Hundreds of NSW school students are skipping class today to show support for Palestine as part of nationwide events.
The organisers of High Schoolers For Palestine are encouraging students to walk out of class across Sydney, Wollongong and Byron Bay to show support for the Palestinian cause.
Year 12 student and rally organiser Eva said attendees had a moral duty to show solidarity for children in Gaza.
“High school students in Gaza right now can’t go to school, can’t get an education,” she told AAP.
“As students, we have a moral duty to stand up for Palestine. The least we can do here in Australia is come out to show our support for an end to the bombing.”
Fellow Year 12 student and rally speaker Jaseena said she would be joining the protest “to use my voice for those children in Gaza who are not able to pursue their education, and whose basic human rights have been stolen from them”.
In a Facebook event listing, organisers urged students to “bring your friends and classmates and show that business as usual can’t continue while there is a genocide being committed in Gaza”.
“We’ll be walking out of school to demand an end to the bombing of Gaza, an end to the siege and an end to the occupation,” the group said.
Speakers at the Sydney Town Hall event will include striking high school students, the National Union of Students education officer and Palestinian and
NSW Premier Chris Minns and Education Minister Prue Car told students to stay in class.
“If you want to change the world, get an education,” Minns said this week.
The Sydney rally is one in a series of national student strikes for Palestinians.
More than 1000 Victorian school students blocked city streets
and staged a sit-in at a major shopping centre in Melbourne on Thursday in support of Palestine.
In Adelaide, pupils held a demonstration at Parliament House.
There have been many pro-Palestine and pro-Israel rallies across the nation since 7 October, when Hamas militants crossed into southern Israel from Gaza.
The militants killed more than 1200 Israelis and took about 240 people hostage, according to the Israeli government.
Retaliatory strikes by Israel have resulted in the deaths of an estimated 13,000 people, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health authority.
The death toll in Gaza is expected to rise
as bodies are retrieved from bombed ruins.
At least 1.6 million Palestinians have been displaced, with many sheltering at UN-run schools while others stay with host families or in hospitals.
Organisers of Friday’s school protest are calling on Israel to end the occupation of all Palestinian territories, a source of increasing tensions and violence before the 7 October attack.
Gaza native Riyad Aladassi has made the same demand as his hunger strike continues ahead of a solidarity vigil at the Port of Melbourne on Friday afternoon.
The nurse claims to have consumed only water over the past two weeks and suggests his hunger strike won’t end unless his demands are met.
“If my people don’t eat, I will not eat. Save Gaza first,” said Aladassi, who has asked to speak directly with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
(SBS)
