On Thurs., May 2, the student group Occupy for Palestine (O4P) established an encampment on the University of Toronto (U of T) campus at King’s College Circle. Students breached the fenced perimeter around the Circle and evaded campus security to set up tents in the dark at 4 a.m.
This encampment follows weeks of pro-Palestinian student activism sweeping across post-secondary campuses in Canada and the United States to protest Israel’s war on Gaza, including by pressuring academic institutions to divest from Israeli companies and end partnerships with Israeli universities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
O4P organizers described an atmosphere of quiet tension in the days leading up to the encampment. The university’s preemptive fencing of King’s College Circle came as students at McGill University, the University of British Columbia and elsewhere set up encampments.
The action in Toronto follows a two-day occupation of U of T’s Simcoe Hall that ended on Apr. 3, after students secured a meeting with President Meric Gertler. Students said after that meeting that Gertler was unprepared, claiming not to know that every university in Gaza was destroyed by the Israeli military and many students, faculty and staff were killed. He downplayed the university’s ties to Israeli universities connected with the Israeli military and claimed not to know about rampant anti-Palestinian racism on his own campus. In a follow-up letter, Gertler dismissed the students’ demands.
After rushing to set up their “People’s Circle for Palestine” on May 2 with supplies, a tarp for prayer, and a wide perimeter of tents, student organizers reiterated three main demands: that the school disclose all investments and financial holdings, divest all financial holdings that “sustain Israeli apartheid, occupation and illegal settlement of Palestine,” and end partnerships with Israeli universities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
“Ultimately, we know when the university responds — when there’s public pressure and when their reputation has been harmed,” explained Erin Mackey, a political science student at U of T and a media liaison at the camp. “This university needs to listen to its students and be on the right side of history. It’s not a question of persuading President Meric Gertler; he doesn’t have a backbone.”
The organizers refined their tactics for the new occupation as police attacked and dismantled encampments at Columbia University in New York and, with the help of pro-Israel protesters, at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Planning and training sessions were held off campus. Communication between organizers and media was moved to secure channels on messaging apps like Telegram and Signal.
Less than 24 hours before the occupation began, rumours circulated of a preemptive agreement between U of T administration and Toronto Police Services to enter and tear down any encampment.
“We decided to escalate the pressure and set up an encampment on the lawn. King’s College Circle is very visible, it’s a space people walk by every day, and [our presence is] forcing them to confront the fact that they are funding a genocide,” noted Mackey.
“Our representatives went into the meeting [with Gertler] in good faith and [with] facts to support their case,” said Parsa, a U of T student and O4P organizer. “We’re not here to protest for the sake of protesting. We’re not here to yell. We’re here because there’s a genocide happening.”
“We have very specific demands – to divest from Israel. It’s shocking how little that gets talked about in the media,” he added.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, for example, with which U of T has been collaborating since 2007, announced “its steadfast dedication to supporting the civilian population, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and the security forces” in October. That university also has hosted an army base on its campus since 2019. In 2021 the two universities launched a $15-million fundraising campaign for the University of Toronto – Hebrew University of Jerusalem Research & Innovation Alliance. O4P is asking U of T to cut ties with Hebrew University of Jerusalem, among others.
“There have been students demanding that U of T divest from Israeli apartheid as early as 2006,” explained Mackey. “There were active student protests in the 1980s for divestment of South African apartheid. There was an occupation of a building at Victoria College last year demanding divestment from fossil fuels. We are building on these movements today. We are asking they not invest in companies that are complicit in funding the genocide happening right now.”
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is investigating whether Israel has committed acts of genocide in the ongoing war in Gaza. Over 34,000 Palestinians have been killed following the Hamas-led attack on Southern Israel on October 7, in which 1,200 were killed and 250 taken hostage.
By sunrise on May 2, U of T faculty members, community, and members of the media began gathering outside the perimeter as campus security looked on. Around 150 students and supporters spent the morning organizing supplies and coordinating communications inside the encampment as the crowd grew outside.
Against the backdrop of students chanting “Free, Free – Free Palestine,” Alejandro Paz, an associate professor of anthropology and a member of the steering committee for the Jewish Faculty Network, called the institutional structures in place to support the Israeli state “unacceptable.”
“Students are using university property to be part of a growing movement for liberation,” he said. “My experience with the administration is that they are very fearful of even saying the word ‘Palestine.’”
Paz is joined by colleagues such as Deborah Cowen, associate professor of geography and planning and member of the Jews Say No to Genocide Coalition, as well as other faculty members, who issued a statement Thursday morning supporting students’ right to protest without fear of disciplinary action.
The university announced on it would not allow the protest to continue past 10 p.m on the first day, May 2. Over the course of the day, hundreds more supporters gathered outside the encampment to cheer and deliver food and other supplies.
At 4 p.m., O4P called on supporters to congregate outside the King’s College Circle perimeter after getting word that Zionist counter-protestors were planning a demonstration. Counter-protestors showed up who are affiliated with Israel Now, the new formation of the disbanded Canadian chapter of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), a right-wing, anti-Palestinian organization. These included Israel Now and former JDL Canada leader Meir Weinstein and also Ron Banerjee. A video posted to X (formerly Twitter) by journalist Samira Mohyeddin shows another counter-protester telling Palestine supporters “we’re going to deport you … back to Somalia.”
With these and other pro-Israel individuals, the O4P crowd peacefully engaged by maintaining a distance, chanting loudly to drown those people out and waiting for them to leave.
A rally called for 7 p.m. grew to nearly a thousand supporters on U of T’s campus. Toronto police cars were parked on campus but did not interact with demonstrators or the encampment occupants. As the deadline to dismantle the encampments inched closer, the university’s Vice Provost issued a new statement, stating “we reiterated our request that you leave campus by 10 p.m. However, if your activities remain peaceful, we do not intend to remove you from campus this evening.”
Campus security and Toronto police have continued monitoring the protest, but for Mackey, Parsa, and the rest of the students occupying King’s College Circle, dismantling the encampment without a commitment from U of T is not an option.
On the second day of the encampment, programming was announced, including film screenings by Palestinian filmmakers as part of the No Arms In The Arts Festival.
“It’s important to centre Palestine in these conversations,” said Mackey. “Students know the risks, and we’re willing to take all of them.”
An earlier version of this article was originally published by Media Co-op. This version includes files from Fernando Arce.