As of May 1st, a group of primarily UVic students and faculty have set up an encampment on campus as a way for them to advocate for peace in Palestine.
Specifically, People’s Park UVic was demanding to have a series of requests met by UVic.
Now, after over two and a half months later, they say that UVic has “cut off further negotiations.”
“The University has offered us a proposal with no concrete commitments and ineffective policy that fails the people of Palestine, and all those facing genocide,” wrote People’s Park UVic in a statement.
“We have negotiated in good faith, and by refusing to sign our document, the University has withdrawn themselves from the negotiation process.”
They added that UVic “remains committed to funding illegal occupation, weapons technology, and the arming of the zionist entity.”
In an earlier statement, People’s Park UVic stated that “throughout this digital written negotiation process, the UVic administration refused to make any concrete commitments to divest any of the tens of millions of dollars they hold invested in companies involved in the violations of human rights, violation of international law, and those that aid in and benefit from genocide.”
On the same day that this statement of non-compliance was released, the United Nations’ International Court of Justice (ICJ) put out a report saying that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is inherently illegal.
Although the ICJ have not legally deemed what is occuring in the Gaza region of Palestine an officially recognized genocide, many top officials in the United Nations have said that it is.
So far, the death toll in the conflict has been determined to be 38,798 fatalities on the Palestinian side and 1,478 for Israel.
“UVic has taken a calm, measured and reasoned approach to the encampment that was established May 1 by the People’s Park UVic. Since the middle of June, through a facilitator, we have been working with People’s Park UVic towards a peaceful conclusion of the encampment,” said the university in a statement.
“Unfortunately, we have not successfully achieved agreement on the process and timeline for decampment. The university was disappointed to learn of this impasse through social media posts from People’s Park UVic.”
“As we see no further prospect for a successful dialogue, the university has advised the People’s Park UVic that they are trespassing and asked them to leave university property,” added UVic in their statement.
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