Pro-Palestinian demonstrators who have been camping in Montreal at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) for nearly a month have announced their intention to leave on Thursday, but they vow to continue their fight for the liberation of the Palestinian people.
The activists initially set up their encampment in the courtyard of the Complexe des sciences Pierre-Dansereau on May 12. Last week, they declared their plan to end the encampment by “June 6 at the latest.”
Their decision to leave comes after the university’s board of directors adopted a resolution addressing the situation between the Palestinian people and Israel. In the resolution, UQAM pledged to ensure that none of its current or future academic agreements, including those with Israeli universities, conflict with certain principles. The university also committed to peace and respect for international humanitarian law.
Despite the resolution, the activist group L’Université populaire Al-Aqsa de l’UQAM (UPA-UQAM) expressed dissatisfaction, stating that the resolution fell short as it did not call for a complete boycott of Israeli universities.
In a press release issued Thursday morning, Sara Hamadi, a student and camper with UPA-UQAM, argued, “Despite the end of the encampment, we will continue the struggle since we cannot be satisfied with performative declarations giving a misleading image of the university’s so-called commitment.”
The last activists are expected to leave the camp by Thursday evening as part of a demonstration demanding that the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government abolish the Quebec office in Tel Aviv. The activists believe that their month-long encampment has successfully held UQAM accountable and brought attention to their cause in the public eye.