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 hand-painted cardboard ones.
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. 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.”
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.The protest is one of several recent demonstrations on academic campuses in Canada and the United States in response to Israel's offensive in Gaza.