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Asalam Alaikum everyone, may peace be upon you all today.
My name is Shahzaib Farhan. I’m a member of BDS Youth Meanjin, and I stand here today as a student, a witness, and a human being grieving a genocide.
Since October 2023, we’ve watched Israel’s colonial legacy subject Palestinian’s to an active genocide, a project created by imperialist powers to spill the blood of an Indigenous populous.
We have seen men, women and children being murdered in front of our eyes everyday. Thousands of children buried under rubble. Hospitals, universities, bakeries, and mosques bombed. And all the while, the University of Queensland has sat in silence or worse, benefited from this horror. What I once considered an honourable, prestigious educational institution, will have its history tainted in genocidal complicity.
It is largely thanks to you all present today that it is well known that the University of Queensland houses a Boeing Research and Technology Centre—a company building and supplying the very bombs that flattened Gaza. It collaborates with Raytheon and Lockheed Martin—arms manufacturers whose weapons are killing civilians daily. This is not “research”. It is not “defence”. It is blood-soaked profiteering.
And when students stood up—when we built encampments, marched, occupied space to say “not in our name”—UQ signed a Statement of Commitment on June 1st, 2024. It promised transparency, scholarships for Gazan students, an anti-racism framework, and space for dialogue. It promised us what we believed was a step towards ending its complicity in genocidal violence.
Instead, what have we gotten?
Redacted disclosures , what must they be hiding, we, your students DEMAND an answer
And what about those scholarships for Gazan students? A year later, and we still have NO idea how many scholarships have been given and finally, we still have not been given the anti-racism statement promised to us by the University!
UQ has shown us that its commitments are conditional. That Palestinian pain is not worthy of sustained action. That its version of diversity doesn’t extend to Arabs, to Muslims, to anti-Zionist Jews, or really anyone who dares to challenge the status quo.
But we will not be silenced. And today, I make this clear on behalf of BDS Youth Meanjin and every student whose conscience is still alive.
We demand for UQ to honour its commitment, we demand an end to complicity, an end to financial ties from the genocidal machine – because apartheid is not a neutral investment, it is a moral stain.
We reject the university claim of “excellency”, while its research labs build war machine. We reject its claims for “inclusion” which erases Palestinians from the conversation.
And if any governing bodies happen to be listening, you have a choice, to stand with the students, or with the occupier, but do not pretend to do both.
But remember, our voice and courage is uplifted from the spirits and the stories of millions of Palestinians, millions of futures which you seek to destroy. Your voice is lifted through deep pockets and spineless PR. Ours is lifted by truth.
We are watching, we are organising and we will NOT stop until our degrees are no longer soaked in blood.
Free Palestine.
Written by UQ Councillor, member of BDS Youth Magandjin, Shahzaib Farhan
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