Toronto Students Rally for Palestine, Defy University Orders

Hundreds of students from the University of Toronto, union members, and sympathizers participated in a rally in support of the encampment that a group of students set up in support of Palestine.

The students, who started to camp at the University of Toronto on May 2, are demanding the university cut ties with Israel in the context of the current conflict in the Middle East.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators who have been camped out at the University of Toronto, Canada, for 25 days held a solidarity rally.

University officials issued a trespass notice  ordering demonstrators to remove the encampment, but the student-led demonstrators said they would not leave until their demands were met.

Meric Gertler, president of the University of Toronto, said in an online post that the university's lawyers served documents seeking an injunction order from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and asked the court for an expedited case conference for scheduling.

Protesters and their supporters, including some university faculty and staff and members of the Ontario Federation of Labour, were holding a rally when Gertler's statement was posted online.

Sara Rasikh, one of the spokespeople for the demonstration, told the crowd that protesters tried for months to get the university to listen to their demands, but only received acknowledgement after setting up the encampment.

"The university has made it clear they want to clear this encampment, they have issued us a trespass notice and now an injunction, and the reason for this is because the people's strength is threatening to them. It is threatening to the legitimacy of this institution," said Rasikh.

Organizers called on the university to cut its ties with Israel, divest from companies profiting from Israel's offensive in Gaza, and terminate partnerships with the country's academic institutions deemed complicit in the war.