Faculty supporters gather at UW to commemorate 1 month of the encampment

At the University of Winnipeg’s encampment — which they’ve called The People’s University for Palestine — dozens of students and allies gathered to commemorate its first full month at the UW grounds by listening to supporting faculty members speak.

“I hope we can give a better perspective to what the camp is. It can be a bit horrifying when you look at it sometimes, you know all these walls, but it is an incredibly inviting place,” said Cat, one of dozens of students who are regularly at the downtown encampment.

“Anyone who supports Palestine, anyone who supports Indigenous rights is welcome here. I want many folks to take away that we are here to help, and we want to help in any capacity we can.”

Like other students, Cat uses an alias due to fears for safety in showing public support to the Palestinian Community.

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Cat says at the end of last month, the camp group met with university administration in what they believed would be a discussion about their demands, which include divesting from any companies advancing Israel’s military efforts in Gaza. They also want the university to publicly declare their stance, but Cat says the meeting was not a fruitful one.

“We were very disappointed with the outcome of that meeting,” explained Cat.

“Obviously there’s a long history of students being on the right side of history, going back to the Vietnam War protests up through the Anti-Apartheid in South Africa and up to today. Obviously they’re following in a strong and important tradition,” said Peter Ives.

Ives, a professor of political science at the university, says he believes looking back decades from today, students all over the world who participated in the protests will be looked at in the same way as their predecessors.

“I think the encampment movement is fascinating as a student movement which is raising a lot of awareness. Obviously the atrocities in Gaza have been going on since October 7th and they’re in the news and out of the news, and I think the students are keeping them on the agenda so people don’t just forget about them.”