100 signatures reached
To: Vice-Chancellor Alec Cameron and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation Calum Drummond
Demilitarise RMIT
In light of Israel's mass destruction and genocide in Palestine, we underscore the need for urgent action on behalf of RMIT University with respect to two key issues:
- RMIT University’s duty as part of a global education community to stand against the killing of Palestinian students, educators and knowledge-holders and the destruction of sites of learning in Palestine.
- RMIT University’s responsibility as a public institution to avoid any complicity in the violation of human rights and international law and in the perpetration of potential war crimes via its teaching and research partnerships.
Why is this important?
As a prominent institution of public education, RMIT University has an obligation to show moral leadership on the issue of Palestine. This requires a reckoning with RMIT’s role in the international military-industrial-academic complex. We, the undersigned, call on RMIT University to immediately terminate its partnerships with all entities involved in the genocide currently occuring in Gaza, including but not limited to: the U.S. Department of Defense, the Australian Defence Forces, Boeing, BAE Systems, Textron Systems, and Rolls-Royce. The termination of these partnerships must be accompanied by a strong public condemnation of Israel’s actions, and a future commitment to speak out against genocidal regimes.
All over the world people have taken a stand in solidarity with Palestine in the face of Israel’s genocidal onslaught in Gaza. This has included the uncompromising demand that public institutions both condemn Israel’s actions and divest from relationships that sustain its military occupation of Palestinian lands and lives. At the time of writing, the Lancet has reported that Israel has killed over 186,000 Palestinians since October 2023. The Israeli military has indiscriminately destroyed civilian infrastructure, residential areas and tent encampments set up by Palestinians internally displaced within Gaza. It has targeted higher education, destroying every university in Gaza and killing thousands of educators and students.
Our concerns about RMIT’s complicity in the atrocities being perpetrated in Gaza are well-founded. RMIT positions itself as an industry leader in university defence partnerships through the Sir Lawrence Wackett Defence & Aerospace Centre. According to the Centre’s last publicly available annual report in 2021, income from defence partnerships at RMIT amounted to $13.5 million. The Centre has also received external recognition as an industry leader, having been named the 2023 Academic Institution of the Year in the Australian Defence Industry Awards.
RMIT workers and students have a right to work and study in an organisation that is not complicit in genocide. RMIT workers, students, alumni and supporters who are in solidarity with Palestinians and other oppressed peoples around the world call on RMIT to:
- Disclose all ties to weapons manufacturers and to state, federal and foreign defence departments.
- Divest from all companies complicit in Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and genocide in Gaza, particularly weapons manufacturers and entities on the BDS list.
- Condemn Israel for its ongoing genocide in Gaza.
- End participation in all defence industry exposition events, including Land Forces 2024.
- Strengthen the preventative function of the University’s Defence Research Policy. This applies both to the dual-use of technologies developed in industry partnerships and the transparency of ethics processes used to vet potential partnerships.
- Ensure that academics across all areas of RMIT are guaranteed sufficient research allocations so that research capacity is not contingent on the procurement of external research grants with weapons industries.
- Undertake a concerted effort in collaboration with staff and students at all levels to demilitarise RMIT, such that it does not participate in war profiteering at home or abroad.
We will not stop fighting until RMIT divests fully from the military-industrial-academic complex and Palestine is free.
This letter was written by Demilitarise RMIT, a staff-led group made up of members of the RMIT community concerned about RMIT’s ongoing ties to various entities actively involved in the genocide being waged by Israel against the Palestinian people. If you would like to join us in our efforts, please email: [email protected]
RMIT staff, student, alumni and supporter signatories
Further information: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aJDjs4vr9IhSN3qgNEwiIVd2MX52Jwcz/view?usp=drive_link
References:
1. https://afsc.org/gaza-genocide-companies
2. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-28/israeli-weapons-company-awarded-australian-army-contract/103519558
3. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext
4. https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6108/Israel-kills-dozens-of-academics,-destroys-every-university-in-the-Gaza-Strip
5. https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2019/jun/defence-partnerships
6. https://www.rmit.edu.au/defence-aerospace
7. https://www.rmit.edu.au/defence-aerospace/events