A protest calling for Western University to cut ties with companies doing business with the Israeli military will continue.
According to its Instagram account, the Western Divestment Coalition announced on Friday afternoon that it will indefinitely continue an encampment on campus.
Protestors set up on the London campus for the third day on Friday. Tents, blankets, lawn chairs, and other items went up on Wednesday morning. The coalition was expected to remove the items late that evening, but they remained up contrary to instructions from the school.
"Some individuals have camped overnight, and the presence of non-community members has increased," said Western's Vice-Provost for Students John Doerksen on Thursday morning. "It’s disappointing to see this shift, as our communication with student organizers has been positive and collegial. The safety and security of our campus community is our top priority and will be our focus [Thursday] as we ensure regular university activities can proceed without interruption."
A first encampment, which went up last week, was dismantled after one day.
The protestors have called on Western to divest from military contractors backing the Israeli military, boycott "entities which are complicit in the occupation of Palestine", and publicly condemn the violence in Gaza.
Western University has been added to the list of Canadian universities with various forms of public response to the situation in Gaza. Others include McGill University, the University of Toronto, Toronto Metropolitan University, and the University of Windsor.
