Worldwide campus protests show support for Palestine

Gaza: Israel and Hamas were reportedly close to a deal this week that would involve an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages, as police raided New York's Columbia University to remove pro-Palestinian protesters amid a global outbreak of campus encampments.

During a visit this week to the region, the United States secretary of state, Antony Blinken, urged Hamas to accept a new proposal in which Israel signalled it was willing to move towards a permanent ceasefire after an initial release of hostages. Reports suggested the deal involved a 40-day pause in fighting and the release of 33 hostages and potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners.

Describing the proposal as "extraordinarily generous", Blinken told reporters in Saudi Arabia: "We hope Hamas will make the right decision."

Hamas sent a delegation to Egypt to respond but a representative of the group said it had "serious questions".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faced pressure from far-right members of his coalition to reject the deal, said on Tuesday he planned to push ahead with a ground invasion of Rafah, the last refuge for residents of Gaza.

"We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there - with or without a deal - in order to achieve the total victory," he said.

The US has urged Israel to avoid an all-out offensive in Rafah over concerns about the potentially devastating impact on civilians. But Israel has committed to enter the city, saying it is a base for Hamas's remaining intact battalions.

Israel vowed to topple Hamas after militants from the group entered southern Israel on October 7, killing 1100 people and taking about 240 hostages. As of Thursday, Israel's military campaign had killed at least 34,568 people in Gaza, including more than 14,500 children, according to local officials. In recent days, Hamas released videos showing three hostages were alive - a possible attempt to pressure the Israeli government to reach a deal.

The war has led to a wave of protests at universities in the US and a worldwide call for a boycott of companies and individuals with links to Israel.

At Columbia University, the first campus to have a major pro-Palestinian encampment, police on Tuesday night raided a building seized by protesters, who were angered by the arrest two weeks ago of more than 100 demonstrators. The university said the building had been vandalised and the demonstration had become a "magnet" for outside protesters. As police breached the building, protesters yelled, "Palestine will be free" and "NYPD-KKK".

The campus protests have divided students and faculties, with Jewish students saying they have been targeted and harassed, while demonstrators say the crackdowns impinge on academic freedom.

About 400 protests have been held at American campuses and at least 1200 people have been arrested.

The neighbourhood

Solomon Islands: Jeremiah Manele was elected prime minister of Solomon Islands on Thursday after Manasseh Sogavare - an outspoken leader who signed a controversial security pact with China - dropped out of

the race.

Manele, a former diplomat who served as minister for foreign affairs in Sogavare's government, received the backing of 31 MPs in the 50-member parliament, defeating former opposition leader Matthew Wale, who received 18 votes.

Manele took over as leader of the Ownership, Unity and Responsibility Party (or OUR Party) after Sogavare announced he was withdrawing his bid for re-election. He said his government had been "under pressure from the United States and Western allies" and was "accused of many things".

"Geopolitics is at play, after we made a very important decision in 2019," Sogavare said, referring to a move to switch diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to Beijing.

Sogavare insisted his close ties to

Beijing helped to attract aid, though critics said the Chinese funds were used for big-ticket items such as sports stadiums, even though the country needs investment in hospitals and schools.

The secretive security pact Sogavare reached with China in 2022 raised concerns that China could build a military base in Solomon Islands - a claim he and Chinese officials denied. Manele indicated that, if elected, he would continue to foster close ties with Beijing, saying he would have the "same foreign policy basis - friends to all and enemies to none".

"I will discharge my duties diligently and with integrity," Manele told reporters on Thursday. "I will at all times put the interests of our people and country above all other interests."

Democracy in retreat

Ukraine: Russia intensified air strikes on Ukrainian cities this week and stepped up its ground offensive, leaving Ukrainian forces struggling to hold the line along various fronts.

As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed for faster delivery of arms, Russian strikes hit trains and other infrastructure in Kharkiv, causing power outages and cuts to water and heating in Ukraine's second-largest city.

Russian attacks also targeted the port city of Odesa, killing at least eight people. An attack on Monday caused about 30 explosions along a seafront promenade, leaving a Gothic-style law academy in flames. Andriy Kostin, Ukraine's prosecutor general, said the attack used cluster munitions and was designed to "kill as many Ukrainian civilians as possible".

A United Nations report this week said an investigation into an attack in Ukraine in January indicated Russia had used a ballistic missile imported from North Korea. Since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the US has accused Russia of breaching UN sanctions by buying North Korean weapons - a claim Moscow and Pyongyang denied. Last September, North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un made a rare trip abroad to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in eastern Russia.

Russian troops gradually gained territory, including several villages in the Donetsk region, as they conducted a grinding offensive that caused large casualties on both sides.

Zelensky this week appealed to the US to accelerate deliveries of arms after congress approved a long-awaited aid bill that included US$61 billion to support Ukraine. He said in an address on Tuesday the supplies would result in "the destroyed logistics of the occupier - in their fear of being based anywhere in the occupied territory".

Spotlight: India's 'nest of spies'

In 2021, the head of ASIO, Mike Burgess, used an annual address on the nation's security threats to divulge tantalising details about a "nest of spies" that had operated in Australia before being exposed and thrown out.

The spies, he said, cultivated relationships with politicians and police, tried to steal defence and trade secrets and monitored their diaspora community in Australia. He refused to name the country, saying doing so would be an "unnecessary distraction".

Despite speculation at the time the spies might have been from China or Russia, it emerged this week the "nest" was from India.

Two unnamed Australian officials told The Washington Post the operation was conducted by India's spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, and resulted in two officers being expelled from Australia in 2020. The revelation was part of an investigation by the Post into alleged assassination plots that involved Indian intelligence and targeted Sikh activists in the US and Canada.

Last year, Canada's prime minister, Justin Trudeau, accused Indian intelligence of complicity in the murder of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot in his car outside a temple near Vancouver.

Australian officials confirmed to Nine newspapers and other outlets that the Post's report was correct.

The revelation about the Indian nest comes as Australia looks to develop closer security ties with India as it seeks to counter China's growing clout in the region.

In 2022, Burgess said Australia had been targeted by spies from multiple countries including ones that were not "traditional adversaries". ASIO would not comment on the latest revelations, saying it did not comment on intelligence matters. 

[email protected]

This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on May 4, 2024 as "Worldwide campus protests show support for Palestine ".

For almost a decade, The Saturday Paper has published Australia's leading writers and thinkers. We have pursued stories that are ignored elsewhere, covering them with sensitivity and depth. We have done this on refugee policy, on government integrity, on robo-debt, on aged care, on climate change, on the pandemic.

All our journalism is fiercely independent. It relies on the support of readers. By subscribing to The Saturday Paper, you are ensuring that we can continue to produce essential, issue-defining coverage, to dig out stories that take time, to doggedly hold to account politicians and the political class.

There are very few titles that have the freedom and the space to produce journalism like this. In a country with a concentration of media ownership unlike anything else in the world, it is vitally important. Your subscription helps make it possible.

Select your digital subscription