Anti-Israel activists briefly took over a building at the Parramatta South campus of Western Sydney University and attempted to rename it after the late leader of the Hamas terrorist organization, Ismail Haniyeh. WSU 4 Palestine posted images and footage of the incident on its Instagram page. Protesters unfurled a large banner at Building EB that read, “Haniyeh’s Building.” After the banner was unfurled, two protesters were arrested. Police stated, "Two protesters were arrested after allegedly assaulting campus security. As police were arresting the pair, one allegedly assaulted and resisted police.” A faculty member, Professor Alana Lentin, can be heard in videos of the incident defending the protesters who were arrested and telling security and police to "leave my students alone." WSU provost Kevin Dunn, director of the University’s Challenging Racism Project, stated that the school “must draw the line on anything that’s violent, threatening, or aggressive.” Related articles: 'It's our duty to make Jews feel uncomfortable' Cars and houses vandalized with antisemitic graffiti in Sydney Three incidents of antisemitic graffiti found in Sydney Suspected terrorist attack on Sydney synagogue thwarted “Unfortunately today it went over the line a bit, but I think we’ve learned some lessons so we’ll try and make sure we’re better organized next time for when you want to express yourselves again,” Dunn said. Ismail Haniyeh, the terrorist the protesters chose to honor, headed the Hamas Political Bureau from 2017 until his assassination in Tehran in late July of this year. Under his leadership, Hamas committed the massacre of October 7, 2023, butchering 1,200 people while committing mass rape and kidnapping about 250 hostages. Both the casualties of the massacre and the hostages were overwhelmingly civilians. On October 7, Haniyeh was filmed with other Hamas leaders in Qatar, where he lived in the lap of luxury, celebrating the worst massacre committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
