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The encampment at Sydney University remained in placed on Wednesday,with a few hundred staff and students joining a rally and march through the university.

Sydney University students from the pro-Palestinian encampment march on campus.Credit:Steven Siewert

Last week,Columbia University called in police to clear a tent encampment that protesters had set up on the main lawn to demand the school divest from Israel-related investments.

Sydney University student organisers say their encampment is only the second international protest and first in Australia since the protests spread across the US.

Student and organiser Jasmine Al-Rawi said the protesters were “just getting started”,vowing to remain at the campsite outside the university’s famous quadrangle building.

She said the fact the university had allowed their protest showed management was afraid of what students were capable of.

“They’ve seen the protests at Columbia University,Yale University,Harvard University and have seen the mass outpouring of support,” Al-Rawi said.

“I think our university is scared that thousands of students will come by if they dare touch our encampment.”

Deaglan Godwin,a Students for Palestine organiser and vice president of the Sydney University Student Representative Council,said protesters were standing in a long tradition of student activism.

“We are all out here today because we saw what was happening in America and we thought,‘let’s do that here’,” he told the rally.

“What the students at Columbia University have done is started a wildfire of student anger,of student radicalism of rising student moving.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said the scenes from protests in the US should horrify vice-chancellors,academics and students alike.

“So many Jewish students are concealing their identities and are reporting to the ECAJ and their universities that they feel marginalised and excluded on campus,” he said.

Sydney University has warned staff and students it will not hesitate to take “firm and decisive disciplinary action” should anyone be found to breach the institution’s acceptable conduct policies.

“Some of you may be aware that last night a protest encampment was set up on the university’s front lawns on our Camperdown-Darlington campus,” Acting vice-chancellor Annamarie Jagose said in an email to staff on Wednesday.

“A wide range of views and perspectives exist among our community and,as always,we remain committed to the right of protesters to assemble peacefully and express their views.”

A Sydney University spokeswoman said the institution was carefully monitoring the protests to ensure everyone’s safety.

“We are actively engaging with the protesters in a civil and peaceful manner and there is currently no disruption to classes or university business,” they said.

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