It appears the pro-Palestinian protesters taking part in the encampment at UBC have ramped up their actions against the university’s administrators.
The group is protesting in the area of West 16th Avenue and Westbrook Mall Wednesday morning.
It’s creating problems for buses getting in and out of the area.
Last night, the activists gave the university president until 8 a.m. to give in to their demands, including divesting from companies that have links to Israel and stopping any research projects with Israeli universities.
According to the UBC People’s University for Gaza, university President Benoit-Antoine Bacon’s recent comments at the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights in Ottawa on Monday, May 27, shows that the “university is not acting in good faith.”
“He reiterated ex-President Santa Ono’s rejection of the BDS movement and expressed continued opposition to it. He also spoke in favour of possibly adopting the IHRA definition, which has been widely criticized by scholars, academics and human rights groups globally for conflating legitimate critisicm of the state of Israel with anti-semitism. Bacon’s recent statements on Parliament Hill have unequivocally affirmed his opposition to the BDS movement, which we see as a blatant disrespect of our demands,” the statement released Tuesday said.
“these recent actions have cast doubt among students, faculty, and community members regarding the sincerity of his invitations to ‘constructive’ conversations,” it stated.
“We believe our demands represent the minimum actions necessary in response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Bacon’s statements in Parliament come a day after an Israeli strike hit Teh Al-Sultan refugee camp in Rafah, massacring 45 people, mostly women and children some of whom were burnt alive,” the activists stated.
“As violence continues to escalate in Gaza and Rafah, we will continue to escalate our efforts. Unlike the university, our concern is not our public image, but the lives lost and violence against Palestine facilitated by the capital and complicity of our institutions. We will not stop until Palestine is free.”
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