Pro-Palestinian encampment goes up at UQAM
Posted May 12, 2024 4:38 pm.
Last Updated May 13, 2024 6:39 pm.
A pro-Palestinian encampment, similar to the one at McGill University and other North American campuses, was erected at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Sunday.
A small handful of tents were up at the UQAM’s Cœur des sciences by mid-afternoon.
“For us, it’s important to make our voices louder in this context,” said Leila Khaled, Encampment Spokesperson and UQAM Student. “We have a lot of solidarity from different students, also different universities like UDM (Université de Montréal) and some CEGEPs. The university should be happy to see that students are organizing themselves and making this kind of space to learn more.”
A social media video appeared to show individuals carrying metal fences and wood pallets onto university grounds.
“We have seen how McGill has treated the other encampments, we’ve seen it firsthand and we believe that the most effective pressure is pressure in different fronts,” said El Chat Guevara, UQAM Student and activist. “We are always talking with students of McGill and our comrades, so we will talk about that and we decide what will be the best for us and we will do it together.”
In a news release outlining their demands, activists are calling on UQAM and all Quebec universities to divest from institutions supporting and benefiting from Israel’s actions in Gaza. They also want the province’s post-secondary institutions to disclose any collaborations with Israel; and the abolition of the Quebec-Israel office.
“The activists have no intention of leaving the UQAM encampment until their demands are met, and are encouraging the establishment of similar encampments on other university and college campuses across Canada,” organizers wrote in a news release.
In a news release on Sunday evening, UQAM stated that:
“The University’s Prevention and Safety Department is on site to monitor the situation closely, ensure the safe conduct of activities and identify contacts in order to establish a dialogue for the future. The safety of all people is paramount to the University. Free community access to UQAM buildings must be preserved at all times. UQAM would like to point out that its Foundation has no investment in armaments, having adopted a responsible investment policy many years ago, and that the University does not currently have a mobility agreement nor framework agreement with Israeli universities.”
The new encampment – organizers call it Université Populaire Al-Aqsa (UPA-UQAM) – went up Sunday against the backdrop of an international student movement in solidarity with Gaza.
“We believe that making deals and having business with a genocidal state is on itself fueling the genocide and we are demanding it to stop,” said Guevara.
Khaled adding, “Do not collaborate with any Israeli university until they respect human rights.”
It also went up on the 16th day of McGill’s downtown protest.
McGill has requested an injunction to dismantle that encampment. The court order, if granted, would require those participating to refrain from camping on, or occupying, the campus. It would authorize Montreal police to enforce it, the university says.
Organizers at the new UQAM encampment are demanding that McGill officials withdraw that injunction request.
“We express our unconditional solidarity with their demands and categorically condemn any form of judicialization of the struggle for Palestine,” they wrote.
“The encampment will continue as long as the McGill and Concordia activists have not obtained what they have been demanding for years.”
As McGill protesters have been doing, the UQAM protesters put out a list Sunday of items needed through donation. That list included tents, blankets, plywood, ice, coffee, snacks, metro tickets and small Palestinian flags.
“We believe that the most effective pressure is pressure in different fronts,” says UQAM student and activist El Chat Guevara on Monday, of the pro-Palestinian encampment at UQAM.
