High noon looms as police set to descend on ANU campus pro-Palestine protesters
The clock is ticking for students camped at the Australian National University as a police deadline to vacate the area by noon approaches and those refusing to leave risk further action.
Police told the protesters on Monday they could continue to protest but that it had to be at another location.
“Your current position is situated within the primary fire evacuation zone for the Kambri precinct,” the police said on Monday.
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Those at the camp said they would hold on as they prepared to spend another night in tents amid chilly temperatures.
“We currently have no plans to shut down,” one protester told AAP.
“There will be discussions based on how this plays out.”
The escalation at ANU follows news of other camps at the University of Melbourne and Curtin University in Western Australia packing up and going home.
Campus security told the Canberra protesters to clear the area early on Monday following a directive from ANU.
However, the students dug their heels in and put out a call for support from the community.
More than 100 people showed up to support the camp as protesters linked arms around the tents to stop anyone from entering.
As pressure mounted to make a decision on whether to stay or leave as the police presence grew, protesting students held a vote in which an overwhelming majority voted to stay.
The ANU pro-Palestine encampment is demanding the university cut ties with weapons manufacturing companies, disclose and divest from all entities complicit in the “genocide in Gaza” and cut academic ties with Israel.
The university maintains it has never told the students to stop protesting but they must move to another area to avoid safety risks to all students on the campus.
The encampment currently sits in a main evacuation route for the campus and a failed evacuation on Wednesday highlighted “intolerable risk to students, staff and wider public”.
“Everyone at ANU shares the same sense of responsibility for the safety and wellbeing of our community,” the university said in a statement.
Students at the encampment say the university has refused to meet with them to discuss a compromise before they were surprised with an eviction notice early Monday morning.
On October 7, designated terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1200 people and taking more than 200 hostages, according to Tel Aviv.
Israel retaliated, launching a bombing campaign and counter-offensive in Gaza that, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, has killed nearly 36,000 Palestinians, injured more than 80,000 and displaced more than 1.7 million.
