Students and faculty who are participating in a pro-Palestinian encampment at Halifax’s Dalhousie University vowed on Monday to stay until their demands are met despite the school’s notice to vacate its downtown campus.
The encampment was set up on the Studley Quad on May 12 by Students for the Liberation of Palestine, which describes itself as a coalition from Dalhousie and four other Halifax schools — Saint Mary’s University, University of King’s College, Mount Saint Vincent University and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University.
The group is calling on all universities in Halifax to disclose their investments in companies tied to Israel, to divest from them, and to reinvest that money in scholarships for Palestinian students.
The encampment “will remain, and all the students that support the encampment will remain until all of our demands are met,” Owen Skeen, president of the NSCAD student union and encampment spokesperson, said Monday.
On Friday, the university issued a statement saying participants had to remove all objects and personal belongings from the encampment by Sunday at 7 p.m.
Skeen was one of a handful of demonstrators who stayed overnight in a tent at the protest site in anticipation of school security trying to shut it down.
Beginning at around 6:30 a.m. Monday, security guards started removing tents, banners and large signs at the encampment. It was around the same time that Students for the Liberation of Palestine were told by email that a meeting scheduled later that morning with Dalhousie’s vice-provost of student affairs was cancelled, Skeen said.
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“A small number of tents were taken away, piled up with signs, pallets and various other things, many that were given to us by community members … it was all thrown into the back of a truck and driven away,” Skeen said.
By about 7:30 a.m., security stopped trying to remove tents and other items from the encampment and stood around the perimeter of the school quad, Skeen said. Around 10:30 a.m., protesters took 15 of the remaining tents on the grassy quad, along with signs and posters, and moved them to the front steps of the nearby administrative building, where about 30 demonstrators chanted “free, free Palestine.”
When asked about the movement of tents from the quad to the Henry Hicks building, a Dalhousie University spokesperson said in an email, “operations to remove objects and property from the encampment site began on Monday morning. As that operation is ongoing, we have no further comment at this time.”
Shira Lurie, an assistant professor at Saint Mary’s University and member of Nova Scotia’s Jewish Faculty Network, said that instead of dismantling the encampment, the schools should meet the group’s demands, “which are incredibly reasonable and logical: disclosure, divestment and reinvestment.”
“Instead of meeting the students’ demands, commending students for this activism and their commitment to human rights, the university has instead served them an eviction notice,” Lurie said in an interview Monday.
In its notice to vacate, the university cited provincial law to prohibit protesters from occupying, gathering or remaining on Dalhousie University property between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. “We believe that constructive dialogue, protest and non-violent demonstration can continue without the presence of an encampment,” the university said. “We are committed to ensuring that our campus remains a safe, vibrant and welcoming space for everyone in our community.”
Still, the statement issued on Friday said enforcement of the law would be enforced “by any legal means necessary,” and it specifically stated that arrests and fines are possible. Halifax Regional Police did not immediately respond to questions about whether their officers have been asked to take part in the encampment removal.
Ajay Parasram, an associate professor of international development studies and history at Dalhousie, has been a supporter of the student encampment since it began, and says he’s disappointed with the university’s actions.
“I got the call early this morning that people were here taking down tents, so I rushed over,” he said in an interview Monday.
“It seemed until last week that our university had decided to chart an alternative course and not go the way of McGill, York and others,” he said, referring to universities that have ordered the dismantling of pro-Palestinian protest encampments on their campuses.
“Then seemingly out of nowhere, they did a complete 180 with no consultation,” he said of Dalhousie’s notice to vacate.
“I think the actions of the school are very dishonest, and I find it deeply disappointing as a faculty member,” Parasram said.
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