Pro-Palestinian protesters set up encampment at University of Calgary

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Calgary police have been called to the University of Calgary after protesters set up an encampment on campus Thursday morning, protesting the Israeli onslaught on Gaza.

University of Calgary notified Calgary police around 6:30 a.m. that several protesters had set up tents on the south lawn of MacEwen Hall.

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By mid-afternoon, there were about 20 tents and roughly 40 protesters at the site.

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“We are aware that a small number of tents have been set up on campus,” the University of Calgary said in a statement supplied to Postmedia.

“We are engaging with the individuals involved, however, temporary structures and overnight protests are not permitted. Members of the campus community are free to protest but they are not free to camp.”

Law enforcement was called in for assistance after the campers refused to leave university property, Calgary police said.

“We are working with the university to safely resolve the situation,” a police spokesperson told Postmedia.

Messages on social media suggest the encampment is part of a concerted protest against the ongoing conflict in Gaza, with activism planned for the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

Protesters are keeping media outside their encampment, which is enclosed with wood pallets.

Protesters to stand their ground after being told they were trespassing

One of those at the encampment called it a “student movement” that will only get larger. Pro-Palestinian activists from across the city were being urged through social media to join the encampment.

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He said they’ve met with police and campus security, who told protesters they were trespassing and that they could be removed, while having sanctions imposed on student participants.

“We’re not going anywhere, this will eventually take over this entire quadrangle,” said one man, his faced wrapped in a kaffiyeh, who would only give his name as Tashkil.

One man brought several plastic coolers — presumably full of food — into the camp, while others hauled in more pallets to fortify the camp’s perimeter.

Campus security officers nearby blocked a road approach to the protest area with wooden barricades.

An Instagram page has been set up in support of the encampment, calling itself University Of Calgary Divest For Palestine.

The account has listed demands of the university, which include financial disclosure and transparency for investments, divestment from corporations involved in the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, academic boycott of all institutions involved in the occupation, adopting an anti-Palestinian racism definition with a zero-tolerance policy, and academic and mental-health support for Palestinian students.

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Protesters said U.S.-based weapons manufacturers are financially involved in U of C programs and that it has an obligation to meet their demands, since Israel’s attacks on Gaza have destroyed or shuttered all of that territory’s universities.

In addressing the group and four people who’d come to hear them out, one protester said U of C administrators have been dismissive of their appeals and their cause, leaving them no alternative but to bring in their tents.

“They refuse to even use the name ‘Palestine’ and to have discussions of our demands,” said Salam Kafri.

Campers said both that frustration and the Israeli Army moving into Rafah, Gaza — where more than one million Palestinian refugees are taking refuge — galvanized the timing of their protest.

Kafri said the sympathetic government and post-secondary response to the war in Ukraine and those fleeing it has contrasted sharply to the hostility or indifference they’ve experienced.

“Ukrainians have told me, ‘we know you’re enduring what we’ve endured but for much longer,’ ” he said.

U of C encampment follows similar actions elsewhere in Canada and U.S.

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A source told Postmedia the U of C has no investments that could be considered relevant to the conflict in Gaza or fortifying Israel’s military.

But Tashkil said they want to see financial statements.

“As students at the U of C, we deserve to know how our money is funnelled and if we are indirectly complicit with genocide,” he said.

He noted the encampment follows weeks of similar actions in the U.S. and Canada. Some encampments have been forcibly removed by police.

“We came when we were meant to, Calgary is finally ready,” said Tashkil.

Early in the afternoon, one protest organizer could be heard addressing colleagues on how best to prevent their removal from the site.

Kafri said their movement has no intention of making Jewish students on campus uncomfortable, something those students have said has occurred at other universities.

Students and faculty members wandered past the peaceful demonstration, some curiously.

“They’re really trying to get what’s happening (in Gaza) more public attention and they’re not causing any harm,” said one student, who declined to be identified.

Since last October, anti-Gaza war protests have been held virtually every weekend in Calgary’s downtown and inner city, at times drawing thousands of participants and the attention of police, who’ve made several arrests.

The latest war in Gaza began last October following Hamas’ attack on southern Israel that killed nearly 1,200 people, with 250 more taken hostage.

Since then, according to Gaza health authorities, about 35,000 Palestinians have been killed during the Israeli onslaught.

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