By occupying the campus in support of Palestine, students around the world are reimagining that space as one that promotes relations of care here and abroad.
The militarized suppression of pro-Palestine encampments at Alberta’s two largest universities, cheered on by Premier Danielle Smith, reveals how a student movement to divest from companies profiting from Israeli human rights abuses is disrupting settler-colonial dynamics locally.
Ending the horrific violence the Israeli state has waged against the Palestinians over the past seven months and 76 years is the focus, but these protests raise crucial questions about the purpose of the university and to whom it belongs, the limits of liberal notions of free expression, and state violence.
At the crack of dawn on May 11, Edmonton police were seen chanting "move" in unison while assaulting community members with their batons and firing “special munitions” at them after the University of Alberta administration asked them to remove the encampment from their quad, resulting in three arrests.
This came two days after Calgary police marched on the University of Calgary campus in riot gear like they were going to war, firing tear gas and stun grenades at community members in response to a similar request from UCalgary admin, making five arrests.
Encampments calling on their universities to disclose all their investments and divest from those involved in Israeli war crimes have emerged on campuses across Canada, including the University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, McGill University and University of Manitoba, among others, as part of a global student movement.
As of writing, the only encampments in Canada that have been met with force from authorities are UCalgary and UAlberta, but the threat looms over all the encampments. (more...)
University Encampments and the Conditions of State Violence
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