Pro-Palestinian encampment protesters reject U of T's latest offer

Pro-Palestinian student protesters who speak for an encampment at the University of Toronto say they cannot accept the latest offer from the school to end their protest because it fails to meet their demands.

Kalliopé Anvar McCall, a fourth year student who has lived in the encampment for 40 days, told reporters on Monday that the offer made last Thursday is unacceptable because it doesn't propose real change.

"This deal has no guaranteed outcomes," Anwar McCall said.

"We cannot accept it. We have no choice but to stay here and continue to push for a better deal."

Student protesters have called on the university to disclose its endowment's investments, divest from companies that "sustain Israeli apartheid, occupation and illegal settlement of Palestine," and cut ties with Israeli academic institutions that operate in the occupied territories or support Israel's military efforts, including its ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

The encampment was set up on May 2, part of a massive wave of pro-Palestinian demonstrations at post-secondary institutions in Canada and the United States.

School administrators have said it's working to bring an end to the encampment peacefully through dialogue, but is also asking an Ontario court to grant it authority to allow police to clear the encampment.

No 'direct' investments in arms-producing companies, university president says

In a message to the U of T community on Sunday, university president Meric Gertler said the university has offered expedited processes for considering the protesters' demands around divestment and greater transparency on its investments.

He said administrators confirmed the school "holds no direct investments in any companies, including any that produce armaments."

Gertler added that the latest proposal was "commensurate with or more comprehensive than the agreements that have resolved encampments at peer institutions."

U of T says it will not, however, cut ties with Israeli universities.

"We have said that we will leverage existing policies to review human rights issues which may be relevant to international partnerships. Unfortunately, the encampment participants have rejected this proposal," he said.

Sara Rasikh, a graduate student who also speaks for the encampment, said the university is offering bureaucratic procedures on divestment and disclosure to the protesters but no real movement to disclose and divest. 

"What they have proposed to us is a restatement of university policy and procedure that we were already aware of," Rasikh said.

"In times like an ongoing genocide, we have a moral obligation to act swiftly. They are pushing us to bureaucratic slowdowns and policies and procedures that have failed students in the past."

The protesters say the university's indirect investments are at issue.

"We do know for a fact that U of T has indirect investments in weapons-manufacturing companies complicit in Israeli apartheid," said Erin Mackey, an undergrad student in political science and environmental studies.

As for disclosure, the students said the university has agreed to the idea of a third party to review indirect investments, but the students want to choose who the third party is and the university has said no.

The student protesters said Gertler has not personally taken part in the more than 20 hours of negotiations between the students and administration. 

School open to meeting students again, president says

Gertler said the administration is open to meeting with representatives of the encampment again "when there are productive reasons for doing so," but will also continue to pursue a court injunction.

In late May, the university requested an urgent court injunction that would authorize police to clear the encampment, but the earliest a hearing will be held is June 19 or 20. There are no new talks scheduled.

The university is becoming increasingly concerned about "online rhetoric and imagery, vandalism, and other disruptive behaviour" related to the encampment, Gertler said.

"We deplore this behaviour. Individual instances have been, and will continue to be, investigated and reported to the Toronto Police Service," he added.

Rasikh, however, said it is the encampment that has been the target of hatred. She said food has been delivered to the encampment embedded with razors, students, staff and faculty involved in the protest have been dealing with harassment online, and a counter protester has pointed a knife at encampment marshals.

The war in Gaza erupted after Hamas launched an attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that killed about 1,200 people and resulted in the kidnapping of about 250 hostages, according to tallies by Israel. Around half of the hostages were released during a weeklong ceasefire in November. Hamas and other militants are still holding some 120 hostages, around a third of whom are believed to have died. 

More than 36,730 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, according to Gaza's health ministry.