Why Students Are Setting Up Encampments in Support of Palestine at Universities Across British Columbia

 

Pro-Palestine encampments are spreading across BC university campuses

Over the last week, students at universities in British Columbia have set up encampments in support of Gaza amid ongoing bombardments carried out by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition government.

Students at the University of British Columbia joined students at McGill University in Montréal as the first two Canadian universities to set up encampments following growing solidarity protests in the United States and globally to bring attention to Israel’s attack on Gaza, which has now extended into Rafah – the last safe refuge for displaced Palestinians.

In February, Canada joined other countries in warning Netanyahu’s government that an attack on Rafah would be “catastrophic” given “1.5 million Palestinians are taking refuge in the area.”

Students have laid out a number of demands, including calls for UBC’s “divestment from Israel’s settler colonial occupation,” participation in a “global academic boycott” of Israeli universities, demands to “end to the genocide in Gaza” and also “keep police presence off campus.”

“Students and the world cannot sit in silence while an institution supposedly based in knowledge and education fuels war crimes,” a statement from UBC students said.  (more...)

Why Students Are Setting Up Encampments in Support of Palestine at Universities Across British Columbia