“Our university is complicit”

 

Inside the pro-Palestinian student encampment at the University of Toronto

University of Toronto (U of T) is ground zero for pro-Palestinian activism in Canada as Occupy for Palestine (O4P) mobilized encampments at King’s College Circle. As previously reported by The Media Co-Op, students breached the fenced perimeter around the Circle on Thursday, May 2, racing to evade campus security and set up tents at 4 a.m. The encampments follow weeks of pro-Palestinian student activism sweeping across post-secondary campuses in Canada and the United States to protest Israel’s war on Gaza, as well as end partnerships with Israeli universities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

O4P organizers describe an atmosphere of quiet tension in the days leading up to the encampment. The university’s preemptive fencing of King’s College Circle came as students began occupations in institutions including McGill and the University of British Columbia. 

Renewed action follows a two-day occupation of U of T’s Simcoe Hall that ended on April 3 after students secured a meeting with President Meric Gertler. Students say that Gertler was unprepared and dismissed their demands in a letter posted on the university’s website.

After rushing to set up their “People’s Circle for Palestine” with supplies, a tarp for prayer, and a wide perimeter of tents, student organizers reiterated three main demands, asking the school to disclose all investments and financial holdings, divest all financial holdings that “sustain Israeli apartheid, occupation and illegal settlement of Palestine,” as well as end partnerships with Israeli universities in the occupied West Bank. 

“Ultimately, we know when the university responds – when there’s public pressure and when their reputation has been harmed,” explained Erin Mackey, a political science student at U of T and a media liaison at the camp. “This university needs to listen to its students and be on the right side of history. It’s not a question of persuading President Meric Gertler, he doesn’t have a backbone.”  (more...)

“Our university is complicit”