Students Demand McGill, Concordia Cut Ties with Zionist Academic Centers

IQNA – Students at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, set up several tents at the downtown campus as an act of solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

They have joined a wave of similar protests taking place across US campuses amid the ongoing Israeli was on the Gaza Strip. 

On Saturday afternoon, organizers could be heard asking over loudspeakers that as many people as possible stay at the encampment overnight.

Protestors are demanding McGill and Concordia universities "divest from funds implicated in the Zionist state as well as [cut] ties with Zionist academic institutions," according to a statement sent to CBC News by Zaynab Ali, a McGill student participating in the protest.

Ali was referencing a data set published on April 18 by McGill Hunger Strike for Palestine and Students for Justice in Palestine. It lists 50 companies that McGill University invests in that the organizations say are "complicit in upholding the apartheid regime of Israel." CBC News reached out to the university about the data set on Saturday evening.

Since Israel waged a brutal offensive on Gaza on Oct. 7, nearly 34,400 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and over 77,400 injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
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The Montreal chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement called the encampment "indefinite," adding that it refuses to let universities "be complicit in genocide," in a social media post on Instagram.

Another student group, Solidarité pour les droits humains des Palestiniennes et Palestiniens also urged UQAM's students and personnel to join in as well, in a post to Facebook.

In an email to CBC News, McGill University says it's aware the encampment is happening and it supports the right of its students to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly within the bounds of the university's policies and law. It says its security officers are on site.

cbc.ca