A pro-Palestinian encampment was set up on UQAM land in downtown Montreal on Sunday afternoon, two days after McGill University filed an injunction aimed at removing one on its land.
• Read more: McGill calls for demolition of pro-Palestinian camp on its campus
The new camp is located on land at the Pierre-Dansereau science campus of the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), near Place-des-Arts in downtown Montreal.
About ten tents were set up in an internment camp between the University of Montreal buildings.
A variety of banners and blankets were placed on the fences erected by the demonstrators, preventing them from seeing what was happening on the ground.
However, about a hundred people demonstrated in front of the camp late in the afternoon in support of the dozens of people inside.
There were many Palestinian flags in front of the new camp at UQAM.
Photo Agent QMI, Mario BEAUREGARD
Residents of the camp, named “Al-Aqsa People’s University” after one of the universities destroyed in Gaza since the war began, are demanding the withdrawal of an injunction filed Friday against McGill University camping on its land.
Since April 26, about a hundred demonstrators have pitched their tents on the company’s grounds at the corner of Sherbrooke and McGill streets, a few kilometers from the new camp at UQAM.
“We reject any legalization of the Palestinian struggle. Students have right to protest, right to fight. That is what the university was created for,” says a spokesperson for the Solidarity Committee for Palestinian Human Rights at UQAM, who introduces herself as Leila Khaled.
The Uqam administration, however, pointed out that “although the call for the rally was initiated by a group that self-identifies with UQAM, it is not recognized by the university.”
The City of Montreal Police Department indicates it is aware of the situation, but has not received a request from UQAM at this time.
Other requests
The group also calls for “the adoption of an academic boycott order against all Israeli universities.” We consider them to be complicit actors,” explains the spokesperson, who studies human sciences at UQAM.
Leila Khalid, spokesperson for Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights at UQAM
Photo Agent QMI, Mario BEAUREGARD
However, the group’s spokesperson condemned UQAM’s “transparency” in the matter and could not specify whether the university currently has ties to Israeli institutions.
The UQAM Foundation “does not invest in weapons, adopted a responsible investment policy several years ago, and [l’Université] “There is no operating agreement or framework agreement with Israeli universities,” however, university spokeswoman Jenny Desrochers pointed out.
The Ugamian group is demanding the abolition of the Quebec office in Tel Aviv, which opened last February.
So UQAM becomes 11e A Canadian university is to set up a Palestinian support camp on its grounds.
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