UNB’s Saint John campus is among the latest sites of a Gaza solidarity camp, following a series of student protests and occupations across North America that have sometimes been met with severe police clampdowns.
Meanwhile, some professors at UNB Fredericton have supported the students by pressing administrators at university Senate to disclose ties to Israeli institutions.
Up to 20 people have attended the protest site in the quad at UNB Saint John, according to Sarah Durham, a doctoral student in the Department of Biological Sciences.
Unlike on-campus protests in other parts of North America, students in Saint John haven’t attempted to occupy the site overnight.
“We set up every morning and then we take down in the evening, so we haven’t escalated anything quite yet,” Durham said. She said the response has mostly been positive, although one or two people have attended as counter-protesters.
Video footage and photos from the location shows placards and banners calling for a ceasefire, Palestinian flags, at least one tent and a hammock, and people seated in lawn chairs or blankets spread out on the grass.
The protest sprang up spontaneously after Durham learned that the biology department chair, Prof. Jeff Houlahan, was out in the quad with a sign that said “Free Gaza.”
“I grabbed all my stuff and I ran out there to join him and I just put out the word,” Durham said. “And that first day, I would say there was probably around 10 people and it’s kind of waxed and waned ever since.” (more...)
UNB links to Israel under scrutiny as students establish ‘solidarity camp’ in Saint John
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