Gaza protest grows in Edmonton

Similar show of support with tents, fences at University of Calgary shut down by police in riot gear

A campus protest encampment at the University of Alberta was ramping up a day after a similar sit-in in Calgary was shut down amid the loud noise and haze of flashbang explosives as police clashed with demonstrators.

On the central grassy area of the Edmonton campus Friday, about 35 small tents were set up close together. There were Palestinian flags, both cloth versions and handpainted cardboard ones.

Early-rising demonstrators, most in their early 20s, sipped coffee as the sun rose, chatting in camp chairs underneath an awning.

Nearby was a handwritten sign reminding protesters to keep the focus on solidarity with Gaza and to direct all media to designated spokespeople.

There were multiple handmade signs and slogans: Our Tuition Funds Genocide; Silence is Violence; Welcome to the People’s University for Palestine; and From Edmonton to Gaza Globalize the Intifada.

Clutches of summer-school students shouldering backpacks walked by, with a few breaking stride to see what was going on.

“At the very beginning yesterday, it was one tent and four people. And it has just grown and grown and grown since then,” said David Kahane, one of the protest organizers.

Kahane, a political-science professor on campus, said the protest is about students holding their own institution to account in the “slaughter that is happening in the West Bank and Gaza.”

Kahane said they want answers on whether Israel — and through it the Israeli military — benefits financially through university investments. If the university is investing, those investments must stop, he said.

The university has warned protesters that while it respects free speech, they are trespassing.

There was no visible security staff from the university and no police Friday morning, and Kahane said he hopes it stays that way

“For the moment, I think wisely, they have simply let this peaceful encampment for justice be,” he said.

In Calgary, a similar protest of tents and fences went up early Thursday at the University of Calgary, reaching a peak of about 150 demonstrators by the early evening. The university said protesters at the encampment were trespassing and asked for help from police, who arrived in riot gear and dispersed the crowd before starting to tear down fencing and tents.

The university has warned protesters that while it respects free speech, they are trespassing