'Indefinite' Pro-Palestinian Encampment Established at McGill University (+Video)

Organizers, on Saturday afternoon, urged participants over loudspeakers to maintain a presence at the encampment overnight.

According to Zaynab Ali, a McGill student involved in the protest, demonstrators are calling on McGill and Concordia universities to "divest from funds implicated in the Zionist state" and sever ties with "Zionist academic institutions." This statement was shared with CBC News.

Ali referenced a dataset released on April 18 by McGill Hunger Strike for Palestine and Students for Justice in Palestine, listing 50 companies in which McGill University invests that the organizations claim are "complicit in upholding the apartheid regime of Israel." CBC News reached out to the university regarding the dataset on Saturday evening.

The Israeli war in Gaza escalated after resistance forces launched attacks on October 7 in response to years of Zionist aggression. Health authorities in Gaza report that Israel's offensive has resulted in the deaths of over 34,000 Palestinians, predominantly women and children, as well as imminent famine, destruction of vital hospitals, and the displacement of 1.9 million people, according to the United Nations.

The Montreal chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement described the encampment as "indefinite," emphasizing the refusal to allow universities to be "complicit in genocide" in a social media post on Instagram. Another student group, Solidarité pour les droits humains des Palestiniennes et Palestiniens, called on UQAM's students and staff to join in via a Facebook post.

McGill University stated it is aware of the encampment and supports students' rights to freedom of expression and assembly within the university's policies and laws. The university confirmed the presence of security officers at the site.