“It matters. It matters that we stand here today,” human rights lawyer Dr Hannah McGlade told protestors outside Curtin’s TL Robertson library.

“Genocide is a crime,” she says, “it’s the most serious crime under international human rights law. And it’s very clear that’s what’s being done to the Palestinians in Gaza.”

An estimated crowd of 250 gathered on the Curtin campus for a rally to launch the Curtin Palestine solidarity encampment.

Following the example of students from Columbia University and other campuses across the USA, Perth students will be camping out on the lawn in solidarity with Palestinians and fellow protestors, many of whom in the US have been subjected to brutal police treatment in their attempts to dispel the protests.

Dr McGlade says she was impressed but not surprised by the rally’s turnout.

“I think there’s many Australian people who are deeply concerned about this war and our government’s stance to this war. And that concern extends to universities,” she says.

Curtin Student Guild president Jasmyne Tweed says the Guild was keen to back Curtin’s student protestors, and the days prior to the May 1st launch were a flurry of organisation.

“We had people come to set up the marquee, the banner and ensure the sprinklers didn’t turn on in the middle of the night. Basically a lot of groundwork to make sure everything could run logistically as smoothly as possible,” she says.

She says there was a solid number of marchers at last night’s launch rally, and hopes the number of students camping out will continue to grow.

The movement has three demands for Curtin: divest from weapons companies, disclose ties to Israel through research and investments, and denounce the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Curtin’s ties to weapons companies include Lockheed Martin, Babcock Australasia and Huntington Ingalls Industries.

Students for Palestine member and action organiser Ella Marchionda says abolishing such ties are the main demand of the encampment.

“Unfortunately many of our education institutions have close ties to weapons companies, because these companies are essential for achieving their profit interests. So this obviously becomes our main focus,” she says.

Marchionda says the movement organisers are aiming for the encampment action to be as inclusive as possible.

“One of the main camp rules is we will not tolerate Islamophobia, racism, antisemitism or any discrimination. We also had a number of groups come to represent different voices at our rally yesterday,” she says.

One of these groups was Jews for Palestine, an organisation committed to supporting Palestinian protest and solidarity. Founder Janet Parker says educating people on the history of Israel and Palestine is crucial to the world understanding the current conflict.

“The erasure of Palestinians’ culture, the denial of their absolutely fundamental human rights for the last 75 years. That story has to be told again and again,” she says.

Despite common discourse, Ms Parker believes the narrative of Zionism speaking for all Jewish people needs to be examined more deeply.

“I’ve been attending from November with our banner, ‘Jews for a Free Palestine.’ And I have never felt so welcomed, and so warmly embraced as I have during those protests,” the Jewish woman says. “All those campaigning for a free Palestine recognise the support of the Jewish community is increasingly important because we are used as a scapegoat to say any critique of Israel is antisemitic.”

News outlets are calling the Palestine protests the largest student movement since the Vietnam war.

Dr McGlade says she believes this action is well-founded and students should keep standing up for what they believe is right.

“It’s absolutely great to see. Students taking up this campaign are human rights defenders, and if it wasn’t for human rights defenders across the world we would be in even bigger trouble than we are now,” she says. “It’s important that we look at these global patterns of racial violence, state-sanctioned violence, violations of human rights. We need to raise our awareness and do what we can, and make sure our universities don’t engage in this appalling conduct.”

Her final remarks at yesterday’s rally reflected this feeling. “I’m so happy to see young people here and I hope that you take this fight into your life.”

In a statement supplied to the ABC, Curtin said that is does not support the contravention of international humanitarian law.

“Freedom of speech is central to Curtin University’s values and we respect the rights of students and staff to protest peacefully on campus.”

“Protest activities on campus are being monitored and…[the university] has processes and personnel in place to respond appropriately if required.”