Negotiations between UVic and student protesters fail

On the day of a key ICJ decision, the two sides have reached an impasse in negotiations.

Negotiations between students protesting against the war in Gaza and officials from the University of Vic administration who want to close the camp on campus have failed. It is unclear what the university and the students will do next.

In solidarity with college students across North America, protesters lifted the encampment on May 1, calling for a ceasefire in Palestine and for the university to divest funds from companies that support Israel.

The students announced yesterday that their negotiations with the university via a single text had failed. Mediation via a single text involves working with a single or shared document to resolve a contentious issue.

The UVic camp appeared the morning after hundreds of students at Columbia University in New York were arrested during a similar pro-Palestinian encampment. Two and a half months later, organizers say their good-faith negotiations have not been reciprocated.

The students protesting at the University of Windsor were the only ones to reach an agreement with administrators. The encampment is being dismantled peacefully. Encampments at McGill, the University of Toronto, Western, the University of Guelph, Memorial University and UBC were forced to dismantle, either through raids or court injunctions.

Organizers of People’s Park (as the camp has been dubbed) continue to demand that the university divest from companies that profit from Israel’s offensive in Gaza and end partnerships with Israeli academic institutions they say are complicit in the war.

Also on Friday, this international ruling from The Hague

On Friday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory opinion stating that Israel’s settlement policies in Palestinian territories violate international law. The ICJ, the only international court that decides on general disputes between nations, urged Israel to end its military occupation of Palestine and to eliminate its illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Its advisory opinion relates to the legality of Israel’s 57-year occupation of land it seeks to create for a Palestinian state.

Even in the face of the ICJ’s advisory ruling, UVic students say the university has refused to acknowledge their most recent proposal to “find a viable solution that advances its commitment to the United Nations Convention on Human Rights and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).”

“The administration has failed to echo the language of the International Court of Justice that considers the genocide of the Palestinian people plausible,” his representative said.

Audrey Yap, a philosophy professor at UVic who has expressed solidarity with the encampment, told Capital Daily: “The students have been working really hard to try to understand what the university frameworks might be, how they might speak out and put their demands into language that is actually viable.”

The protests at UVic began in February

Students began competing for faculty attention long before the first tent arrived on campus, when UVic student Emily began a hunger strike outside the Legislature on Feb. 16. She ended it less than a week later, after receiving no recognition from the university.

Shortly after settling in, the students began negotiating face-to-face with Elizabeth Croft, UVic’s vice president for academics and provost, and Kristi Simpson, UVic’s vice president for finance and operations, in June.

Camp organizers say they were met with what they called “armed incompetence, manipulation and obstruction.”

On July 4, Uvic issued a statement saying, “We came away from that meeting (with the camp) with a feeling of cautious optimism. We had hoped to be embarking together on a positive path forward. Unfortunately, since that meeting, the actions of the camp members have demonstrated an unwillingness to work with the university toward a peaceful resolution.”

Philosophy professor Yap applauds students

Despite that negative portrayal of students, Yap said, “I’ve found it really unfair the way a lot of university communications seem to have portrayed the camp and the students there, and it’s really not true to my experience.”

He said he has been amazed by the growth the students have experienced during the process.

“As an educator, you see students doing something amazing and you can’t help but feel incredibly proud of them, amazed and lucky. You see everything they’re doing and everything they’ve learned and the kind of environment they’ve created and it’s wonderful. This is what an educational space could look like.”

Among other things, the student petition demands that the university divest from investments openly linked to corporations profiting from the war in Palestine, including Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems Canada (which rents space from UVic), BlackRock ($4.3 million) and Scotiabank ($258.3 thousand), the largest foreign investor in Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems.

Destruction in Gaza

Since the war began, all universities in Gaza have been destroyed. “We reject an agreement that avoids accountability,” say the students, who are calling on UVic to cut academic ties with Israeli universities.

In a statement read to the media on Friday morning, UVic camp leaders said: “The motivation to fight for divestment from genocide has not wavered. UVic’s hands are red and {UVic President} Kevin Hall’s hands are red. They are equally culpable, aiding and abetting this genocide.”

Camp dismantled on U of T campus

Student-led protesters who organized a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Toronto have vacated their site after more than 60 days of protest, ahead of a court-ordered July 3 deadline to vacate.

“We refuse to give the Toronto Police Service the opportunity to brutalize us,” said camp organizer Mohammad Yassin. “We are leaving on our own terms to protect our community from the violence that the University of Toronto is clearly eager to unleash upon us.”

“None of the camps can last forever,” Yap said. “I’m not quite sure what their next strategic move is.”