left school en masse, to say that business as usual can't
continue when Palestinians are being slaughtered in their thousands,"
a megaphone-wielding protestor stated.
0 Comments