To the decision-makers at the University of Sydney Union (USU),
We want to voice our concerns regarding the USU’s recent partnerships with multiple companies. Our collective is dismayed by the USU’s working relationship with companies plausibly found to be complicit in Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine and the ongoing genocide in Gaza, as outlined by the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC).
In 2025, ACAR was concerned to see the USU promoting brands on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) list, like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s. The 2024-25 ACAR Convenor Dana Kafina had inquired about these problematic sponsorships and received an inadequate response from the board.
We are extremely disappointed by the inadequate level of ethics that the USU continues to use when considering working relationships with companies culpable in home demolitions, settler violence, mass murder, collective punishment, and forced displacement.
As of 16 February 2026, there have been at least 72,063 deaths – including people killed since the declaration of a ‘ceasefire’ – in Gaza since Israel began its genocidal campaign against the Palestinians in 2023. After only 100 days, all universities were bombed to ruins in Gaza and the UN demanded investigation into Israel’s “scholasticide” (referring to the deliberate targeting of academics). Today, more than 90% of schools in Gaza have been either damaged or destroyed. Just last month, the Israeli regime has also targeted and killed two university academics in an airstrike against Beirut, Lebanon.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared that Israel’s occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem is illegal. Israeli settlements are therefore considered war crimes under international law, and these aforementioned companies are plausibly implicated at the very least.
We want to flag the unethical nature of partnering with the following companies, some of which are responsible for human rights violations, multinationally:
- Coca-Cola: operates a regional distribution centre and cooling houses in the Atarot Settlement Industrial Zone. One of its subsidiaries, “Tabor Winery”, harvests grapes from vineyards located in illegally occupied settlements in the West Bank and the Syrian Golan Heights.
- McDonald’s: Israeli franchisee donated meals and beverages to Israeli military personnel; this is a military responsible for the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and countless war crimes in the West Bank and other countries like Lebanon.
- Nestle (Nescafé): Responsible for an extensive history of worker exploitation, labour abuses, and child labour. The company also owns shares of Osum, an Israeli food company, operating factories in the illegally occupied West Bank.
However, if the USU continues to partner with companies tied to egregious human rights violations and genocide, your legitimacy as a student union will surely be negatively impacted. As a student union operating on stolen Aboriginal land, which pledges to support its members and be proudly not-for-profit, the least you could do is cease your sponsorship deals with companies that profit from illegal occupation and settler-colonial violence.
Here are our demands for the USU:
- Discontinue all current working relationships with companies classified by BDS as priority targets, pressure targets, and organic boycotts.
- Pledge to refuse all future working opportunities with companies on the BDS list for their complicity in international human rights violations.
- Designate the USU as an official apartheid-free zone.
- Encourage and support USU members to engage in BDS actions.
The Sydney University Student Representative Council (SRC) has already pledged to support BDS in a motion passed a few years ago, serving as an exemplar for how the USU could follow in the lead of other student unions.
If the USU seriously adheres to proper human rights standards — considering the consensus among human rights groups, genocide studies and international law scholars, and other experts that the pattern of violence in Gaza against Palestinians over the last 2 years is a genocide — we implore your organisation to take on these actions. It is clear that the USU’s partnerships and sponsorships policy needs to be significantly reformed if dealing with these companies is deemed as “appropriate”.
USU members will benefit from progress and collective action against injustice through BDS, mobilising effective pressure and amplifying the cultural and political impact of the movement. USU will demonstrate an overarching commitment to ethical practices, and assure USU members, and University of Sydney students and staff that the organisation is taking urgent action by leveraging its institutional status and reputation to concretely support human rights internationally.
As University of Sydney students and USU members, we do not want this student union to be on the wrong side of history when extensive evidence is presented to them regarding the unethical conduct of brands that the USU is publicly supporting and partnering with. At a time when urgent action is needed, please reconsider your stance as the leadership of an independent student-led member organisation.
We look forward to your response.
Free Palestine.