Pro-Gaza student demonstrations: “In the United States as in Canada, the same fight”

Hibapress / Radio-Canada

A tense calm prevails on Montreal university campuses, contrasting with the strong anger shaking prestigious universities on the other side of the border.

This anger especially intensified this week after the arrest of hundreds of students from several universities, including Columbia, Yale and New York (NYU), at the request of the leaders of these establishments. On Wednesday, tensions even spread to the University of Texas.

The protesters, including Jewish and Muslim students, are demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, but also for their establishments to boycott Israel and divest from companies accused of fueling the war in Gaza, including arms manufacturers. .

In Montreal, the winter term is coming to an end in most universities and pro-Palestinian student associations.UQAMof the’UdeMConcordia and McGill are becoming more discreet, even if they continue to mobilize each in their own way.

For the representatives of these associations, interviewed by Radio-Canada, the wave of demonstrations on the other side of the border is historicalbut not surprising.

Launched last February, this movement, which includes around forty students, is a last chance resort, according to her. Some of the students are observing the strike intermittently, but two have had to be hospitalized after going more than 34 days without eating.

The group notably denounces an investment by McGill University in the American arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin. According to public data from the university, the value of this investment was nearly $520,000 in 2023.