UWindsor students launch campus Liberation Zone in solidarity with Gaza
About two dozen students gathered on the University of Windsor campus Thursday afternoon to launch the Liberation Zone, joining a surge of global student-led movements in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
The Liberation Zone, erected in the campus core in front of Dillon Hall, echoes larger encampments at higher educational institutions in the United States and Canada including Toronto Metropolitan University, the University of British Columbia, the University of Toronto, McMaster University, and McGill University.
A central goal of the Windsor group, according to co-organizer Jana Alrifai, is to urge the university's administration to financially divest from organizations that benefit from or support Israel.
“It makes me feel like I am paying to kill my own people,” said Alrifai, a University of Windsor student.
“So I sit in class...and you're just watching people with no food, no water, living under the largest open-air prison in the world. Something has to be done, and this is us doing it.”
When contacted by the Windsor Star, the university responded with an emailed statement indicating that their investment decisions are made in alignment with the United Nations' Principles for Responsible Investing.
The four-page document outlines six Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices, which the university pledged to integrate into their investment decisions in 2020.
“The integration of ESG factors into the University's investment decisions is primarily done by external investment managers, who may screen portfolios to assure alignment with the University's ESG values,” the statement read.
The University of Windsor did not directly respond to the Star's inquiry as to whether their current investments include organizations that benefit Israel.
The launch of the Liberation Zone marks the seventh month since Hamas — a Palestinian political and militant organization operating in the Gaza Strip — invaded Israel on Oct. 7 last year. The assault by Hamas, which Canada considers a terrorist group, killed 1,139 people and claimed 252 hostages.
Since then, the death toll of Palestinians killed in Gaza has risen to more than 34,000, according to the United Nations.
Figures reported by the United Nations show more than 1.7 million Palestinians currently displaced within Gaza, facing life-threatening shortages of food, water and medical care. Entire communities have been displaced, and homes and infrastructure destroyed.
During the last couple of months, students at universities across the United States, including the University of Michigan, have assembled at public demonstrations to express solidarity with Palestinian people.
However, many faced suspensions and expulsions, and arrests by police forces which disbanded the encampments.
Supporters of Israel have staged counter-demonstrations.
The modest gathering Thursday at the University of Windsor featured one open-air tent and three large rugs where students congregated to listen to traditional music and share information about Palestinian history and culture.
Students returned to the Liberation Zone from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday.
While Alrifai did not share how long the group planned to stay on campus, she said students are “building community and sitting together with this incredible loss that we are all witnessing at the same time.”
“The reason why we're doing this now is for seven months, we've tried, we've appealed to the administration, we've sent open letters to the President, and we haven't seen anything else happen,” she said.
“So this is kind of in solidarity with other student movements across the world right now also calling for the same thing. We stand in solidarity with them and with the people in Gaza.”