'Oh no, there's no prayers today'

On Wednesday, two Western Sydney University students were arrested at the uni’s Parramatta South campus after beginning a sit-in outside WSU Chancellor Jennifer Westacott’s office.

Sit-in participants demanded that WSU cut financial ties with weapons companies like Leonardo S.p.A. and Rolls-Royce that have been supplying arms to Israel.

The arrested students were taken to Gladesville police station and were released after about seven hours. Both were charged with assault, and one was charged with resisting arrest. As a condition of their bail, they have been banned from campus unless they are attending class and from contacting members of the WSU 4 Palestine Collective, the protest organisers — including staff members who may be their teachers.

It’s unclear why police did not take the students to police stations at Parramatta, Granville, Ermington, Wentworthville, Merrylands, Ryde or another station closer than Gladesville, which is 12 kilometres from the WSU Parramatta South campus.

Footage taken by WSU 4 Palestine shows members of the NSW Police Public Order and Riot Squad forcibly removing a Lebanese student’s keffiyeh and grabbing him by his hair.