Pro-Palestinian protesters set up encampment at University of Windsor

Published May 13, 2024 • Last updated 21 hours ago • 4 minute read

Jana Alrifai, centre, and other pro-Palestinian demonstrators are shown at the University of Windsor on Monday, May 13, 2024 in the “Liberation Zone” where tents have been pitched. Photo by Dan Janisse /Windsor Star

A group of pro-Palestinian protesters who disrupted a University of Windsor senate meeting last week has set up an encampment on campus, requesting supplies as they dig in until administrators answer their demands.

The demonstrations began Thursday with protesters calling for university administration to financially divest from organizations that benefit or support Israel.

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“We’re not going anywhere until the university talks to us about our demands, and we have actual concrete actionable items that are given,” University of Windsor student Jana Alrifai, a protest co-organizer, said Monday morning.

“The university has this tagline of ‘aspire.’ We’re not aspiring. We are doing,” she told the Windsor Star.

Campus police were keeping watch Monday over protesters who set up a dozen tents at the university between Dillon Hall and Chrysler Hall.

The local coalition of mostly students and some members of the broader community calls itself Divest Windsor and has joined the surge of global student-led movements in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Alrifai said Monday it will be a group decision as to how long the encampment continues. But protest organizers have created a website with a priority list of items for people to donate, ranging from food to insect repellant.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators, who have erected a tent encampment at the University of Windsor, are shown Monday, May 13, 2024. Photo by Dan Janisse /Windsor Star

The coalition established a “Liberation Zone” on campus in front of Dillon Hall on Thursday afternoon, calling for the financial divestitures.

“It makes me feel like I am paying to kill my own people,” Alrifai said as the protest began.

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“So I sit in class … and you’re just watching people with no food, no water, living under the largest open-air prison in the world. Something has to be done, and this is us doing it.”

Roughly two dozen people set out large rugs, a tent, and signs that read “Free Palestine” on the grassy area.

The group packed up its Liberation Zone on Thursday night and returned to pitch tents on space in the campus core in front of Dillon Hall the next morning.

The demonstrators also protested outside a University of Windsor senate meeting on Friday afternoon. About 40 people marched into the Anthony P. Toldo Health and Education Centre and headed to Room 203 where the senate meeting was in progress.

They gathered outside the door chanting “free Palestine,” “no more money for Israel’s crimes,” “the whole system, shut it down,’ and “disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.”

They later declared the protest an “encampment,” meaning it’s no longer a temporary protest.

“It is clear that we are making an impact and adding pressure on the administration, but this is a marathon and continued support is necessary,” Divest Windsor wrote in an email following the third day of protests. “We will not rest until they disclose and divest.”

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Jana Alrifai and other pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest outside a University of Windsor senate meeting at the Toldo Building on Friday, May 10, 2024. Photo by Dan Janisse /Windsor Star Pro-Palestinian demonstrators climb the stairs at the University of WIndsor’s Toldo building to protest outside a senate meeting on Friday, May 10, 2024. Photo by Madeline Mazak /Windsor Star

When contacted by the Windsor Star, the University of Windsor indicated its investment decisions are made in alignment with the United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Investing.

The four-page document outlines six environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices, which the university pledged to integrate into its investment decisions in 2020.

“The integration of ESG factors into the University’s investment decisions is primarily done by external investment managers, who may screen portfolios to assure alignment with the University’s ESG values,” the university’s statement to the Star read.

The University of Windsor did not respond directly to the Star’s inquiry last week as to whether its current investments include organizations that benefit Israel. On Monday, the university also did not acknowledge a follow-up request for comment by deadline.

The launch of the Liberation Zone at UWindsor marks the seventh month since Hamas — a Palestinian political and militant organization operating in the Gaza Strip — launched a large attack on Israel last Oct. 7. The assault by Hamas, which Canada considers a terrorist group, killed 1,139 people and claimed 252 hostages.

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Since Israel’s retaliation began, the death toll of Palestinians killed in Gaza has risen to more than 34,000, many of them women and children, according to the United Nations.

Figures reported by the United Nations show more than 1.7 million Palestinians currently displaced within Gaza, facing serious shortages of food, water and medical care. Entire communities have been displaced, and homes and infrastructure destroyed.

The violence has sparked campus protests across Canada and the U.S.

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UPDATE: UWindsor protesters declare an ‘encampment’

Organizer says Gaza protests in Windsor gaining traction

In London, a group of protesters have been living in tents at Western University since Wednesday. That group is also calling for the divestiture of what it says are tens of millions of dollars Western has invested in companies and military contractors with ties to Israel.

The night before protesters disrupted the senate meeting at UWindsor, Calgary police reportedly used shields, batons, and flash-bang explosives to forcibly remove a group of protesters from an encampment set up on the University of Calgary campus.

Most of the large group of protesters, who were also demonstrating in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, agreed to leave before police moved in.

At the University of Toronto, a pro-Palestinian encampment has been in place since May 2. Students protesting have said they want the school to sever ties with Israeli academic institutions and disclose and end investments going to businesses that support the Israeli government.

At McGill University in Montreal, an encampment has been in place for about two weeks.

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