UQAM’s pro-Palestinian encampment to come down Thursday  

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators who have camping at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) for nearly a month say they will be leaving on Thursday, but insist that their fight for liberation of the Palestinian people is not over.

The activists announced their intention to end their encampment last week by “June 6 a the latest.”

It has been set up in the courtyard of the Complexe des sciences Pierre-Dansereau since May 12.

“I feel a mix of emotions,” said a pro-Palestinian protester at UQAM who goes by the name Rho.

“A lot of comrades feel that what we accomplished in the administration is a solid basis to continue the struggle in the walls of UQAM,” said Rho.

They say they are satisfied with a resolution adopted by the university’s board of directors concerning the situation between the Palestinian people and Israel.

In this resolution, UQAM pledged to “ensure that none of its current and future academic agreements, including those with Israeli universities, come into conflict” with certain principles.

Also, the school made a commitment to peace and respect for international humanitarian law.

The resolution calls on the Fondation de l’UQAM to have no direct investment that profit from armaments.

In a press release published Thursday morning, the activist group L’Université populaire Al-Aqsa de l’UQAM (UPA-UQAM) said the resolution was “far from satisfactory” because it does not call for a complete boycott of Israeli universities.

They maintain, however, that the encampment “made it possible to hold UQAM responsible for its actions by placing it in the spotlight of public opinion.”

“Despite the end of the encampment, we will continue the fight, since we cannot be satisfied with performative declarations giving a misleading image of a so-called commitment of the university,” said Sara Hamadi, a student and camper at UPA-UQAM.

Despite UQAM’s encampment coming down, the one at McGill University is still going strong. Demonstrators say they won’t be leaving until the university meets all their demands.

“It gives us a lot of hope for the future and we hope that McGill follows…it’s a morale booster,” said Ali, a representative of the pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill University.

The last activists will leave the camp Thursday evening, during a demonstration demanding that the CAQ government abolish it’s Quebec office in Tel Aviv.

“I would like to see our administration denounce the genocide that is taking place and call for a full academic boycott of Israel,” says Rho. “And we will do everything start of the next semester to make that a reality.” 

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews