Encampment

One year since Oct. 7

Local Journalism Initiative / The Link / October 6, 2024 / Activism, Andraé Lerone Lewis, Beirut, Encampment, Gaza, Hannah Scott-Talib, October 7, Palestine

Protesters marched through downtown Montreal for the Palestinian liberation cause on Feb. 18, 2024. Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

Hannah Scott-Talib,
Local Journalism Initiative

Reflecting on the heights of activism this past year and the future of the movement

It will soon be one year since Oct. 7.

Exactly 357 days ago, the Palestinian militant group Hamas fired rockets into and re-entered the occupied territory known as Israel, killing over a thousand Israeli civilians, according to Israeli officials. Israel’s retaliation of the event continues, with the displacement of over 2 million Palestinians and 42,000 confirmed Palestinian civilian murders to date, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Reflecting on the past year, advocates for Palestine in Montreal talk about how the Palestinian liberation movement has progressed and discuss where it is now.

Peaks of activism

Last year, the first peak in mobilization came immediately after Israel’s escalated attacks on Gaza.

“In the heat of the moment, everyone just wanted to do something for Palestine. They didn’t care what we were doing [or] how we did it, as long as we did something,” said Hassan Ridha, a member of Concordia University’s Thaqalayn Muslim Students’ Association and an active advocate for Palestine.

“We hadn’t mobilized this quickly and this efficiently until an attack happened, until we saw the death numbers rise significantly within a matter of days,” Ridha said. “So this is when we reacted.”

Ridha added that, over the past year, another key point in the liberation movement was the establishment of the encampment at McGill University.

“When students came together to say ‘No, we’re not going to get used to what is happening in Gaza, until the university meets [our] demands we’re not just going to sit idly,’” he said, “I think this revived the spirit of many people who weren’t as involved anymore with the movement.”

Ridha isn’t the only one that feels like the encampment was a key step towards liberation.

“The encampment set a precedent,” said a member of Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance Concordia (SPHR ConU), who has been granted anonymity for safety reasons. They said that the encampment saw a huge surge in student mobilization in particular, and that it set a precedent for what was considered fair protest in Montreal through McGill’s two rejected injunctions to dismantle the encampment.

According to Ridha, throughout the year, collective activism for the Palestinian cause was the most prominent directly following Israel’s heaviest attacks. He said there was a surge in activism most recently following Israel’s air strikes on Lebanon that began on Sept. 23.

“People came back together after they saw the heavy bombardment of Beirut,” Ridha said, “which at least shows consistency, that we are able to come back together [and mobilize].”

The future of the Palestinian cause

“Over the last year, I think we’ve seen action from the masses at, what I would say, is an unprecedented and an inspiring level,” said Haya, a member of The Palestinian Youth Movement’s (PYM) Montreal chapter, whose last name has been kept anonymous for safety reasons. “People have responded to the fact that the genocide has been going on for a year and continue to respond to it.”

Now, Haya added, PYM is looking to shift to more long-term forms of activism. She said that PYM recently launched a new campaign entitled “Mask Off Maersk.” which aims to target one of the largest shipping companies in the world, the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group.

“[Maersk] acts as a middleman for arms and weapons shipments to Israel,” Haya said. According to her, by interrupting the logistics of shipping, this campaign will attack weapons and arms manufacturers “across the board.”

Meanwhile, the SPHR ConU member said they feel that—through heightened awareness for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement—successfully pressuring Concordia, McGill and other large Montreal institutions to divest from Israel is a realistic goal for 2025.

“We’re closer to divestment than ever,” they said. “[The] BDS movement has grown so much it’s become a [central] topic in the city.”

They added that, in relation to the BDS movement, the next step after divestment would be an academic boycott of institutions such as Concordia.

“Everyone has the freedom to learn whatever they want, but if it’s at the cost of the occupation of a people, or if it’s at the cost of killing people, then I don’t think that’s academic freedom,” they said.

