Pro-Palestinian encampment at U of T holds Shabbat dinner on second day

The pro Palestinian encampment at the University of Toronto is now into its second day. Demonstrators set up early Thursday morning in the center of King Circle, and they have not left there in an area that the university had fenced off earlier this week, hoping to prevent that from happening. Dale Manakdak is following the story for us. And Dale, what is the latest? Yeah, Kelda, you can see that there’s some demonstrators who are taking some shelter underneath that temp behind me. It is drizzling right now. And on the far West End of King Circle, the demonstrators just finished having a Shabbat dinner with their Jewish allies. As for their demands, which are the that U of T disclose all of their investments, divest from any businesses that are tied to Israel, and cut ties with any Israeli academic institutions that operate in occupied land, none of those have been met as of now. U of T says that their preference to have some dialogue, but the demonstrators say that no meaningful conversations have happened in regards to those three specific demands, so they are in it for the long haul. UFC imposed a deadline of 10:00 PM Thursday night, saying no protesting would be allowed afterwards, but that came and went. It was stressful. It was scary. We didn’t really know what to expect. It was a veiled threat on the part of the administration. Roughly 1000 people ended up surrounding the circle, rallying to support the encampment and lighting up the sky with cell phones. The large crowd dispersed by mourning. The encampment had grown from 50 tenths to 60. At least two people are sleeping in each. Caliope and Bar McCall sleeps here. We got these really great inflatable mattresses, which are really comfortable to sleep on, so it’s actually quite comfortable. People camped out are using the university’s washrooms if need be. They have plenty of supplies, including food and a solar panel to charge electronics if need be. This is all coming from donations from students, faculty, staff, and members of the UT community. We’re actually currently not accepting monetary donations because we have access to the funds that we need, just like within our own community, to make this encampment possible, we are still accepting donations for some supplies and some things like extra umbrellas and raincoats. Undeterred by a light drizzle in the afternoon, demonstrators began covering their belongings and tarping their tents, ready to take on a weekend of inclement weather. Organizers say they’ve tried for weeks to get the university to divest and had meetings with administrators. There was no sort of substantive conversation about divestment, and instead the only thing that we got was confirmation that U of T is in fact invested in weapons manufacturers and companies complicit Israeli apartheid. But when pressed on that point, they refused to give us any additional information about the specific companies or the amount. Meanwhile, some Jewish people came to peacefully counter protest, but the university says it has received reports about hateful, discriminatory and intimidating language. These phrases were written in chalk on the sidewalk but later washed away by the ring. And things like Zionists off campus. Well, at least 80% if not more of Jews are Zionists. So there obviously are Jews who aren’t Zionist. But to say that you don’t want most Jews on your campus, that really doesn’t make me feel welcome here. UFT says it’s also received reports about bio waste being dumped on its private property. I’m not aware of any of this happening from our end. We maintain like our circle here, you know, obviously there’s nothing on in the circle itself that’s been destroyed. You can all see this clearly. If anything that has happened on the outside, this could be from other people that are not affiliated with us. Kelda today, This afternoon, U of T published a letter to the encampment demonstrators. In it, they say that yesterday they repeatedly tried to establish a contact with the encampment and repeatedly were turned away. They weren’t able to find a student contact, but I spoke with one of the organizers, he says. That’s untrue. He says that the school tried to grab people who were just milling about the encampment, and none of them were actually directly involved in this protest. But this morning, he says that they have assigned two people to act as liaison response to the school. Back to you. All right. Thanks so much, Dale. Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow weighed in on the protest this morning. Understand that they want to express themselves under the charter. They do have the right to assemble as long as done without hate, respectfully, peacefully, lawfully. As to what’s happening at U of T in terms of King’s College Circle, that is a private space that belonging to the University of Toronto. So it’s up to University of Toronto to work out what their security arrangement is with the police and the province released a statement regarding the protest saying quote, as they would with any other illegal act. We expect that institutions will work with police and campus security to address any incidents of hate and racism, unauthorized encampments and occupations, and all other forms of discrimination at their institutions.