The pro-Palestinian encampment at Western University is no more, but the group behind it says it will continue pushing for the university in London, Ont., to divest from Israel-connected funds in light of the ongoing conflict in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.
“After sixty days, the Western Divestment Coalition has concluded the encampment at Concrete Beach, however, the struggle for Palestinian liberation goes on,” an Instagram post reads.
“This decision comes after careful consideration by the students, and is driven by our commitment to keep divestment our central focus, regardless of the means employed.”
The next example of action will be a rally at Concrete Beach at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
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Meanwhile, Western’s president issued a public letter to the post-secondary school community on Saturday evening describing a “peaceful end” to the encampment.
“As we look to chart a new path forward, we will focus on restoring relationships and identifying opportunities to come together as a community,” Alan Shepard wrote.
“We acknowledge this will take time and are prepared to engage in this important work.”
Similar encampments at other Ontario universities have also been dismantled in recent weeks. An encampment at University of Waterloo ended on Sunday and the university has since confirmed it is dropping a lawsuit against members of the OccupyUW movement.
Last week, protesters who had camped out on the University of Toronto’s downtown campus for two months packed up their tents and cleared the site to comply with a court order but promised to keep putting pressure on the university until it meets their demands.
An encampment at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., was dismantled at the end of May following what activists at the time described as movements made by faculty administration to meet demands.
On Monday morning, the University of Guelph confirmed it “took the step of serving a legal Notice of Trespass to members of the encampment” after encampment members there failed to vacate by a requested 8 p.m. Sunday deadline.
— with files from Global News’ Kevin Nielsen and Talha Hashmani and from The Canadian Press
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