WORDS BY ROFIDA ARNAOUT

Gaza’s death toll has officially surpassed 40,000, marking 11 months since the onset of Israel's war in Gaza.

Protests and university encampments have been staged across the globe, condemning the Israeli regime and calling on universities to meet divestment demands, including on Monash University’s Clayton campus.

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has continued with the United Nations reporting the forced displacement of 450,000 Palestinians from Rafah, 600,000 of which are children.

They were being forced to evacuate north to Khan Younis, where mass graves were found in April after an Israeli siege on the Palestinian city.

The UN has officially deemed Israel’s occupation of these territories "unlawful" and has demanded that Israel end its occupation "as rapidly as possible".

Following months of what Human Rights Watch has called Israeli-imposed starvation, Gazans are “so starved that they can barely walk,” said Alexandra Saieh, head of humanitarian policy at Save the Children.

Helena Ranchal, Director of International Operations for French charity Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World), echoed this sentiment in an interview with Voice of America, emphasising that “the concept of a safe zone is a lie".

“From the first day, it was unjustified… the whole Zionist project, if you ask me,” said Nachshon Amir, a former IDF soldier who now works with Free Palestine Melbourne.

He described the ongoing situation, saying “This is the ethnic cleansing of Palestine for 76 years. It's just a new chapter of it.”

Amir said he believed the international community’s inaction regarding the ‘apartheid’ state’s war crimes is purposeful, not to be chalked up to misinformation. He proposed that the international community model its response on that of the South African apartheid.

In 1963, the UN General Assembly urged all member states to halt petroleum supplies to South Africa. Subsequently, in 1977, the Security Council implemented a mandatory arms embargo against the country.

“The governments know the reality… the public knows, so Albanese would know [different countries] act to fulfil their interests, not for justice or anything like that. The lack of action is according to the interests of each country."

“The whole world [should be] coming to press Israel economically or [enact] any other boycott, similar to the demands of the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) [movement], to make them dismantle this regime.”

Amir recounted his experience serving in the IDF during the first intifada, or uprising, a period of civil disobedience in 1987 following an incident where an Israeli truck driver murdered four Palestinian workers with his car.

“It's either they [Palestinians] are terrorists or they're going to be terrorists,” Amir said referring to the narrative he said was used to justify storming innocent Palestinian houses in the middle of the night.

He described the indoctrination Israeli children undergo, “When you're a child, you've been told that the wolf is the bad animal in the forest so as a child that's what you believe. You don't see it as just another animal [trying] to survive.”

"From infancy, you learn that we have all the world against us… I grew up in a very Zionist, religious family… I went with my father, as a child, to the West Bank to march and chant, 'This is our land, this is our land' – that's how I grew up."

Amir addressed the intentions of the initial Zionist settlers, “The first Zionist leaders just wanted the land for themselves. They didn’t say, ‘I’m coming here to merge with the local population’. It’s going to be a Jewish state, at the expense of the [Palestinians].”

“Only when I got to Australia, just as a visitor for two years, I started to see normal. My daughters went to school with Muslims and Hindus and Christians… they’re all together, whereas in Israel it's all separate.”

Regarding Israeli settlers conscripted in the military, he said, “They won’t listen to me, that's the thing. I'd tell them ‘You're on the wrong side of history. You are serving the racist regime of your country that favours Jews over other people. It's a Jewish supremacist state’. That's what I'd tell every one of them, but I know they won't listen to me.”

Since the killing of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom by Israeli forces, cries of condemnation have echoed across Australia with the Federal Government stating it expects a thorough review and full accountability after “making representations to the Netanyahu government.”

Protests have filled the streets of Melbourne as Australians demand the Federal Government cease arms to Israel, calling on Australia to have a moral responsibility as a prominent member of the international community to act.

Amid the rising tensions, the Land Forces Expo 2024, this month at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Inside, military personnel and representatives from weapon manufacturers and the defence industry gathered, while anti-war protestors outside blockading the entrance were met with rubber bullets, stun grenades and pepper spray as Victoria Police sought to disperse the crowds.

One critic of the weapons convention, Disrupt Land Forces spokesperson Jasmine Duff told The Age the weapons exhibited were advertised as battle-tested.

“In the context of Israeli weapons firms, which are present, this means tested through killing civilians in Gaza,” she is quoted as saying.

Monash4Palestine (M4P) is a Palestinian-led grassroots coalition of Monash University students, faculty, and alumni.

A Monash4Palestine spokesperson told MOJO News via Instagram that Australian universities were not doing enough.

“As academic institutions, they have a moral responsibility to sever ties with Israel and condemn its war crimes in Gaza, where every university has been levelled to the ground,” the spokesperson wrote.

“More than 35,000 innocent Palestinians have been murdered by Israel, and Monash has yet to condemn the apartheid state. Are Palestinians not worthy of mourning?” The spokesperson went on to call on Monash University to “sever its ties” to Tel Aviv University (TAU) which M4P claimed is “directly complicit in the genocide of Palestinians”.

The M4P spokesperson further claimed TAU’s official endorsement of Israel, is “unsurprising given that TAU itself develops the weapons technology used against Palestinians.”

M4P said TAU’s development of the military doctrine was used to “justify Israel’s crimes against humanity”, and the Israeli university’s creation of ‘ethical’ codes were used to justify civilian casualties.

Monash University was contacted for a response to M4P’s comments and referred to its official statement, which outlines the university’s efforts to “strengthen dialogue and build social cohesion” on campus. The university did not provide further comment on the accusation.