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The Gaza solidarity movement has been progressing well on campus, with SRC representatives mobilised in support of Gaza’s helpless, innocent victims: the embattled freedom-fighters of Hamas.
But if Hamas were grateful for the support shown by the Sydney Uni SRC, they have a unique way of expressing it: A small ordnance of rocket propelled grenades were blasted into the SRC offices during a Gaza Solidarity Collective meeting, killing and maiming most of the members; and leaving behind only charred fragments of dreadlock.
Hamas have claimed responsibility for the attack, citing that the SRC was full of ‘hair-flaunting sluts’ and ‘infidel pigs’. According to the SRC-sponsored Sydney branch of Hamas: “The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.”
“And by Jews,” continued the spokesman, “we mean the SRC.”
“At Sydney Uni.”
Speaking from the sterilised burns unit, Global Solidarity Officer Kay Dook said “it’s not our place to judge the actions of other cultures, except those with uniformed military. The Hamas militants who did this were neither wrong nor right, they were simply expressing their culture. From some perspectives, this looks like a human rights abuse—or even murder—but then I certainly did flaunt my hair! It’s not an issue now… but a headscarf will be cheaper than a wig anyway, so it looks like the SRC aren’t the only organisation who simplify things around here! Ha ha!”
She added, “My skin hurts all over.”
SRC Queer officer Michael Deakin had a nearly lucky near-escape in the attack; he was drinking a glass of water in the adjoining room when the attack happened and sustained only shrapnel shredding to the face, neck, torso, arms, legs and groin. Witnessing the sudden shift from friendly, co-operative meeting to mayhem and carnage, though, raised some fundamental questions: “If there is a God who’d allow this sort of thing to happen, he probably really is on their side. Enough of my sinful ways, I’m converting! Ha ha!”
He added, “Kay Dook’s skin hurts all over”
So as the sun sets on the rubble-covered campus, disbelieving students come to their senses and begin the journey back to normalcy. Perhaps some are affected by what has transpired, nursing feelings of betrayal or ambitions of revenge; reading their shocked, vacant expressions is difficult. A select few, however pick up the pieces of their shattered stalls, gather the charred remnants of their Gaza solidarity posters, and resume selling badges about Israel’s evil.
