Two students have been charged after a pro-Palestine protest at Western Sydney University.
Police allege that the protesters, aged 23 and 20, assaulted two security guards and two officers alleged they were injured but did not require treatment.
The 20-year-old was charged with assaulting police and resisting police arrest while the 23-year-old was charged with resisting police arrest and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Students had gathered on Wednesday morning to call for the university to cut its ties with Israel and weapons manufacturers, citing financial investments revealed under freedom of information laws in weaponised planes, naval weapons and lethal drones.
About 50 people attended the protest, New South Wales police estimated.
Legal Observers NSW said the protesters had marched around campus and then entered the chancellor’s building and declared they would occupy the space.
In footage of the rally, police are seen trying to remove a banner from protesters amid cries of “it’s a banner, it’s not a weapon”. In another video, five police are seen arresting one of the students.
The banner hung by the students said “Haniyeh’s Building” – a reference to Ismail Haniyeh, a former chief of Hamas who was killed in July in the Iranian capital of Tehran.
Haniyeh persistently defended the 7 October attack, which was carried out by Hamas militants.
Haniyeh was killed in Tehran after the guesthouse he was staying in was hit by an explosion. Israel did not claim the attack but it was widely believed to have been responsible.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry objected strongly to the banner.
A spokesperson for WSU 4 Palestine said the group stood by their right to display the banner.
A number of students, according to student statements collected by Legal Observers NSW, said they had seen one of the students who was arrested pushed against a wall by multiple police. The other was carried out by police holding his legs and arms.
Asked whether it had called police to attend the event and if it was condoned, a WSU spokesperson said the university was “aware” of an incident at its Parramatta South campus during a rally.
“We are committed to free speech, and respectful and civil debate,” the spokesperson said. “Our priority is always the safety, wellbeing and security of every single person across our university community.”
Zahra Khakany, an organiser of the protest and a WSU student, said police had intervened in the “peaceful rally” when protesters entered a campus building and refused requests to leave.
Khakany estimated that about two dozen police were in attendance on campus before the rally began: “We’ve seen families killed overseas, it’s destroying us, this is traumatising. “The whole point of the rally is we want WSU to cut ties with Israel. We will not stop.”
The two arrested students have been granted bail. The student who was charged with assaulting police was required to report to a police station daily, according to Legal Observers NSW. Under the bail conditions, both students were only allowed to attend WSU for the purpose of going to class or studying.
Both will appear before Burwood local court on 4 November.
• This article was amended on 11 October 2024. A previous version did not include details of what was written on the student’s banner.