Still, activists like Ridha believe that certain important accomplishments have already been made since Oct. 7, 2023.

“The biggest achievement, for me, is awareness—it’s something you can’t lose,” Ridha said. “Over time, people might lose interest in participating in protests or in doing active work for Palestine, but no one is going to go home and forget about the companies to boycott.”

He added that new activists for the Palestinian cause have learned so much more about the movement as a whole over the past year, from the meaning of the keffiyeh to the history of Palestinian resistance.

“This, I think, is the best thing we have achieved since Oct. 7,” Ridha said. “It’s the gaining of knowledge that gives us a foundation for the next time.”

With files from Menna Nayel

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 3, published October 1, 2024.

One year since Oct. 7 Read More »

A look back on student encampments and resistance

Local Journalism Initiative / The Link / September 24, 2024 / Encampment, Geneviève Sylvestre, Hannah Scott-Talib, Maria Cholakov, McGill, Palestine, Student movement, Zina Chouaibi

Students set up McGill encampment for Palestine. Photo Hannah Scott-Talib

Zina Chouaibi & Geneviève Sylvestre,
Local Journalism Initiative

The dismantling of the McGill encampment was not the end of Palestinian solidarity in Montreal

Over the past year, universities in Montreal and across the world have witnessed a surge in student activism, with campus encampments serving as symbols of Palestinian solidarity.

Antler, a camper at the McGill University encampment, who was granted a pseudonym for safety reasons, was about to leave Montreal for summer break when the encampment was erected on April 27. Instead, she chose to stay in the city to show her solidarity.

“This is a student opportunity that doesn’t happen often. It’s the first encampment in Canada, it was in a school that is already on stolen land, it had a lot of backstory to it that was very important to us,” said Antler. “At the time of the encampment, it kind of felt like it was the most we could do.”

The encampment brought unprecedented attention to the issue of divestment, highlighting activists’ demands that McGill and Concordia divest from companies with connections to the ongoing genocide and cut all academic ties with Israel.

McGill filed three injunctions in an attempt to get the encampment removed. Two were rejected by Quebec Superior Court judges, and the last was withdrawn by McGill after the dismantlement of the camp by a private security firm on Jul. 10.

“The fact that it was forcefully removed by mercenaries only contributed positively to the momentum,” a representative from Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill said.

According to the representative, the encampments showcased the unity and power of the student front.

“We had never seen this much media coverage on this topic despite divestment being a demand for the past two decades,” they said.

Antler was not present the day the encampment was taken down, but says she is very proud of what all the campers accomplished.

“Honestly, more than anything, more than disappointed, I was just very, very proud of how long the encampment stayed and how resilient the students were,” she said.

The removal of the encampments did not mark the end of the divestment movement, but rather a shift in tactics. Activists like Hassan Ridha from the Palestinian Youth Movement are now focusing on long-term strategies that involve coalition-building across different communities.

“When multiple separate efforts are joined together, they become more powerful,” Ridha said.

Despite the lack of meaningful progress from university administrations, Ridha sees the rise in solidarity as a significant victory.

“I consider the unification of students, businesses, professionals and parents a major success of the encampment,” he said.

According to the SPHR McGill representative, the Montreal community played a crucial role in supporting the encampments and keeping the movement alive.

“The Montreal community has supported us throughout the encampment with donations for what was necessary to keep the encampment alive,” the SPHR McGill representative said. “That in itself plays a huge role in achieving divestment.”

Currently, activists like Ridha are looking to engage new supporters to sustain the movement, particularly incoming students who may be unfamiliar with the history of the encampments.

“To engage new supporters, it is important to be as present as possible in as many places as possible,” Ridha said. He believes that by expanding the movement’s reach and involving more communities, the movement can continue to grow and evolve.

“At the end of the day, we are students who don’t want our tuition money to go to the funding of a genocide,” the SPHR McGill representative said. “That is such a simple ask: justice.”

With files from Maria Cholakova

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 1, published September 3, 2024.

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